North Korea has severed its only remaining channel of communication with the United States, saying on Monday it would assume a "wartime" diplomatic approach and cut ties with the country at the United Nations after Washington blacklisted leader Kim Jong Un last week for human rights abuses. All matters related to the US, including the handling of American citizens detained by Pyongyang, will now be conducted under its "wartime law," the North's official KCNA news agency said. The move is the latest escalation of tension with the isolated country...

Israel launched drone strikes against militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in recent years, a former Israeli official told Bloomberg.

In 1980, a little known electrician from Gdansk was chosen as leader of an independent trades union that within one year had ten million members and within ten years played a decisive role in the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe

Not fast enough, some experts say, even as Vladimir Putin probes its defenses.

Undaunted by the biggest storm of international criticism against Poland in the country’s post-communist era, its most influential politician said his hand-picked government must accelerate the changes or risk dismissal.

In the decades since the fall of communism, Poland has often been hailed as one of the EU’s great success stories, proof that democracy can flourish in what was once a Soviet satellite. Since the election of the nationalist Law and Justice party

Rising aversion in Poland towards the European Union is worrying, the country's outgoing central bank governor told CNBC.

Poland's deputy prime minister said 20 percent of potential investors are waiting for the conclusion of the rule of law talks with the EU commission.

Montenegrin president sets October 18 for parliamentary elections. Crucial elections for nation's EU and NATO path.

Whistleblower and press freedom activist Edward Snowden has condemned a new law signed on Thursday by Vladimir Putin, saying it's a “dark day for Russia”. The new anti-terror legislation forces telephone carriers and internet providers to store the private communications of their customers – and turn them over to the government on request. “Putin has signed a repressive new law that violates not only human rights, but common sense. Dark day for Russia,” he wrote on Twitter.

Mandelbaum’s “Mission Failure” fails at its own mission. By Michael Lind.

The military alliance has a clear chain of command. The EU, however, does not. By Jacopo Barigazzi and Florian Eder.

Scotland's first minister has said a second independence referendum is "highly likely" after the UK voted to leave the EU. Nicola Sturgeon said it was "democratically unacceptable" that Scotland faced the prospect of being taken out of the EU against its will. She said the Scottish government would begin preparing legislation to enable another independence vote. Scotland voted in favour of the UK staying in the EU by 62% to 38%. The UK as a whole has voted to leave, by a margin of 52% to 48%...

Pakistan is left alone by International Community in the fight against terrorism. Pakistan has a long history working for peace, whether it was the USSR invasion of Afghanistan, the ‘war on terror’ after 9/11, countering Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations, according to Asim Bajwa, the Director General Inter Services Public Relations of Pakistan, in an ...

A new study offers a detailed timeline of gun violence before and after Australia's gun law reforms. After any mass shooting, whether it's the recent Orlando massacre or the terror at a Charleston church or the killings in Newtown, Connecticut, one statistic is often cited: Australia has had zero mass shootings in two decades, while America faces frequent bloodshed. Indeed, Australia has long been referenced in the ongoing debate over how to stop mass shootings in the United States.

China's internet regulator, long a thorn in the side of social media giants, has turned its focus on two ubiquitous elements of digital life: keyboard warriors and click-bait stories. Ren Xianliang, deputy head of the Cyberspace Administration of China, said late on Tuesday that the watchdog wanted to carry out a large-scale cleanup of comments sections on news sites, and make it easier to report harmful content.

India's biggest hurdle at the upcoming Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) Meeting on June 9 will be to overcome China's two-faced policy of opposing India's application to join the group on the one hand and on the other violating NSG terms by supplying banned nuclear materials to Pakistan. Analysts in the United States believe that India's NSG application is in a precarious position for several reasons, chief among them being China's assertion that if the NSG countries make an exception for India...

Norway’s four main political parties have been discussing a possible ban on new gasoline-powered car sales (diesel or petrol) for quite some time, but they were not able to come to an understanding until now, according to a new report from Dagens Næringsliv (Paywall), an important newspaper in Norway. The four main political parties, both from the right and the left, have agreed on a new energy policy that will include a ban on new gasoline-powered car sales as soon as 2025 – making it one of the most aggressive timeline of its kind for such a policy.

A recent PBS report about the war in Yemen exposed the secret connection between the U.S.-Saudi alliance and Al Qaeda, a reality that also underscores the jihadist violence in Syria, writes Daniel Lazare. (May 7, ’16)

The refugee debate creates the impression of unprecedented mass migration. That image is completely incorrect. The real question, when we look at migration globally, is why there is so little of it.