French PM says not looking for confrontation in pension reform
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Friday he was sticking with plans to reform the country’s pension system but insisted change would be gradual and “not brutal”.
French unions turn the screws on Macron in pension reform battle
France’s trade unions called for mass protests and strikes over pension reform that have brought much of the country to a halt to carry on next week, piling more pressure on President Emmanuel Macron.
Algerian protesters hold last Friday rally before election
Tens of thousands of Algerians took to the streets on Friday, making a show of strength of their last weekly protest before a presidential election next week that they have rejected as meaningless.
Turkey says left alone to fight terrorism after no agreement at NATO: NTV
NATO allies did not reach agreement at a summit in London this week and Ankara was left alone in the fight against terrorism, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar was quoted as saying on Friday.
Nigeria files fraud allegations in bid to overturn $10 billion penalty
Lawyers for the Nigerian government on Friday filed “new and substantive” allegations of fraud with a British court in an ongoing fight against an arbitration award now worth some $10 billion, a spokesman for the attorney general said.
Turkey’s Halkbank will use all rights to halt U.S. Federal Court ruling
Turkey’s majority state-owned Halkbank said on Friday that it will use all its legal rights to challenge a U.S. Federal Court ruling that it must enter a formal plea to charges that it helped Iran evade sanctions.
At least three killed after residential building collapses in Kenya
At least three people were killed and 27 injured on Friday when a residential building collapsed in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, police said, as rescue workers struggled to free a woman who was screaming from under the rubble.
Defiant Nobel winner Handke dismisses questions on Balkan wars
Austrian writer Peter Handke, winner of the 2019 Nobel literature prize, said on Friday he preferred anonymous hate mail to questions about his support for Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia’s strongman during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
We’ll give Merkel a chance, says new German SPD leader
The new co-leader of Germany’s Social Democrats said on Friday she doubted that their coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives would survive but was ready to give it a chance.
Russia says will respond to U.S. on missile deployment
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that Russia will not hesitate to respond to any new deployment of missiles by the United States.
