KINSHASA, Congo – A top U.S. State Department official says the United Nations and Congo need to work together in the fight against rebels in the country’s troubled east. In February, the United Nations formally ended support for a Congo military offensive against the FDLR militant group after two Congolese …
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CAIRO – An Egyptian court has sentenced 12 alleged supporters of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group to two years in prison over violence in the city of Suez in December 2013. Six others were acquitted in the case Saturday, which involved street clashes, attempted murder and battery charges. The government …
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ATHENS, Greece – Forget bailouts or austerity riots. The hot topic now in Greece is toilets. Police guarding Greece’s parliament say they are no longer being allowed inside the building to use its bathrooms. The Police Officers Association in Athens said in a statement Monday that uniformed officers have been …
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BRUSSELS – European Union lawmakers have called for the strict monitoring of human rights, the rule of law and democracy in EU member Hungary after its prime minister raised questions about whether the death penalty should be reintroduced. The lawmakers called Wednesday on the EU’s executive commission to “immediately initiate …
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BONN, Germany – Two weeks of U.N. climate talks are set to end with negotiators trimming a draft global climate pact, but leaving core sticking points to be untangled at later sessions before the December summit in Paris where the landmark agreement is meant to be adopted. Frustrated by the …
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BERLIN – A free speech activist from Azerbaijan who spent 10 months in the Swiss embassy has left the country aboard the jet of Switzerland’s foreign minister. Emin Huseynov landed in Switzerland late Friday with Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter, who had attended the opening ceremony of the European Games …
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ANKARA, Turkey – Turkish authorities briefly detained three journalists at the border with Syria for angering the local governor with questions about possible infiltrators from the Islamic State group, one of the journalists said in comments published Wednesday. In another incident illustrating the continuing crackdown on media freedoms in Turkey, …
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With as little public notice as possible, the United Nations Security Council plans to hold a summit meeting next week to significantly boost its role as a global military and police force, social development agency and international arbitrator, all rolled into one. Even though President Barack Obama is slated to …
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The United Nations touts the principle of impartiality, but one UN agency is finding itself in the crosshairs of an international scandal because of the political activism of a staff member. The Israel Mission to the UN has formally requested that the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs …
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CAIRO – Egypt has named a new ambassador to Israel nearly three years after it had recalled the last one at the outset of the 2012 Israeli offensive in Gaza. A statement released Sunday said President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi named ambassador Hazem Khairat as part of a regular reshuffle of Egypt’s …
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