World News

Britons are preparing to head to the polls Thursday to decide whether the country will remain in the European Union, a decision advance surveys indicate is not a foregone conclusion.

In a striking gesture Wednesday, Pope Francis invited fourteen African migrants to join him on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica, urging Europe to open its doors to more refugees.

Opinion polls on Tuesday suggested growing support amongst Britons for staying in the European Union but the vote in two days time which will have far-reaching consequences for Britain and Europe remains on a knife edge.

U.S. military officials conducted a video conference Saturday with their Russian counterparts, telling them about “strong concerns” about the bombing Thursday of American-trained Syrian rebels.

State Department officials shook up America’s generally obedient diplomatic establishment this week with an internal memo urging U.S. military action against Syria’s government with the goal of pressing President Bashar Assad to accept a cease-fire and gaining the upper hand on him in future talks on a political transition.

The U.S. Navy’s Third Fleet will send more ships to East Asia to operate outside its normal theater alongside the Japan-based Seventh Fleet, a U.S. official said on Tuesday, a move that comes at a time of heightened tensions with China.

Officials from the U.S. airplane manufacturer Boeing, a top U.S. government contractor, are staying silent about the details of a Tuesday announcement by Iranian officials that the Islamic Republic and the aviation firm had reached a “milestone” business deal, according to statements provided to the Washington Free Beacon.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened on Tuesday to “set fire” to the nuclear deal sealed with world powers if U.S. presidential candidates reneged on the agreement.

NATO plans to send four multinational battalions to the Baltic states and Poland to increase defenses against Russia.

The campaign to take Britain out of the EU has opened up a remarkable 10-point lead over the Remain camp, according to an exclusive poll for The Independent.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Friday said it would retaliate after a U.S. naval destroyer deployed to the Black Sea this week.

The State Department is staying silent after Iranian officials disclosed that the Islamic Republic spent a recent payment by the United States of $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds to expand and build-up its military, according to comments provided to the Washington Free Beacon.

As losses continue to mount for Islamic State fighters along multiple fronts in Iraq and Syria, the terrorist group is facing the most serious threat to its Middle East strongholds since the beginning of the U.S.-led coalition campaign.

The Pew survey revealed that 48 percent of British voters had an unfavorable opinion about the EU, compared to 44 percent who were in favor, a similar figure to recent national opinion polls.

The exercises, codenamed Anakonda-16, began Tuesday amid rising tension in the region, with Moscow warning that a NATO expansion in the east would threaten its national security.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Monday that Russia would provide “the most active” support to the Syrian army to keep the strategic city of Aleppo and the surrounding area from falling into the hands of “terrorists.”

The Islamic State is urging jihadists in the United States and Europe to carry out terror attacks during what a group spokesman promised would be “the month of conquest and jihad.”

Scientists in the United States are trying to grow human organs inside pigs.

Rising floodwaters in France set another historic level on Friday, as the Seine River swelled to its highest level in more than three decades.

Three Syrian men who entered Germany with a wave of migrants were arrested Thursday on suspicion of planning an Islamic State attack on the city of Düsseldorf, potentially thwarting a deadly operation that appeared eerily reminiscent of the recent assaults on Brussels and Paris.