Angela Merkel gained a surprise boost to her hopes of retaining power in September’s German parliamentary vote when her Christian Democrat party confounded pollsters with a big victory in a closely watched regional election. Her main challenger, the new Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz, suffered his first serious setback as the SPD failed to turn recent opinion poll gains into electoral success in the gritty industrial region of […]
By Maria Sheahan and Hakan Erdem | BERLIN/SAARBRUECKEN, Germany BERLIN/SAARBRUECKEN, Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives strengthened their position as the largest party in the western state of Saarland in a regional vote on Sunday, bolstering her prospects of winning a fourth term in September’s national election. The election was the first of three regional votes ahead of the Sept. 24 federal vote and as such offered an […]
Fresh from a mammoth, big budget UAE show, Guns n’ Roses have been named the top grossing live act in the world. According to stats compiled by Pollstar, the reformed rock legends bank an average of $5,004,737 (Dh18.3 million) per show, with the average ticket price set at $101.82 (Dh373). Regular tickets for the band’s controversy struck show at Dubai Autism Rocks Arena on March 3 – […]
PARIS It is “extremely likely” that French conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon has been the subject of wiretapping in the course of a judicial investigation, a campaign aide said on Sunday, in the latest accusations to be made by the Fillon camp against the authorities. Fillon, a former front-runner who is now lagging in polls following a financial scandal, had earlier this week accused Socialist President Francois […]
PARIS French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen sought on Sunday to reassure voters concerned over her plans to withdraw the country from the euro zone, saying it “wouldn’t be chaos” and she would seek “well-prepared” talks with other European Union countries. Opinion polls show the anti-EU, anti-immigrant National Front (FN) leader qualifying for the April 23 first round of the presidential election but losing the May 7 […]
By Tsvetelia Tsolova and Angel Krasimirov | SOFIA SOFIA Bulgarians were voting in a snap general election on Sunday, with the centre-right GERB party challenged for power by Socialists who say they will improve ties with Russia even if it means upsetting the country’s European Union partners. Many Bulgarians feel a strong cultural affinity for Russia, with which they share the Cyrillic script and Orthodox Christianity and […]
By James Pomfret and Venus Wu | HONG KONG HONG KONG A Beijing-backed civil servant, Carrie Lam, was chosen to be Hong Kong’s next leader on Sunday amid accusations that Beijing is meddling and denying the financial hub a more populist leader perhaps better able to defuse political tension. The majority of the China-ruled city’s 7.3 million people have no say in deciding their leader, who is […]
By Regis Duvignau and Bernard Grollier | CAMBO-LES-BAINS/SAINT-DENIS-DE-LA-REUNION, France CAMBO-LES-BAINS/SAINT-DENIS-DE-LA-REUNION, France Francois Fillon’s aides used an umbrella to shield him from eggs thrown by protesters in south-west France on Saturday as the beleaguered conservative fell further behind centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-rightist Marine Le Pen in opinion polls. The contrast between former frontrunner Fillon, embroiled in a financial scandal, and new poll favourite Macron was striking as […]
NIAMEY A court in Niger has freed fifteen civilians accused of complicity in an attempted putsch against President Mahamadou Issoufou, their lawyer said on Saturday. In December 2015, the government said it had foiled a coup and arrested people who planned to use aerial firepower to seize control of the West African country, a major Uranium producer and Western ally in the fight against Islamists in the […]
PARIS Emmanuel Macron is set to win the first round of the French general election in four weeks time, BVA pollsters said, becoming the latest survey team to put the independent centrist ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen for the first time. The BVA poll did not give a second round prediction, but most that have done so in recent months show Macron easily beating the […]
By James Oliphant | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON In the end, the Closer couldn’t close the deal. For President Donald Trump, the collapse on Friday of his first legislative priority, a healthcare reform bill, was an embarrassing loss of face after he and his administration insisted up until the time of the vote by the U.S. House of Representatives that there was enough Republican support. It brings into question […]
By Stoyan Nenov | KAPITAN ANDREEVO, Bulgaria KAPITAN ANDREEVO, Bulgaria Bulgarian nationalists blocked border checkpoints with Turkey on Friday to stop buses bringing Bulgarian ethnic Turks to vote in Sunday’s election amid growing tension between the two neighbours. Sofia has accused Ankara of interference in its election on behalf of the DOST party that represents Bulgarian Turks, the country’s largest ethnic minority. Polls suggest DOST will fall […]
