World News

The United States has blocked attempts by its Middle East allies to fly heavy weapons directly to the Kurds fighting Islamic State jihadists in Iraq.

The U.S. government is unprepared for a chemical attack against the homeland, a new report shows, even as the Islamic State takes responsibility for more terror attacks around the world and inches closer to gaining access to Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.

Greece’s last-minute overtures to international creditors for financial aid on Tuesday were not enough to save the country from becoming the first developed economy to default on a loan with the International Monetary Fund.

U.S. and Iranian negotiators in Vienna on Tuesday agreed to extend a deadline for an agreement on Iran’s disputed nuclear program until July 7, as sticking points remained.

Same sex marriage should be legal across Europe, a senior EU official has said, as he gave his backing to campaigners who argue that unions should be recognized under freedom of movement rules.

In a surprise meeting with Syria’s foreign minister, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged his support Monday for Syrian President Bashar Assad and called on all Middle East nations to join forces to fight Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants.

The intelligence community in the United States is concerned that the Syrian government led by President Bashar Assad may deploy a large-scale chemical weapons attack as a last resort effort to protect regime strongholds from rebels in the embattled country.

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said Sunday that the United States has lost its edge going into the final days of a nuclear negotiation with Iran.

Banks in Greece and the country’s stock exchange will be shut all week in a sign of the deepening financial crisis.

Greece may yet crash out of the the 19-member bloc, say European ministers, as time is running out on negotiations.

Russia is “playing with fire” with its nuclear saber-rattling and the United States is determined to prevent it from gaining a significant military advantage through violations of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty, the deputy U.S. defense chief said on Thursday.

After a bloody assault Thursday, Islamic State fighters re-entered the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, five months after Kurdish forces retook the strategically important border city.

The United States and other nations negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran are ready to offer high-tech reactors and other state-of-the-art equipment to Tehran if it agrees to crimp programs that can make atomic arms,

Iran’s supreme leader has apparently rejected key provisions of a framework agreement reached in April between his negotiators and those of six world powers.

The U.S. military and Iranian-backed Shiite militias are getting closer and closer in Iraq, even sharing a base, while Iran uses those militias to expand its influence in Iraq and fight alongside the Bashar al-Assad regime in neighboring Syria.

Iran’s parliament voted Sunday to oppose the inspections of government military sites as part of a pending, multi-nation agreement to curb the country’ nuclear program — potentially complicating a final deal ahead of a June 30 deadline.

Iran’s support for international terrorist groups remained undiminished last year and even expanded in some respects, the Obama administration said Friday, less than two weeks before the deadline for completing a nuclear deal that could provide Tehran with billions of dollars in relief from economic sanctions.

Iran is trying to avoid detailed commitments. The French are sticking to their tough line. And US President Barack Obama faces a battle to sell any deal to a skeptical Congress.

Pope Francis called Thursday for a bold cultural revolution to correct what he calls the “structurally perverse” economic system of the rich exploiting the poor that is turning Earth into an “immense pile of filth.”

Benefiting from Libya’s political chaos, Islamic State militants are consolidating their base in the city of Sirte and grabbing new territory, pushing back fighters from Misrata.