By Douglas Busvine and Nidhi Verma | NEW DELHI NEW DELHI Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took aim at supporters of “terrorism” in his Independence Day speech on Monday, ratcheting up criticism of Pakistan while avoiding direct mention of month-long protest... More »
BERLIN The European Union should grant Turks visa-free travel in October or the migrant deal that involves Turkey stemming the flow of illegal migrants to the bloc should be put aside, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a German newspaper. Asked whether hu... More »
MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin has held a meeting with his Security Council to discuss additional security measures for Crimea after the clashes on the contested peninsula, the Kremlin said on Thursday. Russia was considering tightening security at th... More »
BERLIN A series of controversial remarks by U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump show that the world should be concerned if he is elected president, a spokeswoman for German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Wednesday. Trump, a bill... More »
PARIS EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Monday there was no deadline for Britain to start talks on leaving the European Union. New British Prime Minister Theresa May told Juncker earlier this month that Britain hoped to hold positive talks wi... More »
VIENTIANE Southeast Asian nations overcame days of deadlock on Monday when the Philippines dropped a request for their joint statement to mention a landmark legal ruling on the South China Sea, officials said, after objections from Cambodia. Beijing publicly t... More »
BUDAPEST Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday said Donald Trump had proposed security policies that Europe should take to heart to solve a security crisis he blames on uncontrolled immigration. Speaking at a summer university in Baile Tusnad, Roma... More »
BRUSSELS New Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said he would assure his EU counterparts on Monday that Britain would continue to cooperate closely with them once it leaves the bloc following last month’s Brexit referendum. “The message I’ll be taking to our frie... More »
BEIJING Freedom of navigation patrols carried out by foreign navies in the South China Sea could end “in disaster”, a senior Chinese admiral has said, a warning to the United States after last week’s ruling against Beijing’s claims in the area. China has refus... More »
BRUSSELS EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned the Turkish government on Monday against taking steps that would damage the constitutional order following a failed weekend coup. “We were the first… during that tragic night to say that the legitimate... More »
VIENNA It would be unacceptable for Turkey to reintroduce the death penalty in response to Friday’s attempted coup, Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said in an interview published on Monday ahead of a meeting of his European Union counterparts. Turkish... More »
BRUSSELS The swift rounding up of judges and others after a failed coup in Turkey indicated the government had prepared a list beforehand, the EU commissioner dealing with Turkey’s membership bid, Johannes Hahn, said on Monday. Following a failed coup attempt ... More »
BRUSSELS European foreign ministers will urge Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday to respect the law and human rights in dealing with defeated coup plotters but have limited leverage over their strategic neighbor. Diplomats said an EU line on Turkey wou... More »
BEIJING/MANILA China vowed to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty over the South China Sea and said it had the right to set up an air defence zone, after rejecting an international tribunal’s ruling denying its claims to the energy-rich wate... More »
BEIJING European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Wednesday that the European Union does not take a stance on sovereignty in South China Sea. Speaking in Beijing, Mogherini said the EU called on all parties to respect legal decisions and u... More »
BRUSSELS The European Commission does not expect any new countries to join the euro zone for at least the next three years, one of the vice presidents of the EU executive said on Thursday. “There is not going to be euro area enlargement in the next at least th... More »
AMSTERDAM Britain will not be able to dictate the terms of a new trade deal to the European Union after it leaves the bloc, the chair of the euro zone finance ministers’ council said, accusing leave campaigner Nigel Farage of “living in his own world.” Farage,... More »
LONDON/BERLIN German Chancellor Angela Merkel sought on Saturday to temper pressure from Paris, Brussels and her own government to force Britain into negotiating a quick divorce from the EU, despite warnings that hesitation will let populism take hold. Eurosce... More »
LONDON British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Sunday it would be “catastrophic” for Britain to lose access to the European single market after it voted to leave the European Union. Hammond, who campaigned for Britain to remain in the bloc, said Brita... More »
LONDON Britain’s Business Secretary Sajid Javid said on Sunday there was no immediate need to decide when to trigger article 50, the mechanism for a country to withdraw from the European Union. (Reporting by Estelle Shirbon, editing by Elizabeth Piper) SOURCE:... More »
