Algeria is pressing ahead with elections on Thursday despite almost 10 months of mass demonstrations against its political system, near blanket opposition from non-governmental organizations, and the expectation that millions of Algerians will decline to vote.

On Dec 12. Algerians have the option to select one of five candidates approved by Algeria’s interim president Abdelkader Bensalah and his military backers. But Algeria’s popular protest movement known as Hirak—an Arabic word meaning mobilization—says these candidates all belong to the old guard, with ties to former president Abdulazziz Bouteflika’s regime.

In office for almost two decades, Bouteflika, 82, was a leader in name only after suffering a debilitating stroke in 2013. In February, Bouteflika announced he would seek a fifth term in office. Appalled, millions took to the streets in mass protests demanding a total overhaul of the political system that has been in place since Algeria won independence from France in 1962. B..

(UNITED NATIONS) — The United States warned North Korea Wednesday that its “deeply counterproductive” ballistic missile tests risk closing the door on prospects for negotiating peace but said it is “prepared to be flexible” and take concrete, parallel steps with Pyongyang toward an agreement.

U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft delivered the message at a Security Council meeting less than three weeks before North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s end-of-December deadline for the Trump administration to come up with new proposals to revive nuclear diplomacy

Negotiations faltered after the U.S. rejected North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of the North’s nuclear capabilities at Kim’s second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump last February. North Korea has carried out 13 ballistic missile launches since May to pressure Washington, and has hinted at lifting its moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests if the Trump administration fails to ma..

(JERUSALEM) — Israel’s deadlocked parliament on Wednesday failed to meet a midnight deadline to form a coalition government, triggering an unprecedented third election in a 12-month period while giving scandal-plagued Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a welcome break as he fights to save his political career.

The move prolongs a year-long political stalemate that has paralyzed the government and undermined public trust in the government. The country now enters what once again is sure to be a bitter three-month political campaign that is expected to deliver very similar results.

“Keep your children away from the television,” said Yair Lapid, a leader of the opposition Blue and White party, saying the campaign will be a “festival of hate, violence and disgust.”

“What used to be a celebration of democracy has become a moment of shame for this building,” he added. “There are only three reasons for this election — bribery, fraud and breach of trust,” he said, referring to the criminal ch..