Turkey’s prime minister has officially launched his ruling party’s campaign for a “yes” vote in a referendum on ushering a presidential system, which critics fear will concentrate too many powers in the hands of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.   Binali Yildirim formally got campaigning going on Saturday telling supporters in a sports arena that the …

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The top U.S. military commander in the Middle East made a secret trip to northern Syria on February 24 to meet with allied Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State (IS) group. …

Launching a startup is no easy feat. Launching one outside your native country is even harder. But for certain French startups, the French government is there to help. A government-sponsored competition that began last year offers startups marketing and promotional assistance.   The Creative Next Challenge is a series of competitions sponsored by Business France, …

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Indonesian President Joko Widodo is making his first visit to Australia Saturday, in a sign that tensions early this year have eased and relations between the two Asia-Pacific neighbors are stable. Australia’s relationship with its heavily populated northern neighbor is often turbulent. It soured when Australia supported East Timorese independence from Indonesia in 2002.  More …

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A second suicide car bomber hit the location that an earlier of an explosion Friday near a Syrian village near al-Bab just one day after Turkish forces and their rebel allies took much of the strategic town from Islamic State (IS) fighters. The death toll has reached 65 people, including many civilians, rebel fighters and …

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The International Organization for Migration reports a surge in the number of migrant deaths on the Mediterranean Sea’s central route linking Libya to Italy in the first two months of the year. The IOM estimates 326 migrants and refugees have died this year while transiting by sea from Libya to Italy, compared to just 97 …

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Top Turkish officials are increasing pressure on the United States to dissolve the American military partnership with Syrian Kurds in the battle against Islamic State. With just days to go before the Pentagon is expected to deliver to U.S. President Donald Trump a new war plan to defeat Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, Turkey, …

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Lawyers for Russian political activist Ildar Dadin have asked the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg for assistance in freeing Dadin, who continues to be held in a penal colony despite his sentence being annulled. …

U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to begin work on a wall on the Mexican border “way, way, way ahead of schedule” as well as a massive increase in military spending. …

This is where Russia and the European Union meet — the twin towns of Narva, in Estonia, and Ivangorod, in Russia: separated by a short bridge, but united by ties of blood and language. Current Time TV correspondent Vadim Kondakov has the story. …

The Justice Department will step up enforcement of federal law against recreational marijuana, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Thursday, offering the Trump administration’s strongest indication to date of a looming crackdown on the drug, even as a solid majority of Americans believe it should be legal. “I do believe you’ll see greater enforcement of …

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Bodies of 13 African migrants have been found inside a shipping container in western Libya. Officials of the Red Crescent in Libya said the victims appeared to have been locked inside the container for several days while being transported to a coastal town. The victims included a girl, 13, and a 14-year-old boy. Another 56 …

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The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday placed two alleged leaders of the militant group Nusra Front in Syria on its sanctions blacklist. U.S. authorities said the two men, Iyad Nazmi Salih Khalil and Bassam Ahmad al-Hasri, helped oversee Nusra’s operations in Syria, the Treasury Department said in a statement. The U.S. action orders American companies …

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After at first covertly sending thousands of undocumented Afghans to fight on the Syrian front, Iran is trumpeting their sacrifice with increasingly public funerals for the fallen and a giant rally planned for Friday in a Tehran square. Authorities in Kabul and human rights groups have roundly criticized the Iranian government for sending Afghans living …

Read more “Tehran Rally Highlights Iranian Support for Afghan Refugees on Syrian Front”

A blast at a chemical plant in the city of Ferghana in Uzbekistan has killed an undisclosed number of people, the Central Asian country’s Emergency Ministry has reported. …

The Netherlands’ lower house of parliament has voted for the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, leaving a vote in the upper house — the Dutch Senate — as a final hurdle before the deal, which was signed in March 2014, finally can enter into force. …