LONDON Britain’s opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sacked his foreign policy chief on Sunday, a spokesman said, plunging the party into open conflict after Britain voted to leave the European Union. The EU referendum, which saw 52 percent of Britons votin... More »
TIANJIN, China Chinese companies may want to “wait and see” the impact of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union before they invest in the country, the head of China’s top economic planner said on Sunday. However, the impact of the referendum on China’s ec... More »
BRUSSELS The British member of the EU executive, Financial Services Commissioner Jonathan Hill, resigned on Saturday after having campaigned against Britain leaving the European Union. Following the referendum vote for Brexit on Thursday, few expected a Briton... More »
BEIJING/TIANJIN, China China’s finance minister and leading economists on Sunday voiced concerns about Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, with the policymaker saying it has heightened market uncertainty, though some expect a limited impact on the Chin... More »
HONG KONG Hong Kong’s finance chief said on Sunday the government will closely watch the impact of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union on the city, which is set to affect the global economy and the territory’s trade and financial markets. “It was a big ... More »
PALO ALTO, Calif. U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday tried to limit the fallout from Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, which threatens to harm the U.S. economic recovery, derail his trade agenda and distract U.S. allies from global security issues... More »
PALO ALTO, Calif. U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday that he had spoken with British Prime Minister David Cameron about Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and that he was confident the United Kingdom was committed to an orderly transition. ... More »
PARIS French telecoms company Orange (ORAN.PA) said on Friday it plans to maintain several group offices in the United Kingdom, which employ about 900 people, despite Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. The company said it was not present in the Britis... More »
PARIS French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Friday he would welcome London banks to Paris after Britain’s vote to quit the European Union, using the “red carpet” metaphor in an apparent dig at British Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron triggered a wa... More »
AMSTERDAM The chair of the council of euro zone finance ministers said on Friday there was no reason to call a meeting of the body following Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Speaking after a meeting of the Dutch cabinet, Jeroen Dijsselbloem said it ... More »
THE HAGUE The lesson of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union is that the bloc cannot continue along a path of deepened integration or further enlargement, the chair of the council of euro zone finance ministers said on Friday. Speaking before a cabinet m... More »
BRUSSELS This is a rough outline of the steps Europe plans to take after Britain’s referendum on Thursday on whether to leave the European Union, based on public and private comments by officials: DAY 1 – FRIDAY, JUNE 24 – THE THREE R’S – OR MORE Polls close a... More »
LONDON British Prime Minister David Cameron made a dramatic appeal to voters across the generation gap on Tuesday to back staying in the European Union two days before a cliff-hanger referendum that will shape the future of the West. Britons vote on Thursday o... More »
ATHENS Greece got more than 7 billion euros in bailout funds on Tuesday after a review of the country’s progress in implementing economic reforms, the head of the euro zone’s bailout fund told reporters in Athens. Greece needs the money to pay off growing stat... More »
LUXEMBOURG Britain could not rejoin the European Union after leaving because membership requirements would be too onerous, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Monday. He said Thursday’s referendum on EU membership offered “no way back”. Since becoming a m... More »
LUXEMBOURG The 19 countries sharing the euro zone will strengthen their cooperation in all necessary fields regardless of the outcome of the British referendum on European Union membership next week, the head of the euro zone group of finance ministers said on... More »
SANTO DOMINGO U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday called on Venezuela’s crisis-hit socialist government to release political prisoners, respect freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and alleviate shortages. Speaking at a meeting of the Organi... More »
MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will talk about sanctions and energy projects when they meet in St Petersburg this week, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters. “The subject of sanctions will be r... More »
BRUSSELS U.S. hotel chain Marriott International (MAR.O) is on track to win unconditional EU antitrust approval for its cash and share purchase of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc (HOT.N), a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The deal, c... More »
BEIJING The United States is pleased to see progress has been made with China on information sharing about cyber threats, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday during the latest round of cyber security talks between the two countries. Cyber security has long ... More »