PARIS A month before the first round of France’s presidential election, 43 percent of voters are hesitant about who to vote for, a poll said on Friday, underlining the uncertainty surrounding the volatile election campaign. Opinion polls show independent centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen likely to lead in the first round of the election on April 23 and that these two candidates would […]
In almost any other part of the world, a friendly, on-camera hug between two senior politicians at a public event would have raised no eyebrows. But in the febrile atmosphere of a Hong Kong bracing itself for the “election” of its fourth chief executive since the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997, Tung Chee-hwa’s embrace of Carrie Lam during a public ceremony in […]
New York Times Duterte will mark 72nd birthday as usual – simplyMalayaPRESIDENT Duterte will celebrate his 72nd birthday on March 28 the way he had celebrated it in the past – with a simple celebration – even if he is already the country’s chief executive. Speaking on his arrival from Thailand, the President said he and …Duterte ally demands apology from New York TimesInquirer.netPhilippines’ Duterte reignites martial […]
The euro came close to its highest level against the dollar in almost four months on Wednesday, as investors waited nervously ahead of Donald Trump’s first key legislative test over the repeal of Obamacare. This week the euro has gained 0.8 per cent against the US currency, taking its rise this month to 2.6 per cent and leaving it worth $1.0825 late on Wednesday. Euro strength is, […]
SEOUL Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye left prosecutors’ offices early on Wednesday after being questioned in an investigation into a corruption scandal that brought an early end to her political career. Park did not respond to reporters’ questions as she emerged from the building after nearly 22 hours and got into a waiting car to be driven to her private home in the capital, Seoul. Prosecutors […]
By Rosalba O’Brien | SANTIAGO SANTIAGO Sebastian Pinera, who was Chile’s president from 2010 to 2014, officially declared on Tuesday his intention to seek the office again this year, betting that widespread disillusion with the governing coalition will help him win over voters. The center-right Pinera, who ranks 745th on the Forbes list of the world’s richest billionaires, is bidding for the nomination of the ‘Chile Vamos’ […]
In the small town of Izmit, two hours from Istanbul, a crowd of about 2,000 people is waiting to see the woman who has dared to say no to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Meral Aksener is running late, but the crowd is patient. Security is tight, the space is small and men have climbed trees to get a better view of the renegade politician. In Turkey’s […]
Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, the two frontrunners in France’s election, clashed in the country’s first presidential debate over issues including Islam’s place in society, as initial polls indicated the former economy minister had held off his rivals. A little more than one month before the first round of voting, Monday’s three-hour debate was characterised by finger pointing and innuendo among the five leading hopefuls, with […]
PARIS A junior French minister backed Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign on Tuesday, the first member of the government to do so, just hours after he consolidated his status as favourite in the first of a series of TV debates. The backing of ecology party lawmaker and biodiversity minister Barbara Pompili is expected to be followed by more defections from the government of Socialist President Francois Hollande, in […]
By Nichola Saminather | SINGAPORE SINGAPORE Asian stocks were mixed on Monday in thin trade, following Wall Street’s declines and the G20’s decision to drop a pledge to avoid trade protectionism, while the Federal Reserve’s less hawkish-than-expected comments continued to drag the dollar lower. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS added 0.1 percent. Chinese shares .SSEC added 0.2 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng […]
By Michelle Martin | SAARBRUECKEN, Germany SAARBRUECKEN, Germany When voters head to the polls in the German state of Saarland later this month, they are likely to deliver an upset to Chancellor Angela Merkel that could be a foretaste of September’s national election. One of Germany’s smallest states, Saarland is – like federal Germany – currently governed by a ‘grand coalition’ of Merkel’s conservatives and the Social […]
By Michelle Martin | BERLIN BERLIN Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) on Sunday formally endorsed former European Parliament President Martin Schulz as their leader and challenger to Chancellor Angela Merkel in what is set to be a tightly contested national election in September. The SPD has undergone a revival since nominating Schulz in late January, gaining around 10 points in opinion polls and signing up thousands of new […]
