MADRID, Spain -- Spain's parliament on Thursday gave the green light to an animal welfare law, while also amending the penal code to bring in stiffer penalties for abuses. "This is a very important day because parliament has passed the first animal rights law," since Spain returned to democracy...
BENGHAZI, Libya -- Several containers of natural uranium reported missing by the UN's nuclear watchdog in war-scarred Libya have been found, a general with one of the country's two rival camps said Thursday. General Khaled al-Mahjoub, commander of eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar's communications...
MOSCOW, Russia -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday was hosting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for talks as the Kremlin seeks to mend ties between Damascus and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The meeting follows the surprise announcement last week of a Chinese-brokered restoration of...
GENEVA, Switzerland -- A year after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a majority in Switzerland now support closer ties with NATO, the government said Thursday -- a first in the country known for military neutrality. The Swiss military academy and the Centre for Security Studies -- both...
WASHINGTON, United States -- Almost exactly 20 years after US forces invaded Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein from power, the US Senate moved Thursday to revoke the law that authorized then-president George W. Bush to launch the war. In a procedural vote that came over a decade after the war's official...
PARIS, France -- French President Emmanuel Macron's government on Thursday rammed a controversial pension reform through parliament without a vote, sparking angry protests in Paris and other cities as well as tumult in the legislature. The move to use a special constitutional power enabling the...
TOKYO, Japan - Japan and South Korea announced the end of tit-for-tat trade measures and pledged renewed diplomacy as leaders of the two countries met in Tokyo Thursday for a summit to thaw long-frozen ties. The neighbours, both key US partners in the region, have for years been locked in a...
MOSCOW, Russia - The Kremlin said Thursday that Russia was not a threat to Finland, ahead of the Finnish president's visit to Turkey, which is expected to approve Helsinki's NATO bid. Finland and Sweden dropped decades-long policies of military non-alignment and applied to join the western...
TEL AVIV, Israel - Israeli protesters returned to the streets Thursday to rally against proposed judicial reforms, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a compromise plan touted by the country's president. The reforms, several provisions of which have already been adopted by...
VIENNA, Austria - The UN's nuclear watchdog said two and a half tons of natural uranium had gone missing from a Libyan site and "may present a radiological risk," according to a confidential report seen by AFP on Thursday. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors on Tuesday found...
BEIJING, China - China urged the United States to stop "unreasonably suppressing" TikTok on Thursday, after Washington gave the popular video-sharing app an ultimatum to part ways with its Chinese owners or face a nationwide ban. The United States and the European Union have been taking an...
MOSCOW, Russia - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he will only meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan if Turkey withdraws troops from northern Syria, according to a Russian media interview published on Thursday. His comments come one day after he met Russian President Vladimir Putin,...
