The brothers fit what European anti-terrorism investigators call a disturbing but now-familiar profile. They were young Belgian nationals of Moroccan descent, both with extensive criminal records involving violent crime and guns. But neither had been previously linked to terrorism, Belgium's chief...
The deadly attacks on Brussels brought swift condemnation across the Middle East, but some countries seized the moment to criticize the West for adhering to policies that they said had planted the seeds for such acts of terrorism. Syria’s embattled government, locked in a five-year fight against...
Nasir Dogru says his son must have been important. He has often seen the 18-year-old on local Kurdish television channels, his smiling face flashing across the screen. Perhaps he was a commander, he says. Neighbors and friends say so too. They call the teenager, Ferhat Dogru, a martyr. "He was...
Fatima Rezai's journey to Greece took 40 days and 40 nights. From Afghanistan's Ghazni province she and her family trekked to Iran, then Turkey, took a boat to Samos, Greece, and then another to Piraeus. Now, the only journey Fatima takes is the one from her refugee camp in Hellinikon, site of...
This is not, at first glance, a very Trump-like place. A tidy village in Germany's wine country, Kallstadt is home to modest people, modest houses and an open, welcoming attitude toward outsiders — immigrants, tourists and oenophiles alike. It is also home to people who claim an ancestral relationship...
Salah Abdeslam, the top suspect in last year's Paris attacks, was charged with "terrorist murder" on Saturday by Belgian authorities for the carnage that left 130 people dead. A French prosecutor said Abdeslam had planned to detonate a suicide bomb at a stadium but backed out at the last minute....
The largest manhunt in Europe came to a dramatic end Friday when police in Belgium arrested a fugitive linked to the Paris terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in November.Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French national who grew up in Brussels, was captured in a raid that sent loud bursts of...
Turkey and the European Union clinched a landmark deal Friday aimed at stopping thousands of migrants from attempting to reach European shores.After two days of negotiations in Brussels, the sides finally agreed to a plan that will effectively send any migrants who attempt to cross the Aegean Sea...
European Union leaders arrived in Belgium again Thursday hoping to secure a crucial deal with Turkey to stem the flow of migrants arriving on Europe’s shores. The pressure to create a binding agreement was high going into the two-day summit in Brussels after repeated failed attempts to forge a...
In a surprise announcement, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the withdrawal of most Russian troops from Syria beginning Tuesday, less than six months after Moscow’s war planes began bombarding forces arrayed against the Syrian government. Putin described the move in a televised...
Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz saw several doctors in the month before he deliberately flew a passenger jet into a mountain, killing all 150 people on board, French air accident investigators revealed Sunday. Some of those doctors issued him sick leave certificates, and one referred him to...
A new far-right German party that campaigned aggressively against the refugees who have poured into the country in the last year scored stunning victories in three state elections on Sunday as voters rejected Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door policies and abandoned her conservative party in...
A populist far-right German party that has fiercely attacked the government for letting in more than a million refugees in the last year is expected to be the big winner in three important state elections Sunday that will serve as a referendum on Chancellor Angela Merkel's controversial open-door...
When Salahuddin Barakat founded the Islam Academy in 2013, he located it on the edge of Rosengard, a predominantly Muslim neighborhood that has been a flashpoint in Sweden's sharpening debate over immigration. It wasn't his first choice, he said, "but people in central Malmo said we don't want...
A plan by European Union and Turkish officials to stop migrants arriving on Europe's shores by immediately sending them back to Turkey has been branded deeply immoral and possibly illegal by several human rights and refugee groups. The proposal was announced by EU leaders Tuesday after lengthy...
There were plenty of black stars to be seen at last month's awards show for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Angela Bassett and Cuba Gooding Jr. were flown in as presenters. Acting legend Sidney Poitier was given a BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award via video link. And Londoner John...
While European Union leaders on Monday looked for Turkey to help stem the arrival of more migrants, Turkish officials sought an additional $3.3 billion to help the country handle the influx of newcomers. Political leaders were gathered in Brussels for a summit aimed at working out how to manage...
On a cold, blue winter's day, Shaul Bassi stood shivering in the main square of an ancient Venetian neighborhood as he tried to explain how this was not just a ghetto, it was the ghetto. "The concept of the ghetto was born here in Venice," he said. "And that is why we must never forget this place."...
The developer's cheerful blueprint, touting a leafy suburban haven, greets returning camp residents as they trudge through the gullies of dense mud that grabs boots and devours dreams. "Live the city life — in the country!" it promises, but the residential retreat planned for this clearing never...
In a run-down Belgrade theater, young film buffs smoke cheap cigarettes beneath posters of iconic Hollywood and Yugoslav films and lament what they say is the plundering of Serbia's cultural heritage. "Here, the politicians lack the subtlety to even pretend to care," says Vladimir Gvojic, a 25-year-old...
Spain’s Princess Cristina testified Thursday in her tax fraud trial, saying she trusted her husband to handle their business affairs when she was busy caring for their children, but refusing to answer questions about why family expenses were charged to a company credit card.Cristina, 50, is the...
The migrant crisis became a critical bargaining chip in the debate over Britain’s future membership of the European Union on Thursday, with France warning that a “Brexit” could bring immigration chaos to its neighbor’s shores. French President Francois Hollande stated bluntly that there would be...
Australian Cardinal George Pell, Pope Francis' trusted finance minister, has admitted ignoring a boy’s complaint about a sexually abusive priest but denied that he tried to bribe another abuse victim to keep quiet. Speaking on the fourth and last day of hearings before a royal commission on abuse...
Wael Alagha was curling up for the night on the cold ground outside a freeway rest stop. He had a black ski jacket and blanket to shield him from the night’s cold, but still shivered slightly. Around him, dozens of people sat around fires that filled the air with acrid smoke. In tents nearby, charities...
