NEW YORK (Reuters) – Always the bride, never the bridesmaid. A New York City woman accused of being married to eight men at the same time pleaded not guilty in state court in the Bronx on Friday to two counts of felony fraud that prosecutors say stemmed from a... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – French media conglomerate Vivendi is looking at a possible acquisition of pay-TV group Sky, as one of several options to expand the reach of its own TV group Canal Plus, three sources familiar with the matter said. Vivendi has turned its... More »
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian officials confirmed on Friday that up to 32 Indonesians had been detained in Turkey or gone missing after being suspected of trying to cross into Syria to join Islamic State (IS) militants. Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told rep... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan’s tightening grip on power is likely to meet little more than symbolic resistance from the West next year, as Turkey’s G20 presidency and the fight against Islamic State trump concerns about a slide towards authori... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday pardoned a turkey named Cheese to mark the country’s Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, when roasted turkey is the traditional main course. Obama, in a light-hearted ceremony before a small group o... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has accused Syrian forces of committing massacres in and around Aleppo and said Turkey would face a major new refugee crisis if Syria’s second city were to fall into his hands. As U.S. warplanes bomb ... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – Kurdish separatist fighters want an international mediator, possibly the United States, to help get peace talks with Turkey back on track and avert an escalation of their insurgency, the head of the group’s political wing told an Austrian ne... More »
SANLIURFA Turkey/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Iraqi peshmerga fighters arrived in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday en route for the Syrian town of Kobani to try to help fellow Kurds break an Islamic State siege which has defied U.S.-led air strikes. Kobani, nestled on t... More »
ISTANBUL/MURSITPINAR (Reuters) – At least ten people died in eastern Turkey when gunmen opened fire on police, and Kurds angry over a siege by Islamist militants on their ethnic kin in Syria clashed with other groups in the country’s sixth largest city, local ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The effectiveness of the U.S.-led coalition effort in Syria is under scrutiny as Islamic State fighters try to overrun a strategic Syrian town on Turkey’s border. The United States and its allies, including Gulf states, have conducted mo... More »
MURSITPINAR Turkey/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Turkey’s president said on Tuesday the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani was “about to fall” as Islamic State fighters pressed home a three-week assault that has cost a reported 400 lives and forced thousands to flee their hom... More »
MURSITPINAR/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Outgunned Kurdish fighters vowed on Monday not to abandon their increasingly desperate efforts to defend the Syrian border town of Kobani from Islamic State militants pressing in from three sides and pounding them with heavy arti... More »
MURSITPINAR Turkey (Reuters) – U.S.-led forces launched air strikes on Islamic State fighters who are besieging a Kurdish town near the Syrian border with Turkey on Wednesday, Kurdish sources in the town and a monitoring group said, a rare daylight coalition a... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian Kurdish fighters have halted an advance by Islamic State fighters to the east of a predominantly Kurdish town near the border with Turkey, a spokesman for the main armed Kurdish group said. “Fierce clashes are still under way but the ... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s ruling party begins deliberations on the shape of the next government on Monday after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan secured his place in history by winning the nation’s first direct presidential election. Erdogan’s victory in Sunday... More »
MILAN/LONDON (Reuters) – Israel’s drive to export its new-found natural gas could help to rebuild strained ties with old regional allies Egypt and Turkey, but could deprive Europe of a precious alternative to Russian gas. Israel has in recent months already si... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s ban on Twitter ahead of bitterly contested elections sparked public fury over a “digital coup” on Friday, brought international condemnation and triggered a rift between prime minister and president. Courts blocked access to Twitter... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s courts have blocked access to Twitter days before elections as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan battles a corruption scandal that has seen social media platforms awash with alleged evidence of government wrongdoing. The ban came hours ... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey is not considering any sort of capital controls as it battles to defend the lira, a senior government official said on Thursday, after Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said an “out of the ordinary” economic package could be announced soo... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s central bank hiked all its key interest rates in dramatic fashion at an emergency midnight policy meeting, ignoring opposition from Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as it battles to defend the country’s crumbling lira currency. The b... