Saudi Arabia, Kuwait warn citizens to leave Lebanon immediately

The foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are warning their citizens in Lebanon to leave the country as soon as possible.

Turkish FM says ‘racists’ like Wilders won’t prevent him from going to Netherlands

Turkey’s foreign minister has said he doesn’t care about “fascists and racists” like Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, and says they won’t prevent him from meeting with Turkish citizens. Wilders earlier called for a ban on Turkish officials campaigning in the Netherlands.

US Senate overwhelmingly rejects Obama veto of Saudi Sept. 11 bill

US citizens may soon be able to sue Saudi Arabia for damages sustained as a result of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, after the US Senate voted to override President Obama's veto on the matter.

Thousands of Venezuelans enter Colombia after border reopening

Pedestrian crossings between Colombia and Venezuela that had been closed for nearly a year were reopened early Saturday, allowing thousands of Venezuelans to make their way to this border city to buy food and medicine.

France deploys extra army patrols in wake of attacks

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Tuesday said France had deployed 300 extra troops to patrol public areas over the Christmas period following a spate of attacks on police officers and shoppers.

In an announcement broadcast on live TV, Valls said he appreciated that the “deeply shocking” events had “understandably created great concerns”, but insisted that “each event must be treated separately”.

Kurdish President: Conditions Favorable for Independence. (The Kurds tried to help build “a new Iraq.”)

As Iraq’s attempts at building a new government failed on Tuesday, Kurdish President Massoud Barzani said he would push for a referendum on independence for Kurdistan.

Barzani spoke with VOA's Persian service on Tuesday in Irbil, the largest city in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

The Iraqi army has struggled against offensives by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic militant group that has captured large sections of Iraq’s north and west.

Bulgarian authorities see illegal attempts to destabilize banking system

Bulgarian authorities on Friday saw illegal attempts to destabilize country's banking system amid queues of people trying to withdraw their money from cash desks....

Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetlin Yovchev told reporters that there has been an attack through the Internet and text messages via mobile phones to massively disturb people.

"We have found malicious and deliberate attempts to destabilize the banking system, and an investigation has been carried out in this direction since yesterday," Yovchev said.

Job rich recovery and undeclared work, the focus of the Employment Ministers Meeting in Athens

Ministers for Employment and Social Policy of the European Union had the opportunity to exchange views and best practices on Europe 2020 Strategy core issues, issues that concern each European citizen. The contribution of these issues to the goal of economic recovery with more jobs and quality jobs and stronger social cohesion is crucial.
On 30 April, at the morning plenary session, the President of the Council, Minister of Labour, Social Security and Welfare of Greece, Ioannis Vroutsis, highlighted that Europe has entered a path to recovery. However, the goal is to lay strong foundations for enhancing the recovery, with special attention to those mostly hit by the crisis.

Minorities in Turkey tagged by ‘race codes,’ official document reveals

An official document penned by the Istanbul Provincial Education Directorate has surfaced, revealing that Turkey’s population administration system has been recording citizens who have Armenian, Jewish or Anatolian Greek (Rum) origins with secret “race codes.”

The Armenian-Turkish weekly newspaper Agos published as its headline story on Aug. 1 a report on an official document that openly states “citizens with Armenian origin are coded with ‘2.’” 
The implementation is reported to have been in place since 1923, the foundation year of the Turkish Republic.

China offers 4-point proposal on furthering cooperation with Greece .... Greece will play a constructive role in helping address trade disputes between China and the EU

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BEIJING, May 16 (Xinhua) --

 Chinese Premier Li Keqiang offered a four-point proposal on boosting the country's cooperation with Greece on Thursday.
The proposal was raised by Li during his talks with his visiting Greek counterpart Antonis Samaras in the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.

Ten years since the signature of the Treaty of Athens

Ten years ago, on April 16, 2003, the Treaty of Accession to the European Union of 10 European countries – the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia – was signed in Athens. This historical event took place during the Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union and is enshrined forever as one of the most important documents of the reunited Europe. Later, on May 1, 2004, all our countries became fully fledged members of the reunified European family comprising 25 member states at that time. It was the largest single expansion since the Paris Treaty of 1951, the forerunner of the EU, in terms of population, number of states and territory.
Moreover, it was the symbolic completion of the vital strategic goal of all the acceding member states to finally put an end to the post-World War II period by returning to the common space of freedom and stability, democracy and prosperity. The signature of the Treaty of Athens opened a new era for the acceding countries, for their citizens and ultimately for the whole of Europe.