With a one-way ticket home to Iraq in his hands and seven months' worth of frustration over intransigent German bureaucracy in his heart, Gazwan Abdulhasen Abdulla gave up on his dreams of a better life in Europe. Homesick and eager to be back with his wife and four small children in Basra, Abdulla...
Voters in Ireland delivered a stinging rebuke to governing parties in elections that reflected concerns that the country’s economic recovery was not being widely felt. In an echo of the sort of voter anger being heard in the United States this year, anti-establishment parties and independent candidates...
Three explosions of methane gas at a faulty coal mine in an Arctic Russian town have killed 36 people, including five rescuers, officials and families said Sunday. Two blasts tore through the Severnaya mine in the Komi region late Thursday, killing four miners and leaving another 26 trapped deep...
After a bitter and drawn-out fight, Italy’s senators voted Thursday to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples. The nation is the last in Western Europe to take such action. But whatever victory came in the vote was denounced quickly by LGBT activists who said the legislation had been grossly...
A devastating refugee bottleneck has left thousands of men, women and children languishing on blankets and cardboard in public parks in Greece and has brought diplomatic tensions in Europe to new highs. The new phase of Europe’s migrant crisis emerged in recent days after some Balkan nations began...
It was a home crowd, a backslapping gathering in the town in western Ireland where Prime Minister Enda Kenny made his first foray into national politics four decades ago. But despite the warm campaign trail welcome, Kenny could not resist a dig at “whingers” in his hometown, who, despite Ireland’s...
An extraordinary scene will unfold in a hotel in Rome late Sunday night when one of Pope Francis’ most trusted advisors sits down for the first of up to four nights of live-streamed testimony about his role in an alleged cover-up of sexual abuse in Australia. Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican finance...
The debate over whether Britain should vote to leave the European Union took a turn Monday from the merely contentious to the intensely personal. Prime Minister David Cameron delivered an impassioned plea to members of Parliament to reject a so-called Brexit and sign up for a deal with the EU that,...
British Prime Minister David Cameron has spent months shuttling between European capitals to secure backing for a deal that would keep his country from bolting the European Union. He claimed victory Friday in the final hours of a tough two-day summit. But the hard work has just begun: Now Cameron...
At the end of two long, fraught days of negotiations, European Union leaders agreed unanimously to a new deal that will pave the way for a referendum on Britain’s continued membership in the 28-member bloc.The news was announced late Friday night after a series of drawn-out meetings that highlighted...
Newly revealed letters written by Pope John Paul II show he had an intensely emotional relationship with a married woman that spanned more than 30 years. In his letters to Polish-born American philosopher Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka, the Polish pontiff calls her a "gift from God." Although the letters...
Wrapped in a fur coat against the biting wind, Ascension Mendieta steadies herself on the dirt-caked arm of an archaeologist. He guides her along a stone wall pockmarked by bullets, shuffling gingerly over gravel and frost, past chest-high piles of earth on the edge of a cemetery. She slips beyond...
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev raised the specter of a new Cold War on Saturday and compared the current tensions between Russia and the West to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. “NATO's political stance toward Russia remains unfriendly...
The news that a cease-fire agreement had been reached among warring parties in Syria came as a relief to refugees from the conflict who have made their way to Germany. But it isn’t likely to prompt any mass return – certainly not yet. “As long as [President Bashar] Assad is still there, I wouldn’t...
A gang of about 50 masked left-wing extremists on bicycles torched or trashed nearly 50 luxury cars over the weekend in attacks to protest gentrification of the once-low-rent districts near the center of the German capital. The attacks just after midnight on Saturday and Sunday mornings caused...
An outspoken and critical member of Pope Francis' commission on priestly sex abuse has said he will defy moves to oust him, claiming that only the pontiff himself can remove him from the panel. In a move that will raise questions about Francis’ commitment to tackle abuse within the Roman Catholic...
Pyotr Pavlensky does not spare his body or his audience when it comes to his macabre artistic "actions." The gaunt, 31-year-old artist nailed his scrotum to the pavement of Moscow's iconic Red Square to protest ubiquitous police brutality in Russia. He had his naked body wrapped in barbed wire...
For the first time ever, a pope will meet with a patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Vatican has announced. The meeting is aimed at improving ties between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, which broke away in the year 1054. The globe-trotting Pope Francis is scheduled...
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Friday he felt vindicated by the findings of a United Nations panel that ruled he should be allowed to walk free. The Australian citizen also warned there could be serious diplomatic consequences for Britain and Sweden if they continue to reject the findings...
For the last three and half years, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lived in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault accusations. A United Nations panel is expected to announce Friday that his time there amounts to “arbitrary detention”...
A Vatican commission on clerical sex abuse gathered Thursday for a private screening of “Spotlight,” the Oscar-nominated film about abuse by Boston priests, even as Pope Francis came under fire for failing to act on the crisis. The extraordinary screening was held on the eve of a three-day meeting...
The Obama administration wants to enlarge the U.S. military presence in eastern and central Europe next year by stockpiling heavy weapons, armored vehicles and other military equipment across the region, a substantial expansion of U.S. efforts to counter a resurgent Russia. The proposed $3.4-billion...
The tightly packed throng of journalists shouted and jostled, straining to grab the attention of United Nations special envoy Staffan de Mistura at the start of much-anticipated talks aimed at ending the long-running civil war in Syria. Finally, a correspondent for Syrian state TV, Elissar Moualla,...
As Britain debates whether to leave the European Union, leaders across the continent are trying to avoid a potentially devastating split. The country has long had an uneasy relationship with the rest of the 28-member bloc, having used its status as an economic powerhouse to keep its currency —...