The Gambia was readmitted to The Commonwealth on Thursday, welcomed back into the fold after its sudden pullout in 2013. Former President Yahya Jammeh dramatically withdrew the West African nation in October 2013, branding the group an “extension of colonialism”. President Adama Barrow began the readmission process in February last year. Barrow’s formal application last month for The Gambia to …

After protracted talks, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc reached a deal for a new coalition government with the centre-left Social Democrats on Wednesday. If approved by the SPD’s 460,000 members, the deal would end Germany’s longest period without a government since the Second World War. Here are the key points agreed in the draft coalition contract: Health insurance The …

The conservatives and Social Democrats have finally managed to settle on a coalition agreement 136 days after the federal election. Negotiators from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU); their Bavarian partners, the Christian Social Union (CSU); and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) have finally hashed out a contract for a new grand coalition government — probably ensuring that Angela Merkel …