German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has called on the United States to engage in dialogue with Iran over its nuclear program amid growing concerns about the future of the nuclear agreement Iran clinched with the P5+1 group of countries more than two years ago. In a statement on Sunday, Gabriel welcomed US Secretary of State Rex […]

Catalonia’s regional government has announced that 90 percent of those who participated in an independence referendum banned by Spain’s central government choose to be separated from the country. While addressing a press briefing early on Monday, regional government spokesman Jordi Turull announced that 2.02 million Catalans had voted “yes” to the question: “Do you want […]

Italy has ordered North Korea’s new ambassador to leave the European country in protest at Pyongyang’s weapons programs. Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano announced the development in an interview with Italian daily La Repubblica, which was published on Sunday. “We have taken the firm decision to interrupt the accreditation procedure. The [North Korean] ambassador will have […]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) would pay the price over KRG’s independece referendum. “We never regret what we have done in the past, but now the circumstances have changed, the northern Iraqi regional government which we have been giving all kinds of support for a long time, has taken […]

A former Bahraini opposition lawmaker criticized the Al Khalifa regime’s crackdown on dissidents, saying that in a latest development, security forces of the regime have arrested several youths and two women for protesting the desecration of religious signs. Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, Jalal Fairooz said during this year’s mourning ceremonies held in Bahrain […]

Iraq’s top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has voiced opposition to the secession of the northern Kurdistan region from the mainland, warning of the negative repercussions of such “unilateral steps.” Grand Ayatollah Sistani’s representative Ahmed al-Safi said in a Friday sermon on his behalf in the holy city of Karbala that the senior cleric wants […]

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price has been forced to resign amid a scandal over using costly private jets for his government travel. “Price offered his resignation earlier today and the president accepted,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Friday. “The President intends to designate Don […]

The Brazilian government backed off a controversial proposal to authorize private companies to mine a sprawling Amazon reserve Monday after blistering domestic and international criticism. President Michel Temer’s office will issue a new decree Tuesday that “restores the conditions of the area, according to the document that instituted the reserve in 1984,” the Ministry of […]

TEHRAN  – China’s commerce ministry said Thursday that North Korean firms or joint ventures in China will be shut within the 120 days of the latest United Nations Security Council sanctions passed on September 12. Overseas Chinese joint ventures with North Korean entities or individuals will also be closed, the ministry said in a statement […]

TEHRAN – A fledgling party led by popular Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike gained momentum on Thursday ahead of an Oct. 22 election as the biggest opposition Democratic Party said it would step aside to let its candidates run under her reformist banner. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a conservative who returned to power in 2012, hopes […]