INTERNATIONAL

Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav is to be freed on parole five years after being jailed for rape. An Israeli parole board ruled on Sunday that Katsav, 71, could walk free next week after serving five of his seven-year term. Two previous parole requests had been rejected. Katsav resigned from the largely ceremonial post in 2007 after being charged with ...

Zimbabwe’s governing Zanu-PF party has confirmed President Robert Mugabe as its candidate for the 2018 elections. Mr Mugabe, who is 92, has been in power since independence from Britain in 1980. At the party’s conference, the Zanu-PF youth wing even proposed that Mr Mugabe should be declared president for life. However, there have been unprecedented protests this year against Zimbabwe’s ...

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has delayed the withdrawal of the 100-bolivar banknote until 2 January. The sudden change of policy comes after days of economic chaos. In a national broadcast, Mr Maduro claimed his country had been the victim of international sabotage, which had prevented new 500-bolivar currency notes arriving in time. Many Venezuelans have spent several days in long ...

President Barack Obama has said that he ordered Russia’s Vladimir Putin to “cut it out” in a conversation about email hacking ahead of the US election. Implying that the Russian president knew about the hacks, Mr Obama said: “Not much happens in Russia without Vladimir Putin.” The president said he had warned Mr Putin of serious consequences at a summit ...

President-elect Donald Trump has rejected as “ridiculous” a CIA assessment that Russian hackers tried to sway the election in his favour. He told Fox News the Democrats were putting out the reports because they were embarrassed at the scale of the election defeat. On Friday, CIA officials told US media they had concluded that Russians hackers were trying to help ...

Gambian President-elect Adama Barrow has called on incumbent Yahya Jammeh to accept defeat in last week’s election. President Jammeh initially appeared to concede after results showed he had clearly been defeated, but on Friday said he rejected the results “totally”. Mr Barrow said the president had “no constitutional authority to reject the results” and demand another election. The African Union ...

South Korea’s embattled president Park Geun-hye is facing impeachment, with lawmakers due to vote on Friday on dismissing her from office. Ms Park is embroiled in a political scandal that has sparked massive protests and calls for her resignation. A close confidante, Choi Soon-sil, is accused of using her connections to Ms Park to gain influence and money. Prosecutors say ...

US President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants to cut government costs by cancelling the order for new planes to carry the American president. Mr Trump tweeted: “Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!” The government has a contract with Boeing to ...

Thousands of mourners are flocking to pay their respects to J Jayalalitha, one of India’s most influential and colourful politicians. The 68-year-old chief minister of Tamil Nadu state suffered a heart attack on Sunday night and died at 23:30 local time (18:00 GMT) on Monday, Chennai’s Apollo Hospital says. Her body, draped in the Indian flag, is on display at ...

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has resigned after suffering a heavy defeat in a referendum over his plan to reform the constitution. In a late-night news conference, he said he took responsibility for the outcome, and said the No camp must now make clear proposals. With most ballots counted, the No vote leads with 60% against 40% for Yes. The ...