Japan and the European Union are on the cusp of a wide-ranging free trade agreement that could help blunt the forces of protectionism sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump's trade policies. EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said she was "quite confident" that a broad agreement can be...

Five North Koreans in a small boat crossed the sea border into South Korean waters Saturday, a Coast Guard official said, in an apparent bid to defect to the South. The five people, including four men and one woman, have expressed their wish to live in the South as defectors, the Yonhap news...

Pope Francis on Saturday pushed out the Vatican's conservative doctrine chief, tapping a deputy instead to lead the powerful congregation that handles sex abuse cases and guarantees Catholic orthodoxy around the world. Francis and German Cardinal Gerhard Mueller had clashed, most recently...

The leaning minaret of Mosul's Grand al-Nuri Mosque survived conquests by the Mongols and the Ottomans, neglect under Saddam Hussein, and air raids during the Iran-Iraq War and the U.S. invasion in 2003. But after three years of Daesh (ISIS) rule, it is now little more than a pile of stones...

British Prime Minister Theresa May's government on Saturday rejected demands that she appoint commissioners to run the local government blamed for mishandling the response to the London high-rise apartment building fire that killed at least 80 people. London Mayor Sadiq Khan had asked May to...

Ukraine said on Saturday that Russian security services were involved in a recent cyber attack on the country, with the aim of destroying important data and spreading panic. The SBU, Ukraine's state security service, said the attack, which started in Ukraine and spread around the world on...

The EU will pay an unprecedented tribute Saturday to former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, one of the architects of modern Europe, in a ceremony attended by a host of leaders. Kohl, who oversaw German reunification and was a driving force in Europe's integration, died on June 16 at age of...

Chinese President Xi Jinping swore in Hong Kong's new leader on Saturday with a stark warning that Beijing won't tolerate any challenge to its authority in the divided city as it marked the 20th anniversary of its return from Britain to China. Police blocked roads, preventing pro-democracy...

A tanker carrying 38,000 tons of petroleum products and a 220-meter (720-foot) cargo ship collided Saturday in the waters between France and Britain, French authorities said. No one was injured in the crash between the boats and "no pollution has been detected at this stage", the authorities...

A House panel has approved a measure calling for debate on new presidential war powers as the U.S. gets more involved in Syria's civil war. The measure proposed by an anti-war Democrat, congresswoman Barbara Lee of California, is now part of a military spending bill. The Republican-led House...

British Prime Minister Theresa May is making Brexit minister David Davis's job of delivering Brexit harder because of her "absolutist" approach, according to his chief of staff who resigned last month. James Chapman told the BBC that said May's insistence that the European Court of Justice...

American Muslim leaders Friday decried Donald Trump's rhetoric towards their community and predicted the president's travel ban would eventually be proven unlawful, a day after a weakened version of the measure came into force. A limited version of Trump's travel ban -- temporarily barring...

British consumers have suffered the longest decline in their spending power since the 1970s, raising questions about whether the Bank of England really is likely to raise interest rates any time soon. Official data published Friday confirmed that the world’s fifth-biggest economy went into a...

President Donald Trump is forming a National Space Council to be led by Vice President Mike Pence. The president signed an executive order Friday to revive a council last in place in 1993. Trump says the announcement sends a clear signal to the world about the United States' leadership...

Iraqi soldiers snap victorious "selfies" and pose with a captured Islamic State group flag at the Mosul mosque where militant chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi once spoke. "Where is Baghdadi?" they say, taunting the absent militant leader at the site of his triumphal 2014 appearance, the only time...

The United Nations Friday approved a nearly $600 million cut to its peacekeeping budget following pressure from the United States to reduce funding to the world body. The General Assembly approved by consensus the annual budget expected to total $7.3 billion, down from the current $7.87...

Germany is girding itself for possible cyber attacks on next week's G20 summit in Hamburg, by hacker groups or cells linked to foreign governments, its top cyber official told Reuters. Arne Schoenbohm, president of Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), said authorities had...

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces pressed Islamic State fighters holding out in Mosul's Old City on Friday, while in Syria the militant group launched a counter-attack against an alliance of militias trying to oust it from its de facto capital of Raqqa. In Iraq, dozens of civilians poured out of...

President Donald Trump declared that the US had run out of patience with North Korea over its nuclear drive Friday as he welcomed South Korea's new leader Moon Jae-In to talks at the White House. While Moon has been arguing for greater engagement with Pyongyang as the best way to put the...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump amid tensions over Washington's decision to arm Syrian Kurdish forces fighting the Daesh (ISIS), a Turkish official said Friday. Mahir Unal, a spokesman for Erdogan's ruling party, said the two leaders spoke by...