Former premier Matteo Renzi regained the Democratic Party leadership, handily winning a Sunday primary that he hopes will bolster the center-left’s ability to counter growing support for populist politicians in Italy ahead of national elections. “Forward, together,” Renzi tweeted, invigorated by his comeback after a stinging defeat in a December reforms referendum aimed in partRead more
French forces said Sunday they killed more than 20 militants in Mali near the border with Burkina Faso. French military officials and witnesses say the attack came from the air and on the ground in a forest in the Sahel region. More than 3,500 French soldiers are spread out across Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, MauritaniaRead more
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro hiked wages and handed out hundreds of free homes Sunday amid his efforts to counter a strengthening protest movement seeking his removal. On his regular Sunday television show, Maduro ordered a 60 percent increase in the country’s minimum wage starting Monday. It was the third pay increase the socialist leaderRead more
Poland’s Foreign Ministry has suspended an honorary consul in the United States who allegedly posted on Facebook an altered picture of European Council President Donald Tusk dressed as a Nazi. Maria Szonert-Binienda headed Poland’s honorary consulate in Akron, Ohio. She denies the charges. Szonert-Binienda told the Associated Press someone hacked her Facebook account. “I didRead more
An English policeman wearing a gorilla costume while crawling the London Marathon has finally finished the race, almost a week after starting. Metropolitan Police officer Tom Harrison, who goes by the name “Mr. Gorilla,” raised a reported 26,000 pounds ($33,650) for the Gorilla Organization, which is dedicated to conserving gorillas in countries including RwandaRead more
Investigations conducted during the month of March reveal that U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria killed 45 civilians, mostly in and around the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to a Pentagon statement released Sunday. In each incident, the Pentagon said “all feasible precautions were taken,” but the strikes stillRead more
An award-winning Iranian filmmaker imprisoned over his work has been released after serving about five months of his yearlong sentence, though he doesn’t know whether he’ll make movies again in the Islamic Republic. Keywan Karimi told The Associated Press on Sunday that he credited international pressure for his early release, as well as escapingRead more
Wary of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tough talk on Iran, the European Union is courting Tehran to show Iranians preparing to vote in a May 19 presidential poll that it is committed to a nuclear deal and they stand to benefit, EU diplomats say. Europe’s energy commissioner is leading more than 50 European firms inRead more
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has criticized President Hassan Rouhani for saying his detente policy with the West had caused the threat of war to fade as tensions intensify in Tehran before May election. Rouhani, a pragmatist whose election in 2013 led to a diplomatic thaw between Iran and the West, championed in 2015Read more
Turkish media reports say the Iranian owner of a leading Farsi-language satellite television network has been shot dead in Istanbul, along with another man. Saeed Karimian, the owner of GEM TV, was gunned down late Saturday. The other man killed was reported to be a business partner. No motive for the killing is known. BasedRead more
British Prime Minister Theresa May expects divorce talks with the European Union to be difficult, she said on Sunday in response to the tough stance taken by EU leaders over the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. EU leaders endorsed stiff divorce terms for Britain at a Brussels summit on Saturday, warning Britons to have “no illusions” aboutRead more
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats have opened a seven-point lead over the center-left Social Democrats five months ahead of the Sept. 24 election, according to a poll on Sunday in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. The Emnid institute survey found the Christian Democrats and their Christian Social Union allies winning 36 percent ofRead more
FIFA Council member Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah of Kuwait is resigning from his soccer roles under pressure from allegations in an American federal court that he bribed Asian officials. Sheikh Ahmad said Sunday in a statement he will withdraw from a May 8 election in Bahrain for the FIFA seat representing Asia, which he currentlyRead more
A top Iraqi commander expects to dislodge Islamic State from Mosul in May despite resistance from militants in the densely populated Old City district. The battle should be completed “in a maximum of three weeks,”, the Iraqi army’s chief of staff, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi, was quoted as saying by state-run newspaper al-Sabah on Sunday.Read more
Pope Francis called on Sunday for the respect of human rights and an end to violence in Venezuela, where nearly 30 people were killed in unrest this month. Francis, speaking to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square for his weekly address, decried a “grave humanitarian, social , political and economic crisis thatRead more
Pope Francis called on Sunday for the respect of human rights and an end to violence in Venezuela, where nearly 30 people were killed in unrest this month. Francis, speaking to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter’s Square for his weekly address, decried a “grave humanitarian, social , political and economic crisis thatRead more
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday his country may take further action against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria and insisted U.S. support for such groups “must come to an end.” The U.S. moved troops and armored vehicles through several Syrian cities and towns on Friday and Saturday in a show of forceRead more
U.S.-backed militias said on Sunday they had made a big advance in Tabqa, a strategically vital town controlling Syria’s largest dam, in their campaign to drive Islamic State from its stronghold of Raqqa, 40km (25 miles) downstream. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of Kurdish and Arab militias, will wait to assault Raqqa untilRead more