German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have extended their lead over the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) to 12 percentage points, a poll showed Wednesday, almost four months before a federal election. The Forsa poll for the weekly magazine Stern and broadcaster RTL put Merkel's...

China has installed rocket launchers on a disputed reef in the South China Sea to ward off Vietnamese military combat divers, according to a state-run newspaper, offering new details on China's ongoing military build-up. China has said military construction on the islands it controls in the...

 French President Emmanuel Macron will meet EU Council President Donald Tusk in Paris Wednesday, the new leader's office said. The two will have lunch at the Elysee Palace before Macron is expected to announce his cabinet appointments. Tusk was one of the first prominent European...

( The New Arab )- The United States has reiterated that the al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [HTS] is a terrorist group after media reports emerged, claiming the extremists had evaded the classification. The US embassy in Syria confirmed on its official Twitter feed on...