ULAANBAATAR U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hailed Mongolia as an “oasis of democracy” sitting in a tough location between Russia and China as he made a rare visit by a cabinet-level U.S. official on Sunday. Arriving from Paris, Kerry made the visit to Mong... More »
KUNMING, China/VIENTIANE For the southwestern city of Kunming, China’s plan to extend a high-speed rail link 3,000 km (1,875 miles) south to Singapore is already a boon: pristine expressways, a gleaming station and something of a real estate boom, as young buy... More »
AMMAN The Syrian army pushed into Raqqa province, home to the de facto capital of Islamic State, after a major Russian-backed offensive against the militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday. The offensive is the third big assault on t... More »
ASUNCION, Paraguay Paraguay’s state-run oil firm Petropar said Saturday that Venezuelan state oil producer PDVSA [PDVSA.UL] had set a 10-day deadline for the Paraguayan company to pay off $287 million of long-standing debt. The demand comes shortly after Parag... More »
SINGAPORE The United States stepped up pressure on China on Saturday to rein in its actions in the South China Sea, with top defense officials underlining Washington’s military superiority and vowing to remain the main guarantor of Asian security for decades t... More »
TRENTO, Italy Britain’s exit from the European Union would likely trigger turmoil on financial markets prompting the European Central Bank to act, Governing Council Member Francois Villeroy de Galhau said on Saturday. Villeroy de Galhau told an economic confer... More »
SINGAPORE Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani said on Saturday that Japan and South Korea agreed to expand an emergency communication system between their defense ministries, including adding a new direct line between defense ministers. Tensions have been h... More »
MIAMI President Barack Obama warned Democrats on Friday that they need to work hard to defeat likely Republican nominee Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election but must avoid violence like that at a rally in California this week. “Strange things can h... More »
BRUSSELS The euro zone and International Monetary are struggling with Greece’s debt crisis – not with Athens this time, but with each other over when to give Greece a break on its future massive debt repayments. The euro zone has begun talks on debt relief for... More »
KABUL Thousands of demonstrators from Afghanistan’s Hazara minority marched in protest through Kabul on Monday saying that they are missing out on a multi-million dollar power transmission line, posing a major challenge to the government of President Ashraf Gh... More »
ISTANBUL Turkish and U.S.-led coalition forces struck Islamic State targets north of the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, killing 27 fighters, state-run Anadolu Agency and other media reported. Turkish artillery and rocket launchers fired into Syria while warp... More »
TOKYO The leader of Japan’s bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics and other Japanese officials on Monday said the company at the center of questions raised about payments by the bid committee was a legitimate firm and not a paper company. The Guardian newspaper rep... More »
LONDON Presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Britain leaving the European Union would make no difference to a potential bilateral trade deal if he became president, according to an interview clip aired by broadcaster ITV on Sunday.... More »
KIEV/MOSCOW Ukrainian politicians hailed their country’s surprise weekend victory in the European Song Contest as a continent-wide endorsement in their smoldering conflict with Russia, while Moscow said the competition had been hijacked by politics. Ukrainian ... More »
CANNES, France Fifty years after TV play “Cathy Come Home” shocked viewers with its grim depiction of the slide into homelessness, director Ken Loach is still angry about the precarious reality of life on the breadline in Britain, and tries not to be too pessi... More »
IDOMENI, Greece Within sight of a razor wire fence guarded by Macedonian police, 35-year-old Iraqi migrant Saima Hodep rolls dough with an old steel water pipe outside her tent, in preparation for customers for her unleavened bread. Saima is one of a small but... More »
ANKARA Tayyip Erdogan’s ambitions for a swift move to strong presidential rule could suffer if dissidents in Turkey’s nationalist opposition succeed in a party leadership challenge that could bolster their party’s electoral support. A bid by several hundred me... More »
ISTANBUL Long-running efforts to fully restore Israeli-Turkish ties strained after an Israeli raid of a Turkish boat in 2010 must now await the formation of a new government in Ankara, Israel’s top diplomat in Turkey said. Turkey downgraded diplomatic relation... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, suggested on Monday he would make an exception for London’s newly elected Muslim mayor, the New York Times reported. “There wil... More »
DAVAO, Philippines The Philippines’ president-elect, rough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, announced plans on Tuesday for an overhaul of the country’s system of government that would devolve power from “imperial Manila” to long-neglected provinces. Duterte... More »
