Thousands of Turkish volunteers are ready to fight in Kirkuk and other Iraqi cities to defend the country’s Turkmen population, the head of Turkey’s nationalist opposition said on Wednesday. Devlet Bahceli said the minority Turkmen, who have close ethnic ties to Turkey, would not be...

A top ranking delegation from Iraq's armed forces headed to neighbouring Iran Wednesday "to coordinate military efforts," according to a statement from the Iraqi military. The statement did not give any details about the aim of the visit, believed to be part of retaliatory measures...

(Reuters) - Islamic State claimed responsibility for several explosions that targeted the area in and around Kabul airport on Wednesday hours after U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis arrived in the Afghan capital, the group’s AMAQ news agency said. The news agency said “infiltrators”...

 Islamic State militants holed up west of Baghdad launched their biggest attack on Iraqi troops in months on Wednesday, security sources said, killing at least seven soldiers before being forced to retreat. The fighting, near the city of Ramadi in Anbar province, continued for...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A vote by Iraq’s minority Kurds for independence is a blow to the United States, which has spent years, billions of dollars and the lives of thousands of troops trying to hold Iraq together, former U.S. officials and other policy experts said. A diplomatic drive...

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi King Salman on Tuesday ordered that women be allowed to drive cars, state media said, ending the conservative Islamic kingdom’s status as the only country where that is forbidden. The royal decree ordered the formation of a ministerial body to give advice within...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Chelsea Manning was turned back at the Canadian-U.S. border because she was convicted of espionage for passing information to Wikileaks, the former U.S. intelligence analyst said on Monday. Manning told Reuters via direct message on Twitter that she drove up to the...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A passenger train derailed in eastern Sweden after colliding with an armored vehicle during a major military exercise in the area, leaving at least four people injured, authorities said on Tuesday. The armored vehicle collided with a train near the small town of...

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar is committing crimes against humanity in its campaign against Muslim insurgents in Rakhine state, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday, and it called for the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions and an arms embargo. A government spokesman was not...

Oil prices took a breather on Tuesday after Brent crude earlier rose to a 26-month high, supported by Turkey’s threat to cut crude flows from Iraq’s Kurdistan region to the outside world. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Monday to cut off the pipeline that carries oil...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Monday to cut off the pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the outside world, intensifying pressure on the Kurdish autonomous region over its independence referendum. Erdogan spoke shortly after Prime Minister Binali Yildirim...

Voting began in northern Iraq on Monday in an independence referendum organized by Kurdish authorities, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from neighboring Turkey and Iran, and international warnings it may ignite yet more regional conflict. The vote, expected to deliver a...

(Reuters) - Japan’s government maintained its moderately optimistic view on the economy, signaling that a recovery is broadening and gathering strength even as inflation remains anemic. In its monthly economic report for September released on Monday, the government also maintained its...

(Reuters) - The euro snapped a two-day rising streak and edged lower on Monday after the German election results prompted some investors to lock profits into one of the most profitable currency trades of the year. Money managers have piled into the single currency and related bets in...

(Reuters) - Optimism about the business environment among Britain’s financial services firms declined again in the third quarter of this year, the longest run of falling sentiment since the global financial crisis, according to a survey published on Monday. The latest quarterly survey...

(Reuters) - Hopes for higher wage growth across Britain are receding, apart from in a few sectors of the labor market that suffer from acute skill shortages, according to a report published on Monday by recruitment company Hays. Difficulties faced by most British employers in hiring the...

Walt Disney Co has threatened to pull its programming from the fourth largest U.S. cable distributor, Altice USA, if the two parties cannot reach a deal before the end of the month, the cable company said on Sunday. New York-based Altice, which is owned by a European conglomerate and is...

Uber said on Monday it was not clear what concerns London’s transport regulator had for stripping it of its license as the taxi app battles to keep operating in one of the world’s wealthiest cities. On Friday, the British capital’s regulator deemed Uber unfit to run a taxi service and...

Iraq’s Kurds will go ahead with a referendum on independence on Monday because their partnership with Baghdad has failed, Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani said on Sunday, shrugging off international opposition to the vote. In response, the Iraqi government asked...

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives beat their rivals on Sunday to win her a fourth term in an election that will also bring a far-right party into Germany’s parliament for the first time in more than half a century, exit polls showed. After shock election results last year, from...