AFP

Britain’s government published proposals for new Internet spying laws Wednesday to keep pace with the digital age and crack down on terror threats, but critics have branded the package a “snooper’s charter”. The plans are expected to grant intelligence agencies

A new British passport design provoked a sexism row when it was unveiled, drawing criticism for featuring seven men and just two women to represent the country’s cultural heritage. The complex design covering the passport pages is aimed to be

Fifteen migrants suffering from hypothermia were found alive in the back of a refrigerated lorry in northern France after a blind search by emergency services triggered by a call from one of the trapped men. The authorities said they received

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced his resignation on Wednesday over a nightclub blaze that killed 32 people, a day after more than 20,000 people rallied in Bucharest to demand he quit. “I am stepping down as prime minister,” he

Austria sought to tighten asylum rules in the face of a record influx of migrants, hours before the first refugees are set to be relocated from Greece Wednesday under a faltering EU plan to ease the burden on southern countries.

Personal items belonging to Britain’s “Iron Lady” prime minister Margaret Thatcher, including some of her famous handbags, are to be sold in London next month, Christie’s auction house said Tuesday. Around 350 lots including clothes and jewellery accrued during her

The West’s love-hate relationship with Islam and the Arab world dominates the race for France’s top literary award, the Goncourt, with the winner chosen Tuesday over a lunch at a Paris restaurant that can often turn heated. The Algerian writer

Britain and France are to strengthen police cooperation to dismantle people smuggling networks and combat undocumented migration, the French interior minister said on Monday. Bernard Cazeneuve and his British counterpart Theresa May signed an agreement at a meeting in London

(AFP) – More than 54 million Turks are eligible to cast their votes in a snap election Sunday called following an inconclusive vote in June. After a deadly bombing in Ankara and a resurgence in the Kurdish conflict, opinion polls

BERLIN (AFP) – Some 50 people at a German migrant shelter engaged in a violent brawl overnight, hurling chairs and beating each other with table legs, leaving six people injured, police said Saturday. The punch-up, which took place in the northern town

The United Nations does not view Spain’s separatist-ruled Catalonia region as having the right to self-determination, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in an interview published Saturday. “Spain is an independent and sovereign country that includes the Catalan region,” Ban told

A year after Jean-Claude Juncker took charge of what he called the “last chance” European Commission, his plans to win back sceptical voters have been partly sidelined by existential threats like the migrant and Greek crises, analysts say. The former

The European Union’s competition regulator launched a probe on Friday into the proposed sale of Telefonica’s O2 unit to a Hong Kong investment company that would create Britain’s biggest mobile operator. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said it

Same-sex marriage was signed into law in the Republic of Ireland, five months after a historic referendum saw the traditionally Catholic nation become the world’s first country to vote for gay unions. “The Presidential Commission today signed the ‘Marriage Bill

Luxury hotels in Paris have taken a beating this year, with the Charlie Hebdo attacks scaring off visitors and websites like Airbnb stealing away clients, but analysts say the lure of the “palaces” has not yet faded. “The shock of

Prague (AFP) – The Czech president Sunday accused economic migrants of using children as “human shields” in their bid to reach Europe, as the continent grapples with its biggest migration crisis since World War II. President Milos Zeman has made

The UN’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) warned Monday that processed meats like sausages and ham cause bowel cancer, and red meat “probably” does too. Does this mean we should stop eating meat? By the IARC’s own account,

British Prime Minister David Cameron suffered a damaging blow on Monday over plans to cut help for low-income working families that drew flak from within his Conservative party. Since Cameron won a general election in May, concern has grown among

Britain will lobby the European Union and its member states to stop taxing tampons and other women’s sanitary products as luxury items, rather than necessities, a junior finance minister promised on Monday. The vow came after a petition called “Stop