VILNIUS A faceless skull with a crown of spikes and blood pouring from its wounds, symbolizing a Syrian caught in the horror of civil war, stares out from a painting on the wall in a student theater in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. This is just one image by ... More »
PYONGYANG North Korea expelled a BBC journalist on Monday over his reporting, the broadcaster and a North Korean official said, as a large group of foreign media members visited the isolated country to cover a rare ruling party congress. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes... More »
MOSCOW A Russian company is trying to cash in on chilly relations between Moscow and Washington by releasing an ice cream called “Little Obama”, irritating U.S. officials. The product, called “Obamka” in Russian, is glazed with chocolate and its wrapping featu... More »
DUBAI Yemeni government forces and their allies killed more than 800 al Qaeda fighters when they advanced into the port city of Mukalla, the Saudi-led pro-government coalition said. Yemeni and Emirati soldiers seized the seaport on Sunday, depriving the group ... More »
LONDON Betting odds have moved sharply in favour of Britons voting to remain in the European Union after U.S. President Barack Obama cautioned last week against leaving the 28-member bloc. The implied probability of a vote to remain in the June 23 referendum r... More »
HANOVER, Germany U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday he would do whatever he could to advance a controversial trade deal with the European Union in his last eight months in office, but warned that time was running short. Obama has pushed to complete two... More »
MOSCOW Russia’s Onexim group, which manages the assets of tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov, said on Sunday that it was not in talks to sell its RBC media group and power generating company Quadra. Russian online news site gazeta.ru reported earlier on Sunday, citing s... More »
HANOVER, Germany German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that she did not favor classical “safe zones” in Syria which would need to be protected by foreign forces but believed that peace talks in Geneva could agree areas where fleeing Syrians could feel... More »
HANOVER, Germany U.S. President Barack Obama said the European Union and United States must move forward with a trade free trade accord still under negotiation which supporters say could boost each economy by some $100 billion. “It is indisputable” that free t... More »
WASHINGTON The White House will likely make a decision by June on whether it will release some classified material withheld from the public 9/11 Commission Report, a former U.S. senator who co-chaired the congressional inquiry into the attacks said on Sunday. ... More »
BRUSSELS/ATHENS Euro zone finance ministers are ready to hold an extraordinary meeting next week if negotiations on the review of the Greek reform program are concluded, a senior EU official said on Wednesday, commenting that talks remained difficult. Discussi... More »
TOKYO The Japanese share market plunged 3 percent on Monday after a series of earthquakes measuring up to 7.3 magnitude struck a southern manufacturing hub, killing at least 42 people and forcing major companies to close factories. About 30,000 rescue workers ... More »
BEIRUT Syrian rebel groups announced a new battle against government forces on Monday, a sign of escalating violence that has undermined a ceasefire deal and threatens to derail U.N.-led peace talks. The groups, which included factions fighting under the banne... More »
BAGHDAD U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter flew into Iraq on Monday to discuss offering more help in the fight against Islamic State, possibly including sending in more U.S. troops, officials said. Carter would meet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Defe... More »
LONDON BHP Billiton (BHP.AX)(BLT.L) Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie said on Monday that businesses could face a decade of damaging uncertainty if Britain voted to leave the European Union in a June 23 referendum. Mackenzie, boss of the world’s biggest mining ... More »
SINGAPORE Oil prices tumbled on Monday after a meeting by major exporters in Qatar collapsed without an agreement to freeze output, leaving the credibility of the OPEC producer cartel in tatters and the world awash with unwanted fuel. Tensions between Saudi Ar... More »
WASHINGTON Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei criticized Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, calling him “an irrational type” due to his proposal that tariffs on imported Chinese goods be increased to up to 45 percent. In an interview with the W... More »
LONDON British finance minister George Osborne said a vote to leave the European Union in a referendum in June would do permanent damage to the country’s economy, which he warned would be 6 percent smaller by 2030 than if it stayed in the bloc. The government ... More »
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE Pope Francis said on Saturday that his meeting with Bernie Sanders, contesting the Democratic candidacy for the U.S. Presidency, was not meddling in politics and that anyone who thought otherwise should “look for a psychiatrist”. Sanders... More »
ADEN A shaky truce took hold in Yemen on Monday under a U.N.-backed effort to end a war that has made the country a front in Saudi Arabia’s region wide rivalry with Iran and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The war-damaged capital Sanaa spe... More »
