Turkish President Abdullah Gul approved a law boosting government control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors on Wednesday, deferring to the Constitutional Court on some elements in the legislation.
In Iceland, thousands of people have taken to the streets against the government’s move to end its bid to join the European Union without holding a referendum. Despite an election campaign promise to put the question to the people, the two leading coalition partners decided not to take people’s views into account, leading some to ask for a rethink.
(Reuters) - Egypt's government resigned on Monday, paving the way for army chief Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to declare his candidacy for president of a strategic U.S. ally gripped by political strife.
(Reuters) - Pakistani fighter jets attacked suspected militant hideouts in tribal areas on the Afghan border on Sunday, killing at least 38 insurgents, officials said, in the third air strike in recent days.
Pope Francis has appointed 19 new cardinals at a ceremony in Rome - the first such appointments of his papacy. Cardinals are the most senior Roman Catholic clergymen below the pontiff. Correspondents say the inclusion of prelates from places such as Haiti and Burkina Faso reflects the Argentine Pope's commitment to the poor.
(Reuters) - The world's rich nations pushed back on Friday against emerging market complaints about the spillover effects of their monetary policies, saying they had to get their own houses in order and get with the agenda of boosting global growth.
From a campaign to "unfollow" President Abdullah Gul on Twitter to an opposition appeal to Turkey's highest court, Turks vented their anger on Wednesday at a new law tightening government control of the Internet.
BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has embraced proposals to create European data networks that would keep emails and other communications on the European side of the Atlantic, farther from prying American eyes, and said she would raise the matter this week with President François Hollande of France.
(Reuters Health) - Drab olive cigarette packs bearing a prominent quit-smoking helpline number, introduced more than a year ago in Australia, had a sizeable and sustained effect on interest in quitting, researchers say.
Turkey's parliament approved a law boosting government control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors on Saturday, after a heated debate and a brawl that left one opposition lawmaker hospitalized.
Hungary’s far-right Jobbik party has held a pre-election rally in a former synagogue, much to the dismay of protesters from the country’s most prominent Jewish group, Mazsihisz.
The euro zone economy grew more than expected in the last quarter of 2013 thanks to stronger expansion in its biggest countries France and Germany, the first estimate from the European Union's Statistics Office showed on Friday.
Asian stocks dropped after the regional benchmark index climbed for a sixth day yesterday to cap its longest run of advances this year.
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- At the heart of the European debt crisis is the euro, the currency that ties together 18 countries in an intimate manner. So when one country teeters on the brink of financial collapse, the entire continent is at risk. How did such a flawed system come to be? Bloomberg Television and Jonathan Jarvis present "The European Debt Crisis Visualized." (Source: Bloomberg)
The Obama administration acknowledged Tuesday that diplomacy, the main pillar of its Syria policy, is failing even as civil war is destroying the country, leaving open the question of what the United States will or can do to stop the slaughter.
Shirley Temple Black, the former child star and diplomat whose films in the 1930s cheered Depression-weary moviegoers and made her the most famous little girl in the world, died Monday night at age 85 of undisclosed causes.
It sounds like an endorsement — an interesting one. Former general David Petraeus tells the authors of a new book on Hillary Rodham Clinton that "she'd make a tremendous president."
Egypt's government is happily letting exiled billionaires and convicted Mubarak cronies buy their way back home.
WASHINGTON — Intelligence officials investigating how Edward J. Snowden gained access to a huge trove of the country’s most highly classified documents say they have determined that he used inexpensive and widely available software to “scrape” the National Security Agency’s networks, and kept at it even after he was briefly challenged by agency officials.
Spain's Princess Cristina was questioned by a judge on Saturday in a corruption case that has deepened public anger over graft among the ruling class and discontent with the royal family.