Belgian counterterror police have arrested a man suspected of plotting an attack against the United States embassy in Brussels, federal prosecutors said on Monday.Security forces on Saturday arrested a man following “converging signs raising fears of an attack against the US embassy”, the prosecutor’s office said.“The suspect has been detained for an alleged attempted attack…

Australia has gathered up eight children and grandchildren of two dead Australian Islamic State fighters from a Syrian refugee camp and will bring them home, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday.In the first such repatriation by Australia, Morrison confirmed media reports that the children were fetched from a camp in northern Syria on Sunday,…

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held talks on Monday with Saudi leaders ahead of new sanctions on Tehran in a stand-off sparked by Washington’s withdrawal from a nuclear deal.Both the United States and Iran say they want to avoid going to war, but tensions have spiked after Tehran shot down a US drone and…

Judith Krantz, author of blockbuster romance novels including Scruples and Princess Daisy that sold more than 80 million copies worldwide, died on Saturday in Los Angeles from natural causes. She was 91.Once called “the hardest working woman in trash fiction”, Krantz’s books have been translated into more than 50 languages. Seven have been adapted into…

Judith Krantz, author of blockbuster romance novels including Scruples and Princess Daisy that sold more than 80 million copies worldwide, died on Saturday in Los Angeles from natural causes. She was 91.Once called “the hardest working woman in trash fiction”, Krantz’s books have been translated into more than 50 languages. Seven have been adapted into…

The former head of a budget Thai airline goes on trial in Paris on Monday over a deadly 2007 plane crash that killed 90 people, nearly two-thirds of them foreigners.Filed by the families of the nine French victims along with one survivor, the civil suit says the crash was an “accident waiting to happen”.It raises…

One nominee was flagged for his relationship with Russia, another for alleged ties to white supremacist groups, and several others for criticising Donald Trump before he became US president.These are the revelations from a trove of vetting documents published by news site Axios on Sunday that examine the backgrounds of people considered for, and whom…

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday the US was prepared to resume talks with North Korea “at a moment’s notice” if the North signalled it wanted discussions about denuclearisation.Pompeo said he hoped that a letter recently sent by President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would “provide a good foundation for us…

When Donald Trump and Xi Jinping get together at the end of this week for their “extended meeting” on the fringes of the Osaka G20 summit, there will be little hope on either side for a peace deal to end the US-China trade war any time soon. For both leaders, domestic politics makes an early…

Israel’s prime minister said on Sunday he would give US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan fair and open consideration, while the Palestinian president rejected the proposal.The two leaders were commenting, separately, about Trump’s plan for the first time since details of its initial, economic, phase were revealed by Reuters on Saturday.Trump’s team is…

One of the world’s largest LGBT Pride parades took centre stage in Sao Paulo on Sunday with the carnivalesque festivities tinged with unease over Brazil’s conservative political climate under President Jair Bolsonaro.As many as three million people were expected to take part in the annual march through the heart of Brazil’s economic capital, traditionally an…

Donald Trump has dismissed a United Nations request for the FBI to investigate the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, suggesting it would jeopardise American weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.A report on Khashoggi’s assassination published last week by the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings said the US should open an FBI inquiry and…

US President Donald Trump is looking to require next-generation 5G cellular equipment used in the United States to be designed and manufactured outside China, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.As part of a 150-day review that started after cybersecurity concerns in the United States, officials are asking telecom…

US President Donald Trump is looking to require next-generation 5G cellular equipment used in the United States to be designed and manufactured outside China, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter.As part of a 150-day review that started after cybersecurity concerns in the United States, officials are asking telecom…

An estimated quarter of a million Czechs rallied in Prague on Sunday to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Andrej Babis, in the biggest show of public discontent since the 1989 Velvet Revolution which overthrew Communism.The rally in Letna park was the culmination of a series of demonstrations in recent weeks against Babis, who has…

The winner of Istanbul’s mayoral election re-run, Ekrem Imamoglu, said Sunday that the victory marked a “new beginning” for Turkey and offered to work closely with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.“It was not a single group or party, but the whole of Istanbul and Turkey that won this election,” Imamoglu said in his victory speech.With almost…

Qu Dongyu on Sunday became the first Chinese national to be elected to head the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, clinching the post in the first round of voting.Qu, 55, a biologist by training, won 108 votes, followed by Catherine Geslain-Laneelle of France with 71 votes and Georgia’s Davit Kirvalidze with 12, according to official…