WASHINGTON A U.S. Navy officer with access to sensitive U.S. intelligence faces espionage charges over accusations he passed state secrets, possibly to China and Taiwan, a U.S. official told Reuters on Sunday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, ... More »
HIROSHIMA, Japan John Kerry on Monday became the first U.S. secretary of state to pay his respects at Hiroshima’s memorial to victims of the 1945 U.S. nuclear attack, raising speculation that U.S. President Barack Obama might make his own visit in May. Followi... More »
GOA, India U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter began a three-day visit to India on Sunday, seeking to advance a relatively new defense relationship with a country Washington sees as a counterweight to the growing power of China. In a sign of the importance Carte... More »
BRUSSELS In Athens, walls have ears. The leaking of a conference call of International Monetary Fund officials on Greece’s latest bailout review has further undermined mutual trust in fraught debt talks, embarrassed the European Commission and infuriated the I... More »
WASHINGTON President Barack Obama will meet with U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen on Monday to discuss the economy and Wall Street reform, the White House said on Sunday. Vice President Joe Biden will also attend the meeting. The president and the Fed c... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama said Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton never jeopardized national security in the handling of her emails as his secretary of state. Obama, in an interview broadcast on Fox News Sunday, said Clinton has ... More »
BERLIN At an hour-long meeting in Moscow on March 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov irritated his German counterpart by raising the case of a German-Russian girl who said she was raped by migrants in Berlin earlier this year. After the girl’s claims w... More »
BAKU Three Azeri servicemen were killed in fresh fighting with Armenian-backed separatists over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region on Monday, Azerbaijan’s Defence Ministry said. Azerbaijan had halted its attacks but Armenia was still “aggravating the situat... More »
ATHENS/WASHINGTON International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde denied on Sunday that IMF staff would push Greece closer to default as a negotiating tactic on a new Greek bailout deal, which she said was “still a good distance away.” Lagarde ... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus said on Sunday that Donald Trump is making it harder for himself to win the Republican presidential nomination by threatening to run as an independent if he is not treated fairly. In several television i... More »
MADRID U.S. President Barack Obama will not visit Spain until its parties manage to form a government and end over 100 days of political deadlock, delaying a trip that had been under consideration for July. “What (Obama) told me is let’s see if we form a gover... More »
WASHINGTON Donald Trump is facing bipartisan pressure to adopt a more presidential tone in his White House run including from Democratic President Barack Obama and Republicans who worry his missteps may do irreparable harm to the party and his campaign. The Re... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday that Donald Trump’s recent comments that South Korea and Japan should acquire nuclear weapons show the leading Republican presidential candidate is not well informed on international relations. Trump told T... More »
BEIRUT The Saudi-owned television news channel Al Arabiya shut its offices in Lebanon and dismissed 27 employees, two of its journalists said on Friday, in a sudden move that comes amid political tensions between Riyadh and Beirut. Protesters also attacked the... More »
DUBAI The secretary of the Iranian National Security Council has congratulated Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on regaining the city of Palmyra, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday. “The determination of the Syrian nation, government and army to eliminate t... More »
ISLAMABAD Pakistan and Iran aim to increase annual trade volumes between the two countries to $5 billion by 2021, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Saturday. Sharif spoke at a business conference with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who arrived i... More »
HAVANA The Rolling Stones rocked a massive crowd at a free, outdoor concert in Havana on Friday, capping a week of engagement with the West for the Communist-led country that once censored the veteran British band’s music. The Stones started their first-ever s... More »
WASHINGTON Shortly after last November’s attacks on Paris by a Brussels-based Islamic State cell, a top U.S. counter-terrorism official traveling in Europe wanted to visit Brussels to learn more about the investigation. When the official tried to arrange meeti... More »
BRUSSELS Belgian police were hunting on Thursday for a “third man” filmed with two Islamic State suicide bombers at Brussels Airport as investigators accumulated evidence that the same jihadist network was involved in the deadly Paris attacks last November. As... More »
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday the attack in Brussels that killed more than 30 people is the “latest brutal reminder” that more must be done to defeat Islamic State militants, including by European Union member countries... More »
