The EU Parliament’s three-day elections have concluded across Europe. The polls attracted a record number of voters, not seen in over two decades, while exit polls signal the expected rise of right-wing parties is accurate. The turnout for the union-wide elections has become the largest in two decades, with an estimated 51 percent of voters…

Iran has proposed signing a non-aggression pact to its neighbors, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said. At the same time, the country is ready to defend itself from any attack, be it “an economic war or a military one.” “Tehran has offered to sign a non-aggression pact with its neighbors in the Gulf,” Zarif said…

US civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. allegedly “looked on and laughed” as a Baptist minister friend raped a woman, according to FBI records accessed by an American historian. Writing in a piece due to be published shortly in Britain’s Standpoint magazine, King biographer and historian David Garrow said he came across the accusation…

US President Donald Trump brushed off the North Korea hawks on his team, saying he was not at all “disturbed” by the news of renewed muscle flexing by Pyongyang. The launch of “some small weapons” by North Korea worries “some of my people, and others, but not me,” Trump tweeted on Saturday during his trip to Japan. Pyongyang test-fired short-range ballistic…

Greece’s left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza party has suffered a major blow at the European polls, has said he would ask the country’s president to call early elections. With a third of the ballots counted, Tsipras’ Syriza is trailing some 10 percent behind its main rival, conservative New Democracy Party. According to the…

Thailand’s king opened parliament on Friday five years after a 2014 coup as the junta moves within striking distance of cementing its grip on power, AFP said. Results of the March 24 poll were released almost two months after the vote and showed no clear winner. The junta-linked Palang Pracharat won 115 seats in the…

Teenage Russian tennis ace Anastasia Potapova secured a stunning first-round French Open win over fifth seed Angelique Kerber of Germany in straight sets. Potapova, 18, broke her opponent six times in a 6-4, 6-2 victory that handed three-time Grand Slam champion Kerber another early exit at Roland-Garros. The Russian youngster, a former junior world number…

The Libyan Navy has rescued some 290 migrants from sinking boats off the coast of Tripoli in two separate operations, AFP reported, citing officials. A coast guard patrol plucked 87 migrants of different African nationalities from a sinking rubber boat about 50km east of the Libyan capital, according to Navy spokesman Ayoub Kacem. They were…

Donald Trump took in the delights of a sumo wrestling tournament as part of his four-day trip to Japan, but some online couldn’t resist an obvious dig at the US president’s own stature. Trump and US First Lady Melania joined Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie, as well as a crowd of…

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Algiers and other Algerian cities on Friday to demand the postponement of the presidential election. They also want the removal of the ruling elite following the end of Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s 20-year-rule last month. The interim government is expected to extend the current transition period to allow time…