Europe

    Angela Merkel told her conservative party on Monday that she intends to step down as its leader but remain Germany's chancellor following a pair of state election debacles, German media reported. Merkel had previously indicated that she planned to seek another two-year term as leader of her Christian Democratic Union at a party congress in December, but appeared to be moving quickly to acknowledge pressure for renewal. Merkel has led the CDU since 2000 and has been Germany's chancellor since 2005. News agency dpa cited unidentified party sources as saying Merkel told an ongoing CDU leadership meeting that she's prepared to step down as party leader but intends to remain chancellor. The mass-circulation daily Bild also reported that she said she won't run again as p...

    The committee called for the women to be compensated and for a review of the 2010 law that forbids people from publicly wearing clothing that conceals their face. The French law disproportionately harmed the petitioners' right to manifest their religious beliefs, the committee said in a statement. It added that it was not convinced by France's claim that the ban was necessary for security and social reasons. The two French women were convicted in 2012 for wearing the niqab, a veil with an opening for the eyes. The ban, rather than protecting fully veiled women could have the opposite effect of confining them to their homes impeding their access to public services and marginalising them, the committee said. The UN Human Rights Committee, made up of independent exp...

    EU leaders are preparing to back Theresa May in building a coalition of the reasonable in the UK parliament, in a desperate bid to avoid a no-deal Brexit. Following what has been described by diplomats as a call for help by the prime minister at a crunch summit in Brussels, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, stressed that the EU had to pursue “all avenues” to find a deal that can get through the Commons. I think where there is a will there is a way, she said. Jean-Claude Juncker, the European commission president, said: It will be done. He is understood to have told EU leaders that May needed help to sell a deal in parliament. While ruling out major concessions, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said it was clear that the roadblock to a deal did not lie in ...

    History suggests that the world is about due for another financial crisis. One of the places it might start, according to a growing number of indicators, is Italy. Many of the ingredients are there. A pile of questionable debt. Weak banks. An erratic government. And a sizable economy able to inflict collateral damage outside Italian borders. Bond investors, always good for a coldblooded appraisal of a country’s solvency, have been sounding the alarm. The Rome government’s populist spending plans, widely regarded in financial circles as reckless, have caused market interest rates on Italian debt to spike, threatening to create a so-called doom loop that would ripple through the struggling economy. The proposed budget has exposed the seams in Italy’s governing coalit...

    DUP leader Arlene Foster gives a press conference after a meeting with Michel Barnier in Brussels. Theresa May has been told that the DUP leader, Arlene Foster, is now ready to trigger a no-deal Brexit and regards this as the likeliest outcome following a hostile and difficult exchange with the EU’s chief negotiator, an explosive set of leaked government emails reveal. Foster emerged from a meeting last week in Brussels with Michel Barnier, the French official leading the EU’s negotiating team, convinced that the prospects for a Brexit deal were fading so fast that, given Brussels’ stance on Northern Ireland, an agreement had become the least likely outcome. Senior government advisers were swiftly informed that the DUP leader was ready for the UK to crash out of th...

    A television journalist has been brutally murdered in Bulgaria's northern town of Ruse, prosecutors said Sunday, in a case that has sparked international condemnation. The body of 30-year-old Viktoria Marinova, whom authorities identified only by her initials, was found on Saturday in a park, Ruse regional prosecutor Georgy Georgiev said. The death was caused by blows on the head and suffocation, he added. Her mobile phone, car keys, glasses and part of her clothes were missing, Georgiev said, adding that prosecutors were probing all leads both personal and linked to Marinova's job. Interior Minister Mladen Marinov later confirmed to journalists that the victim had also been raped. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov expressed hope that the investigation would succeed b...

    The country would be better off if people emulated wartime leader Charles de Gaulle, he said after being harangued by voters worried about cuts to pensions. The French government has forced pensioners to make higher social security contributions amid budget cutbacks, prompting protests. On a visit to the northeastern village of Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises, de Gaulle’s home and burial place, Mr Macron spoke to pensioners who complained they had only a low income. The president said he had learnt from de Gaulle’s grandson that the famed general lived by the principle: “You may speak very freely but the one thing you have no right to do is complain. I think the general had the right idea. The country would be different if everyone did the same, Mr Macron told his audi...

    A passenger plane has crashed into the sea after missing the runway of a tiny Pacific island with everyone on-board surviving. The Boeing 737-800 plane was attempting to land at Chuuk Airport on the remote island of Weno in Micronesia but ditched in a lagoon at about 9.30am local time (12.30am UK time). All 36 passengers and 11 crew members escaped without any serious injuries, officials said. Jimmy Emilio, general manager of Chuuk Airport, said the plane landed about 150 yards short of the runway and the cause of the crash was unclear. We don't really know what happened, he said. John Merelli, who works at a hotel on the island, said local people helped with the rescue effort within minutes of the crash. Air Niugini is the national airline of Papua New Guinea. ...

    French President Emmanuel Macron was facing fresh criticism Sunday after telling an aspiring gardener that he could easily find a job if he would simply start looking in high-demand sectors like restaurants or construction. In a video doing the rounds on social media, Macron is seen talking with the young man during a public open house at the Elysee Palace on Saturday, part of the country's Heritage Days. "I'm 25 years old, I send resumes and cover letters, they don't lead to anything," he tells the president. "If you're willing and motivated, in hotels, cafes and restaurants, construction, there's not a single place I go where they don't say they're looking for people. Not one -- it's true!" Macron replies. He suggests going to the Montparnasse neighbourhood, an ...

    Brexit has dominated the political agenda since Britain voted to leave but it seems many people still do not know what it is or when it is happening. The most Googled question in the UK about the issue in the last two weeks was “when is Brexit?” followed by, rather worryingly,  what is Brexit?, the search engine has revealed. Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the most searched for questions is about the complex Chequers plan for future relations with the EU. But the impact that quitting will have on house prices was also among the most Googled issues. Across the rest of the EU, Google was used to search what Brexit is and whether citizens from the rest of the bloc will need permission to live in Britain after it quits. Here are the most popular questions from the la...