Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan appeared at court on Friday after an arrest warrant against him was suspended, allowing him to end a days-long holdout at his residence.. After the warrant was lifted, Khan left his home for the first time in days to appear in court in Lahore in a case related to this week's clashes.
Belarus on Friday handed long jail terms to senior staff at the country's largest independent news site, which was forced to shutter after historic demonstrations against strongman Alexander Lukashenko.. Belarus also jailed two other perceived government critics on Friday.
Greece's rail watchdog on Friday said a probe had uncovered serious signs of poor training among staff on duty during the country's deadliest train tragedy, which killed 57 people last month.. The investigation was launched on March 3, three days after two trains collided, killing 57 people.
Microsoft said on Friday that it has offered formal commitments to the EU in its bid to persuade the bloc to approve its $69-billion takeover of video game giant Activision Blizzard.. Company executive Brad Smith was in Brussels last month for talks with EU officials, after which he said he was "more optimistic" about the deal's approval but he dismissed calls for Microsoft to sell hit games like "Call Of Duty".
French President Emmanuel Macron might be on the verge of securing his cherished reform of the pension system, but analysts see it as a Pyrrhic victory that will leave him politically weakened.. "Assuming that opposition parties do not bring down the government, it's a Pyrrhic victory for Emmanuel Macron," warned Stephane Zumsteeg, head of polling in France for the Ipsos public opinion group.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has vowed to broaden support for the violence-wracked Sahel beyond the realm of security, pitching the United States as a better partner than Russia, which has been expanding its footprint in the region.. But Blinken acknowledged the desire for security ties with Niger, where the United States has stationed forces and built Air Base 201 in the desert to fly drones deep into the Sahel.
The OECD raised its global economic growth forecast on Friday as inflation eases and China emerges from Covid restrictions, but warned of vulnerabilities as seen in the US bank sector turmoil.. - China upgraded - The OECD also upgraded its economic outlook for 2024, with growth of 2.9 percent compared to 2.7 percent in the previous forecast.
Finland's leader arrived in Ankara on Friday to receive Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's verdict on his Nordic country's stalled drive to join the NATO defence bloc.. Finnish President Niinisto then said on Wednesday that he had been invited to Turkey by Erdogan to personally "receive the answer when they announce the decision" on NATO. Analysts agree that Erdogan is all but certain to announce that he will put Finland's ratification before parliament.
Protesters blocked a key highway around the French capital and escalated strikes at refineries Friday in a new show of anger after President Emmanuel Macron pushed through a contentious pension reform without a parliamentary vote.. On Friday morning, some 200 protesters briefly blocked traffic on the ring road outside the capital.
Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to Moscow next week, where he will hold talks with his strategic ally Vladimir Putin just over a year into Russia's war in Ukraine.. The visit comes just over a year after Russia invaded Ukraine, kicking off a war that has isolated Moscow on the international stage.
