Queen Elizabeth II gave her formal assent Thursday for Britain to end its decades-long involvement in the European Union and seek a more independent but uncertain future at the end of the month. With the head of state's ceremonial approval of the withdrawal legislation, Britain can finally...

French lawyers are keeping up the pressure against the French government’s proposed overhaul to the pension system. Lawyers in the impoverished Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis have been striking since January 6 – postponing all court hearings despite the possible effects on some of their...

Libya's neighbours came together Thursday in Algiers as part of international efforts to find a political settlement to a crisis that threatens regional stability. The meeting, organised at Algeria's initiative, began mid-morning with statements from each of the participants and continued...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday proposed holding a summit between the leaders of Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain in 2020 to discuss the conflict in Libya and other global problems. Putin, who was speaking during a trip to Israel, said Moscow was ready for a...

Mayors of three Greek islands bearing the brunt of intensely overcrowded refugee and migrant camps demanded the transfer of thousands to the country’s mainland during a meeting with the new migration minister in Athens on Thursday. During a second day of protests over the plight of the...

Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum told visiting envoys from other countries neighboring Libya on Thursday that he hoped their meeting would strengthen a fragile truce in the country and help avert more foreign influence there. “Libya’s neighbors have the responsibility to facilitate...

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced Iran on Thursday as “the most anti-Semitic regime on the planet”, telling world leaders at a Holocaust memorial event that Israel would always defend itself against those seeking to destroy it. Israel has hailed the World Holocaust...

The death toll from a violent storm which has wrought havoc on huge swathes of Spain's eastern and southern coastline rose to nine on Thursday as rescuers pressed the hunt for at least five missing people. The latest death was that of a man whose body was found in a flooded river near...

Pakistan's army on Thursday said it had successfully tested a ballistic missile Ghaznavi amid heightened tensions with arch-rival India. Named after the 11th-century Afghan king, the missile is capable of delivering multiple types of warheads up to a range of 290 kilometers, according to a...

Removing renegade commander Khalifa Haftar is a must for democracy process and holding elections in Libya, a prominent official said. In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Khalid al-Mishri, chairman of the Libyan High Council of State, stressed the need to end the current interim period and...

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Russia's S-400 air defence system was compatible with NATO, which needed to set up a working group to study it. "The claim is that the S400 and F-35s are incompatible. That's the claim. Here is our proposal, let’s have a working...

Lebanon's Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said Thursday that foreign donors were waiting to see what reforms the new government would enact and whether it was ready for support. "The entire international community has its eye on what this government will do," he said in televised comments....

Russian lawmakers on Thursday unanimously approved a sweeping constitutional reform bill put forward by President Vladimir Putin in its first reading, after less than two hours of debate. All 432 lawmakers present in the lower house State Duma voted in favour of the bill, just three days...

An Iraqi demonstrator was shot dead in the southern city of Basra overnight, a security source and the human rights commission said Thursday, the latest in a string of protester deaths. The anti-government demonstrations rocking the Iraqi capital and the Shiite-majority south since October...

The U.S. special representative for Iran said the successor to Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike, would suffer the same fate if he followed a similar path of killing Americans, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported. Washington blamed Soleimani for masterminding attacks by...

Turkey does not plan to send more military advisers to Libya while a ceasefire is being observed, Russia’s RIA news agency cited Turkey’s foreign minister as saying on Thursday. A Libya peace conference will take place in Berlin at the start of February, but Germany has not yet named a date...

 Dozens of world leaders will convene in Jerusalem on Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, amid a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States. However, the president of Poland, where the Nazi concentration camp was built during the...

Iran welcomes dialogue with its Gulf neighbors, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday, amid heightened tension in the Middle East. “Iran remains open to dialogue with its neighbours and we announce our readiness to participate in any complementary work that is in...

 Lebanon is looking to secure $4 billion - $5 billion in soft loans from international donors to finance purchases of wheat, fuel and medicines, Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star cited finance minister Ghazi Wazni as saying on Thursday. Wazni, named minister in a new cabinet formed on...

A water-bombing plane was missing and feared to have crashed in Australia's southeast on Thursday, as firefighters battled a new outbreak of bushfires whipped up by scorching temperatures and strong winds. At least seven blazes were declared emergencies, including one in the Snowy Monaro...