The evacuation of Syrian rebels bunkered in their last remaining holdouts in the beleaguered city of Aleppo has been delayed, rebels and activists said, even as an 11th-hour cease-fire forged by Russia and Turkey had broken down after only a few hours of calm overnight. The agreement, which called...
A steep rise in the number of Nigerian prostitutes working in Italy is being linked to the arrival in the country of well-organized Nigerian mafias, which are using violence and religious rites to terrify trafficked women into submission, police say. Police say their operations this year have revealed...
Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced his resignation early Monday, sending shock waves around Europe, after he was handed a resounding defeat in a referendum by anti-establishment voters. The prime minister’s plan to slash the power of the Italian Senate to speed up lawmaking was voted...
Far-right populist Norbert Hofer, who had railed against migrants and Muslims while hoping for a tailwind from Donald Trump’s election last month, lost his bid to become Austria’s president on Sunday after a bitter 10-month-long election that raised tensions across Europe. Alexander Van der Bellen,...
Even as Islamic State loses ground in Iraq and Syria, its fighters still have the ability and the will to launch attacks in Europe, the European Union’s police agency warned Friday. Several dozen fighters capable of committing terror attacks may already be present on the continent, and more are...
Italians will vote in a referendum Sunday on reforms proposed by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi that would bring complex changes to Italy’s constitution, but which he says would streamline the country’s sluggish lawmaking and centralize state power. Voter approval of Renzi’s plans could dramatically...
Eleven-month-old Fatima Moshfeq spent more than half her short life in makeshift shelters outside the walls of a Greek castle that decades ago provided sanctuary to refugees like her. But Fatima and her family fled the immediate area in mid-November after unidentified assailants standing on the...
Perhaps more than at any time since the Cold War, Kremlinologists are working overtime to decode Russia — galvanized, in part, by Donald Trump’s election as the next U.S. president. Many analysts have expressed deep concern that Russian muscle-flexing — bellicose moves on its western front, an...
Germany arrested an informant for the government's intelligence services after he was caught making radical Islamist statements and offering to give away top-secret information on the Internet, German authorities said Wednesday, in an embarrassing setback to their efforts to counter the threat...
Police and migrants clashed violently in Bulgaria’s largest refugee camp Thursday night, resulting in hundreds of arrests. In response, the country’s prime minister vowed Friday to move hundreds of refugees to closed camps and begin deporting others. Around 400 residents of the camp, most of them from...
To Silkie Carlo, the sweeping surveillance powers British legislators have voted to grant intelligence agencies and police make no sense in a democracy. Carlo and other civil liberty and human rights advocates oppose new rules that essentially allow authorities to spy and hack into communications...
German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Sunday that she would seek reelection next year, a step that could provide a powerful counterpoint to the anti-globalization, anti-immigration narrative put forth by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Merkel, facing a backlash against asylum seekers, ended...
The online denunciations pile up daily: Muslims can’t be trusted. Neither can the mainstream media. The elites have run amok. Institutions are out of touch with the will of the people. It might sound a lot like the hubbub surrounding last month’s U.S. presidential vote. But this time, the balloting...
The terminally ill British teenager had appealed to the high court in London after her divorced parents clashed over her desire to be cryopreserved — some say frozen — in hopes of being revived someday. The girl, suffering from cancer, explained “why I want this unusual thing done” in a letter...
President Obama left Europe on Friday urging U.S. allies to keep their relationships strong — and to keep an open mind about President-elect Donald Trump. In his final meeting as president with five key European allies, Obama praised the importance of NATO and other multilateral organizations,...
U .S. intelligence officials expect Turkey and Russia to expand military operations in Syria over the next two months as President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team takes over and President Obama exits the White House. The Obama administration has stood back as Turkish forces have pushed deeper...
President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel jointly admonished President-elect Donald Trump to take seriously his new responsibilities on the world stage — staging an extraordinary scene in which the outgoing president and the leader of the country’s most powerful European ally expressed...
Russia on Wednesday withdrew support for the International Criminal Court, a largely symbolic but defiant gesture rendered more highly charged by uncertainty over President-elect Donald Trump’s stance toward Moscow. Russia’s move, in the form of a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin and published...
President Obama traveled to the birthplace of democracy on Wednesday to praise the concept as a great Greek invention and to remind listeners of its burden — living with the outcome of an election, even when you don’t agree with it. “The next American president and I could not be more different,”...
With more than 120,000 public workers suspended and nearly 40,000 people in prison, the aftermath of Turkey’s failed July 15 coup is being felt across every part of society, including its highest-ranked schools. The day after the coup attempt, 1,577 deans — working at nearly every university in...
German police stormed 190 mosques, apartments, offices and storage facilities in 60 cities early Tuesday in attempt to shut down an organization calling itself True Religion that authorities accuse of radicalizing young people and recruiting fighters for Islamic State. The pre-dawn crackdown marked...
Down school hallways decorated with murals of rainbows and ladybugs, children in polka-dot winter jackets scamper and scream, plonking themselves on couches while talking excitedly about “Melania” — the school’s most famous former pupil. “We hope that she comes and visits us,” says the primary...
President Obama on Monday heads for Europe and then South America to face world leaders wondering what to expect from the U.S. after he leaves office, and to deliver the only honest answer he has: He just doesn’t know. Aides to the president have spent the last few days wrestling with what to say...
A taboo-busting reminder of Adolf Hitler’s life has popped up in Germany’s capital with the opening of a new exhibit -- a replica of the Nazi dictator's bunker. The “Berlin Story Bunker” re-creates a section of Hitler’s 3,000-square-foot underground living space near the end of World War II. It...
