Eurasia

Arab foreign ministers will meet in Cairo on November 3 to discuss backing the Syrian opposition at a proposed Geneva peace conference, a top Arab diplomat said Monday. Asked whether the ministers would discuss providing backing for the opposition groups, Arab League deputy chief Ahmed Ben Hilli told reporters “the meeting on Sunday will look into this matter.”

UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, in Syria Tuesday on the most sensitive leg of a regional push for peace talks, has warned of the ‘Somalisation’ of the war-ravaged country. His grim warning came as fighting prevented chemical weapons inspectors from visiting two sites, although UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the mission to destroy Syria’s arsenal …

Turkey’s National Security Council (MGK) met today to discuss the Syrian crisis, increasing violence in Iraq and the latest developments in the Middle East.

The celebrations of the Turkish Republic’s 90th Anniversary were kicked off today with a ceremony at the Anıtkabir mausoleum of the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in the capital Ankara.

The European Union has launched negotiations for a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with Kosovo. The SAA is seen as a crucial treaty, preceding a country’s accession into the EU.

A high-ranking French military official says a major military offensive against local fighters in the north of Mali continues. French, Malian, and UN troops are involved in the operation, named Hydra, which is expected to last at least 10 days, according to French military spokesman Colonel Gilles Jaron. 

Leaders of the 15-nation west African bloc Ecowas met on Friday in Senegal to call for “urgent steps” from the international community to secure peace in Mali and discuss the creation of a single currency. While the economy was expected to top the agenda, the Economic Community of West African …

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday left for Istanbul to enhance his country’s economic relations Turkey. During his three-day visit, Abe will hold talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which the two

Syria has filed details of its poison gas and nerve agent program and an initial plan to destroy it to the world’s chemical weapons watchdog, the organization said yesterday. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement that Syria completed its declaration as part of a …

Giorgi Margvelashvili, an ally of billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, won a landslide victory in a presidential election in Georgia yesterday, exit polls showed. The little-known former deputy premier’s triumph cements the Georgian Dream coalition’s grip on power following Mikheil Saakashvili’s 10-year rule, although