Egypt, in what appeared to be a snub to the Trump administration, has reached a preliminary agreement to allow Russian military jets to use its airspace and bases, both sides said Thursday. If finalized, the agreement would give Russia its deepest presence in Egypt since 1973, when Cairo expelled the military of the Soviet Union and instead became Washington’s closest ...

two men stranded in the outback of Australia spent four days on top of their car after finding themselves surrounded by rising waters filled with circling crocodiles. The men were on a fishing trip in the remote Kimberley region in north-west Australia when their four-by-four became stuck in a tidal bog. Police said a close encounter with a crocodile prompted ...

Three Melbourne councils, two universities, Zoos Victoria, and half a dozen corporations have banded together to underwrite a windfarm in western Victoria that will power some of the city’s most recognisable buildings. The group of 14 organisations, led by the City of Melbourne, has agreed to purchase half the power produced by a new 39-turbine, 80MW windfarm near Ararat, about 200km west ...

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s Front National, has claimed that she and her party are victims of a “banking fatwa” after HSBC closed a bank account she had had for 25 years. The move by Britain’s biggest bank comes amid heightened scrutiny of political accounts and the day after Société Générale, France’s second-largest bank, asked the far-right party to ...

Eight people have been rescued after a US Navy aircraft carrying 11 crew and passengers crashed off the coast of Japan, the defence ministry has said. It says that preliminary US military reports indicated that engine failure may have caused the crash. The Navy did not say what kind of aircraft was involved, but Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have said it ...

A Pakistani court has ordered the release of Hafiz Saeed, an alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, in a move likely to worsen the country’s tattered relationship with the US. The Islamist cleric, who heads Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) – listed by the UN as a terrorist group – and has a $10m(£7.5m) US bounty on his head, is expected to ...

CAIRO – 22 November 2017: General Prosecutor Nabil Ahmed Sadeq has ordered the arrest and imprisonment of 29 defendants for 15 days pending investigations by the Supreme State Security Prosecution, revealed by Egypt’s General Intelligence Service (GIS). The defendants have been accused of conspiring with Turkey with the aim to harm national interests, join terrorist organizations, conduct overseas calls without ...

Australians have overwhelmingly voted in favour of legalising same-sex marriage in a historic poll. The non-binding postal vote showed 61.6% of people favour allowing same-sex couples to wed, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. Jubilant supporters have been celebrating in public spaces, waving rainbow flags and singing and dancing. The issue only went to a voluntary postal vote after a ...

The family of a Hull woman accused of smuggling prescription drugs into Egypt have spoken of their “nightmare” as she waits for a hearing in the Crown Court. Laura Plummer, 33, has already spent more than a month in police custody in Hurghada, where she was arrested at the airport for carrying 300 tramadol pills. She claimed the strong painkillers were ...

With sanctions and rhetoric, President Donald Trump may be pushing North Korea and Iran closer together. On Wednesday, while in Seoul on his Asia tour, three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups displayed military strength nearby, while Trump gave dire warnings to North Korea’s leader to abandon nuclear weapons. “Do not underestimate us, and do not try us,” Trump said while addressing the ...