The European Union on Wednesday criticized Turkey for democratic “backsliding” after an attempted coup and warned that its candidacy for membership in the bloc was in jeopardy if a crackdown on the judiciary, parliament and the media were not reversed. In a bitter retort, Turkish President Recep...
Germany’s Interior Ministry appears willing to change the country’s open-door policy toward migrants in favor of seeing refugee boats intercepted at sea and returned to northern Africa. The Interior Ministry said Monday it wants to discourage migrants from making the dangerous journey across the...
Hundreds of French riot police wielding bulletproof shields surrounded the tents and cardboard shelters of Paris’ largest migrant camp Friday, clearing thousands of refugees and other migrants who had sought shelter in the French capital. In recent weeks, scenes at the squalid makeshift camp under...
Turkish police arrested eight lawmakers from a pro-Kurdish political party in late-night raids that touched off angry demonstrations, prompted a stern rebuke from the European Union and heightened tensions between the government and an increasingly disaffected Kurdish minority. The arrests also...
Britain’s path to leaving the European Union took a huge leap into the unknown Thursday when the High Court ruled that withdrawing from the 28-member bloc required a parliamentary vote. The judgment instantly raised doubts about the viability of Prime Minister Theresa May’s desire to trigger Article...
Hundreds of protestors camped overnight in protest at the Istanbul headquarters of Turkey’s oldest secular newspaper after its editor and a dozen staffers were detained by police in what many see as a widening crackdown on government critics. Istanbul prosecutors said the journalists at the Cumhuriyet...
A magnitude 6.6 earthquake struck central Italy on Sunday morning, destroying a 14th century basilica built on the birthplace of St. Benedict and bringing down scores of buildings, days after two other shocks left thousands homeless. About 20 people were injured, none fatally, when the quake struck...
In a country where the Orthodox Church is part of Greek identity, Muslims have long found that new mosques could be built only in certain areas that did not include Athens, the capital. But an influx of mostly Muslim migrants coupled with an unabashedly leftist Greek government is bringing change....
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday vehemently rejected claims that Moscow is tampering with the U.S. presidential election, and said it was “utter nonsense” that the Kremlin favors Republican Donald Trump. At the same time, he had kind words for Trump, saying “he chose his method of getting...
The British government’s support for expansion of London’s Heathrow Airport after decades of delays has immediately generated outrage from politicians and residents who point to the expected loss of hundreds of homes, increased air pollution and other environmental damage. British Prime Minister...
Moscow resident Irina Karmanina thinks she and millions of Russians may be annihilated by a U.S. nuclear attack if the tension between Moscow and Washington escalates much more. The 54-year-old pediatrician also expects her death would be avenged within minutes by thousands of Russian nuclear missiles...
When French authorities arrived Monday to begin evacuating the sprawling Calais refugee camp known as “the Jungle,” the lines of migrants eager to leave formed quickly. From first light, groups of mostly young men from the Middle East and Africa poured out of the encampment that had become their...
On the final day before authorities begin to dismantle the Calais refugee camp known as “the Jungle,” dozens of young people headed to a small sanctuary amid the chaos: a graffiti-fronted, one-room cafe — made of plywood and a tarpaulin roof — that has become a regular fixture in their otherwise...
It’s squalid and dangerous, crowded and muddy – and home to thousands of migrants desperate to reach Britain. French officials said Friday the sprawling encampment known as “the Jungle,” outside the port city of Calais, will be closed in the next few days and its inhabitants sent to hundreds of...
In the days after Britain voted to leave the 28-nation European Union, the leader of the far-right U.K. Independence Party triumphantly resigned, declaring that his political ambitions had been achieved. But as the country grapples with Brexit-related political and economic turmoil after the June...
A group of 14 children who have been living in a squalid refugee camp in France was brought to Britain on Monday, the first in a likely wave of minors expected to arrive here before French authorities demolish an encampment that became known as “the Jungle.” Campaigners have lobbied the government...
A young terrorism suspect captured by three fellow Syrian refugees in Germany was found dead of an apparent hanging in his prison cell, the man’s court-appointed lawyer was quoted as saying Wednesday evening. German officials said they believe the Syrian refugee, who they said had ties to Islamic...
British government officials faced fierce criticism Wednesday for their handling of the country’s pending withdrawal from the European Union, with lawmakers demanding details about what may come next to prevent economic turmoil and job losses. Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum...
As afternoon dims into dusk on the eve of Yom Kippur, an extraordinary thing happens in this secular metropolis: Israel’s city that rarely sleeps grinds to a standstill and is enveloped in a strange and wonderful silence. Traffic thins and eventually disappears, clearing the junctions that are...
In theory, Turkey and Iraq face a common enemy in Islamic State, but on Tuesday the Turkish president unleashed his ire on a putative ally, telling the Iraqi prime minister he needs “to know his limits.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan railed at Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi, declaring, “You...
Now that there is one less bidder for the 2024 Summer Olympics — with Rome suspending its campaign on Tuesday morning — it remains to be seen how a diminished field will affect Los Angeles’ chances. The Italian capital bowed out amid persistent opposition from the local government, with bid officials...
A Syrian refugee suspected of planning a terrorist attack in Germany on behalf of Islamic State was captured by police early Monday in the eastern city of Leipzig after another Syrian lured him to an apartment, tied him up with the help of other refugees and turned him over to police. Jaber Albakr,...
It captured just about 5% of the vote, but an ultranationalist party has won enough votes to join the Georgian parliament for the first time, presenting a challenge to the two pro-Western parties that have dominated the country’s politics. The sounds of election night victory reverberated across...
On a single day earlier this month, Turkish authorities arrested more than 120 police officers in raids across the country and charged them with being members of a terrorist group — all because they were allegedly using an encrypted messaging app. The app, called ByLock, has been linked to the...