The United States and France accused the Syrian government of trying to disrupt a new round of peace talks set to begin on Monday and said Russia and Iran would need to show the Syrian government was “living up to”
A car bomb killed at least 27 people at a crowded transport hub in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Sunday and wounded at least 75 more, the second such attack in the administrative heart of the city in less
(Reuters) – A draft European Union plan to send back some migrants to Turkey has legal and moral flaws and could put vulnerable people at risk, the head of Amnesty International said, calling on Europe to take in more people
PARIS (Reuters) – Young supporters of French economy minister Emmanuel Macron launched a think-tank advocating “left-wing liberalism” on Saturday, fuelling speculation that the popular former banker is laying the groundwork for grander political ambitions. Macron has won fans among France’s
JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday called for world powers to take “immediate punitive steps” against Iran, following its ballistic missile tests last week. A series of tests conducted by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards caused international concern,
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian schoolteachers agreed to end a month-long strike on Saturday, heeding a call by President Mahmoud Abbas to go back to work despite only some of their demands being met, the teachers’ union said. More
LONDON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama will come to London in April and urge British voters to back continued membership of the European Union, The Independent on Sunday newspaper reported. Britons vote in June on whether to remain part
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germans vote in three regional state elections on Sunday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives at risk of setbacks that would weaken her just as she tries to push through a deal to resolve Europe’s migrant crisis. Migration
Three senior leaders of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas traveled to Cairo on Saturday to try to repair relations with Egypt after years of tension. The visit comes a week after Egypt accused Hamas of involvement in last year’s assassination of
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Rebels shot down a Syrian government warplane over western Syria on Saturday, rebels and a military source said, although there were conflicting accounts on whether it had been brought down by a missile or anti-aircraft guns. The
With a passionate defence of her migrant policy, Chancellor Angela Merkel threw herself into one last campaign push on the eve of “Super Sunday” elections in three German states that risk weakening her. Migration is the touchstone issue in the
The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) is set to storm into three state parliaments by winning up to 18 percent in Sunday’s regional elections, a poll showed, in what would be a big setback for Chancellor Angela Merkel and her
LONDON (Reuters) – Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Friday he felt voters would opt to stay in the European Union in a June 23 referendum but called on the “in” campaign to show more passion. Blair, who
A hold-up over a new U.S. defense package for Israel was behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to forgo a meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington this month, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi
(Reuters) – Macedonia hopes stopping migrants at its border with Greece, which has effectively closed the Balkan route into northern Europe, will help the country join NATO, Defence Minister Zoran Jolevski said on Thursday. Macedonia’s bid to join the defence
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Nearly half a million irregular migrants arrived in Greece in the last three months of 2015, most of whom then moved north through the Balkans, data from EU border agency Frontex showed on Thursday. Frontex, which collates
(Reuters) – Norway’s $830 billion (£584 billion) sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, does not see the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union as a significant risk to its investments, its chief executive told Reuters on Wednesday. The comments
EDINBURGH/LONDON (Reuters) – British Prime Minister David Cameron was rebuffed in parliament on Wednesday when members of his own party joined with opposition lawmakers to block government plans to allow shops to open for longer on a Sunday. In sometimes
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) test-fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday morning that it said were designed to be able to hit Israel, defying a threat of new sanctions from the United States. The launches followed the test-firing of
“Fatma”, a mother of twins with a demanding workload, was distraught to discover she was pregnant again. Her doctor agreed to perform an abortion, she says, only after she promised to pretend the procedure had been a medical emergency. “He
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Two Iraqi men have been charged with war crimes by Finnish prosecutors, the Helsinki prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday. The men are charged in connection with incidents that took place in Iraq in 2014 and 2015 and
GENEVA/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The United Nations and human rights groups warned on Tuesday that a tentative European Union deal to send back all irregular migrants to Turkey in exchange for political and financial rewards could be illegal. “I am deeply
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission warned on Tuesday five EU states, including Italy and France, that they had excessive economic imbalances which weigh on their growth and need to be corrected. The EU executive is in charge of monitoring
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish authorities have seized control of the Cihan news agency, according to a statement from Cihan, widening the crackdown against supporters of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen (pictured), an influential foe of President Tayyip Erdogan. Cihan said
BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico on Monday looked to have little chance of forming a government after his leftist Smer party lost its parliamentary majority, raising the possibility that a centre-right grouping may eventually hold sway. President
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined an offer to meet President Barack Obama at the White House later this month and canceled his trip to Washington, the White House said on Monday, citing Israeli news reports. Netanyahu’s decision to
During a debate between Democratic presidential contenders Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton on Sunday, the former rebuffed accusations that he was not proud of being Jewish. When Sanders was asked if he was deliberately keeping his Jewish faith in the
GAZA (Reuters) – A modern-day Samson is performing feats of physical strength in Gaza. “Go Samson go!” yelled a crowd in the Palestinian enclave cheering on Mohammad Baraka as the 20-year-old with the Biblical nickname used a rope around his
BRUSSELS – News Corp’s chief executive will meet the EU antitrust chief this week, the company said on Monday, with the focus expected to be on the EU’s investigation into whether Internet search engine Google abused its dominance. CEO Robert
PARIS (Reuters) – France’s foreign minister said on Monday the decision by Turkish authorities to seize control of the country’s largest newspaper was “unacceptable” and went against European values. “”It’s not acceptable. We can’t want to get closer to European
LONDON (Reuters) – London’s influential mayor on Sunday denied personal ambition was behind his decision to campaign for Britain to leave the European Union and said it was a “golden opportunity” for the country to forge its own trade deals
Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann has urged Germany to set a clear limit on the number of asylum seekers it will accept to help stem a mass influx of refugees that is severely testing European cohesion. The comments by the Social
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, saying it stirs up prejudice and polarises society. Her comments, made in an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, reflect growing unease among Germany’s mainstream parties
BRATISLAVA (Reuters) – Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (pictured above) won Saturday’s parliamentary election, nearly complete results showed, but gains by opposition parties including far-right extremists will complicate formation of a new government. Fico, a leftist whose anti-immigration views are
Turkish police fired tear gas and rubber bullets on Saturday to disperse protesters outside the country’s biggest newspaper after authorities seized control of it in a crackdown on a religious group whose leader the government accuses of treason. A court on Friday appointed an administrator to run the flagship, English-language Today’s Zaman and Cihan agency, linked to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who President Tayyip Erdogan says was plotting a coup.
(Reuters) – Greece needs to deliver quickly on its promise to provide accommodation for 50,000 refugees and the European Union should help Athens with this task, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a media interview published on Saturday. Austria, one
(Reuters) – Germany and Italy’s interior ministers have written to the European Commission calling for an EU-wide system to register migrants and a harmonisation of selection procedures and rights for asylum seekers, a German newspaper reported. In the letter seen
(Reuters) – Slovaks started voting on Saturday, likely to hand a third term to Prime Minister Robert Fico, a left-wing nationalist whose vocal anti-immigration stance chimes with those of Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Poland’s Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Opinion polls show Fico’s
Prime Minister David Cameron urged Scots on Friday to vote to stay in the European Union, as they did to keep Scotland part of the United Kingdom in 2014. Cameron wants a high turnout in a referendum on June 23
(Reuters) – A Turkish court on Friday sentenced two Syrians to four years in jail over the drowning of five people including toddler Aylan Kurdi, the image of whose dead body sparked global sympathy last September over the fate of
