World

Trump Confirms Plans for Meeting with Putin Ahead of Inauguration
Trump Confirms Plans for Meeting with Putin Ahead of Inauguration

US President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin wanted to meet and that a rendezvous between the pair was being arranged. He made the statement just a week and a half before taking office, following promises during his campaign to bring peace to Ukraine, which has been under Russian invasion since February ...

US President-Elect Trump to be Sentenced for Hush Money Conviction
US President-Elect Trump to be Sentenced for Hush Money Conviction

Donald Trump will be sentenced Friday for covering up hush money payments to a porn star despite the US President-elect's last-ditch efforts to frustrate a process that would make him the first felon in the White House. The judge has indicated, however, that Trump will not face prison – even though the 34 counts of falsifying business records ...

Deadly Wildfires in Los Angeles: Ten Dead and Thousands Evacuated
Deadly Wildfires in Los Angeles: Ten Dead and Thousands Evacuated

Massive wildfires that engulfed whole neighborhoods and displaced thousands in Los Angeles have killed at least 10 people, authorities said, as California's National Guard soldiers readied to hit the streets to help quell disorder. News of the growing toll, announced late Thursday by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, came as swaths of the ...

On His Final Trip, Blinken And the Europeans Try to Avoid a New Syrian Turmoil
On His Final Trip, Blinken And the Europeans Try to Avoid a New Syrian Turmoil

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his European counterparts insisted in Rome on Thursday on the need to stabilise Syria a month after Islamist rebels overthrew the country's leader, Bashar al-Assad, amid clashes with Turkey. Mr Blinken dined in Rome on Thursday evening with his British, French, German and Italian counterparts, on the last ...

Iran Reports Swiss National Accused of Spying Committed Suicide in Prison
Iran Reports Swiss National Accused of Spying Committed Suicide in Prison

Iran's judiciary said a Swiss national accused of spying was found dead in prison in the eastern city of Semnan on Thursday, adding that he had taken his own life. "This morning, a Swiss citizen committed suicide in Semnan prison," the judiciary's Mizan Online website said, adding that he had been "arrested by security agencies for espionage and ...

Qatar in Talks to Fund Syria Public Wage Hikes
Qatar in Talks to Fund Syria Public Wage Hikes

Qatar is weighing a plan to provide Syria's new rulers with funds to increase public sector salaries, a diplomatic source said Thursday, as the interim government in Damascus seeks to rebuild state institutions. "Discussions are taking place, but an agreement is yet to be concluded," the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because ...

Danish PM to Meet Party Leaders on Trump's Greenland Comments
Danish PM to Meet Party Leaders on Trump's Greenland Comments

Denmark's prime minister has called party leaders to a meeting on Thursday, a government source said, over US President-elect Donald Trump's ambitions to take control of Greenland. Trump, who takes office on January 20, set off new alarm bells on Tuesday when he refused to rule out military intervention over the Panama Canal and Greenland, both ...

Blinken Seeks to Avert Syria Turmoil with Europeans on Final Trip
Blinken Seeks to Avert Syria Turmoil with Europeans on Final Trip

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading on Thursday to Rome for talks with European counterparts on bringing stability to Syria in the face of flare-ups with Turkey, capping what is likely his final trip. Blinken had been expected to remain in Italy through the weekend to join President Joe Biden but the outgoing US leader scrapped his ...

Kallas: EU Ready to Lead Ukraine Support 'if US Not willing'
Kallas: EU Ready to Lead Ukraine Support 'if US Not willing'

The EU's foreign policy chief on Thursday said that she hopes the United States will keep supporting Ukraine after president-elect Donald Trump takes office and that if not, the EU was ready to take the lead. "I'm really sure that all the other members, and hopefully also the United States, are ready to continue with the support to Ukraine," Kaja ...

37 Killed in North Syria Clashes Between pro-Turkey, Kurdish forces
37 Killed in North Syria Clashes Between pro-Turkey, Kurdish forces

Battles between Turkish-backed groups, supported by air strikes, and Kurdish-led forces killed 37 people on Thursday in Syria's northern Manbij region, a war monitor said. The latest reported fighting comes despite the United States saying Wednesday that it was working to address Turkey's concerns in Syria to dissuade the NATO ally from ...

Gaza Rescuers Say Children Among 12 Killed in Israeli Strikes
Gaza Rescuers Say Children Among 12 Killed in Israeli Strikes

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli forces pounded the Palestinian territory on Thursday, killing at least 12 people including three girls, 15 months into the war. The latest strikes came as Qatar, Egypt, and the United States mediate negotiations in Doha between Israel and Hamas militants for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza and secure ...

Deadly Los Angeles Wildfires Threaten Hollywood
Deadly Los Angeles Wildfires Threaten Hollywood

Wildfires threatened to engulf parts of Hollywood on Wednesday as a growing number of blazes raged across Los Angeles, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and claiming at least five lives. Fast-moving flames fanned by powerful winds have levelled 1,500 structures, many of them multi-million dollar homes in a rolling tragedy ...