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s largest opposition party said on Thursday it had rejected plans for constitutional changes to resolve a row over the judiciary, paving the way for the government to press ahead with its own moves to assert greater control over the c... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – One of Turkey’s most senior legal figures warned Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party on Friday that efforts to tighten its grip on the judiciary would breach the constitution, deepening a crisis triggered by a damaging corruption scanda... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A corruption scandal shaking Turkey’s government may delay for many more months a tightening of monetary policy that would stabilize inflation and stop the lira from plumbing record lows. Across Turkish financial markets, there is a near-c... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Union may not be able to accept Turkey as a member, German parties negotiating a coalition government have said, while making clear the EU’s “privileged relationship” with Ankara should be developed further. In a paper on foreig... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey and Iran said on Friday they had common concerns about the increasingly sectarian nature of Syria’s civil war, signaling a thaw in a key Middle Eastern relationship strained by stark differences over the conflict. Iran has been a st... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union will launch a new round of accession talks with Turkey next month following a three-year hiatus after Germany dropped opposition prompted by Ankara’s crackdown on street protests. Turkey began negotiations to join the EU... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany is to drop the opposition it raised in June to opening a new chapter of talks with European Union membership candidate Turkey after its crackdown on a wave of anti-government protests earlier this year, a source said. The European Co... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York’s state banking regulator has stepped up pressure on four European banks, ordering them to hand over details of their transactions with a Jordanian bank and documents related to Turkey’s Uzan family, which owes billions of dollars... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s appeals court upheld convictions on Wednesday of top retired military officers for leading a plot to overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government a decade ago, in a case underlining civilian dominance over a once all-powerfu... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Turkey has been trying for years to join the European Union, presenting itself as a growing economic and political power and a bridge to Asian and Middle Eastern markets. But the next country to join the EU’s existing 28 members is more li... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s parliament may reconvene early from its summer recess to pass laws to expand Kurdish rights, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, a move crucial to resolving a 28-year conflict. Kurds want legislative reforms to... More »
LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – The European Union rebuked Turkey on Tuesday for its crackdown on anti-government protesters, postponing a new round of membership talks for at least four months, but said the path to the EU remained open. The EU move, discussed in advan... More »
ISTANBUL/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Turkey warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday not to play politics with its European Union ambitions as Berlin blocked moves to open a new chapter in Ankara’s EU membership talks next week. Turkey said failure to open ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she was shocked at Turkey’s tough response to anti-government protests but she stopped short of demanding that the European Union call off accession talks with the candidate country. “I’m appall... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Turkey said on Friday anti-government fighters in Syria were at a disadvantage because they weren’t properly armed, and stopped just short of calling for a European Union arms embargo to be lifted. In some of his strongest comments on the su... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday she was in favor of reviving Turkey’s stalled talks on its relationship with the European Union but a dispute over the divided island of Cyprus remained a stumbling block. Speaking during a two-... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Turkey is committed to joining the European Union despite mounting frustration over decades of talks on the issue, but has little appetite for adopting the euro currency, a senior Turkish official said on Wednesday. In a speech in London, Tu... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey accused the European Union of bias and bigoted attitudes towards the EU candidate country on Monday and blamed it for undermining the Turkish public’s trust in the bloc. Turkey criticized the European Commission’s latest report on i... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey should consider bringing back the death penalty, a decade after Ankara abolished capital punishment as part of reforms aimed at European Union membership. Political commentators accused Erdogan of ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – The European Union will lose Turkey if it doesn’t grant it membership by 2023, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. It was the first time Erdogan has given an indication of how long Ankara might continue down the path towar... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission said on Wednesday Serbia was not ready to start accession talks with the EU because of its tensions with Kosovo, and criticized Turkey for its human rights record and insufficient reforms. In its annual report on co... More »
