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Ukraine's parliament gave preliminary approval on Friday to a government draft law that would allow Kiev tighter control over the energy sector in the face of dwindling natural gas supplies after Russia cut off exports last month. The parliament approved, also in a first reading, a bill which would allow private consortia with European or U.S. companies to operate Ukraine's gas distribution system and storage facilities.



An Egyptian court sentenced Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie to life in prison for inciting the violence that erupted after the army deposed Islamist President Mohamed Mursi last year. Badie, convicted along with some 36 other Brotherhood leaders and supporters for the same crime, is facing the death sentence in two separate cases. The court also upheld death sentences for 10 other Brotherhood supporters.



A crowd of anti- and -pro immigration protestors gathered in Murrieta to await to the arrival of a bus carrying undocumented immigrants from Texas.

Gay pride parades are being held all over the world in celebration of WorldPride Week.

Boko Haram is suspected of carrying out a string of attacks on Christian villages in the northeast part of the country.

A government source said on Thursday that the chief of Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service will step down in November after five years in the job. John Sawers, a peer, is believed to have wanted to relinquish his sensitive role as Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service before a national election next year. Sawers, 58, made headlines in 2013 when he appeared before a parliamentary committee to complain that documents leaked by former U.S.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that the United States is working with its European partners to prepare a new round of sanctions against Russia in case they are necessary. Kerry said "We are not announcing a new round of sanctions today but we are going to continue to take steps to prepare in the event that the circumstances on the ground warrant those sanctions. So, we are coordinating with our European partners in order to prepare for that."



Gunmen opened fire at a plane while it was landing in Peshawar Tuesday night, killing one passenger and injuring three flight attendants.

Pope Francis, visiting a stronghold of one of Italy's most dangerous crime groups, on Saturday comforted the jailed father of a three-year-old boy killed in an ambush and condemned mob violence against children. Francis flew by helicopter to the town of Cassano All' Jonio in the southern Calabria region, home of the mafia-style 'Ndrangheta which investigators say has spread around the world.

Small groups of voters trickled into polling centers in Mauritania early on Saturday in an election where incumbent President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz was counting on a high turnout to see off an opposition boycott and boost his authority. In the first hours of voting, turnout appeared low, even at major polling stations in the capital Nouakchott. However, it has long been plagued by political instability and military coups. Abdel Aziz came to power in August 2008 when he ousted President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdellahi, the country's first democratically elected president, whose short stint as leader was undone by fighting within his own party.



Ukrainian military sources said Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists were locked in a fierce battle in the rebellious east of the country on Thursday. One military source said heavy fighting broke out at around 4 a.m. near the town of Krasny Liman, which has been under government control since early this month. Separatists in the area appeared to have tried to break through a cordon of government troops, and up to 4,000 separatist fighters could be involved.

Iran and six world powers will try in talks in Vienna this week to narrow differences and keep alive hopes of ending a decade-old nuclear dispute by late July, despite doubts the self-imposed deadline can be met. On the sidelines of the five-day meeting in the Austrian capital, the fast-moving crisis in Iraq could also require the attention of U.S. and Iranian diplomats. The two countries share concern over the ascendancy of militant Sunni rebels there.

Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah said on Monday his opponent's apparent million-vote lead in the second round of national elections at the weekend was due to massive fraud. Observers fear allegations of fraud on both sides could lead to a lengthy and paralyzing struggle for power along ethnic lines, threatening to derail attempts to transfer power democratically for the first time in Afghanistan's history. Abdullah led first-round results in April with 45 percent of the vote, while Ashraf Ghani lagged behind by more than 13 points.



Finland's ruling conservative party elected EU affairs minister Alexander Stubb as its new leader on Saturday, putting him on track to take over as the country's prime minister after incumbent Jyrki Katainen steps down later this month. Stubb won about 60 percent of delegates' votes at a congress of their centre-right National Coalition party, beating Paula Risikko, the minister for health and social services, in a run-off.



Israel sent more troops to the occupied West Bank on Saturday to step up searches for three Israeli teenagers believed to have been abducted by Palestinians, with a military source saying it was not known if they were dead or alive. The two 16-year-olds and a third, 19-year-old man disappeared on Thursday night after they left a Jewish settlement bloc where they were seminary students.

Two and a half years after President Barack Obama disentangled America from a long, unpopular war in Iraq, his options for helping the Iraqi government stave off a militant onslaught are slim as doubts simmer over whether even punishing air strikes would be effective. He will announce in coming days how far he is willing to go in responding to the crisis in Iraq, where militants are sweeping south towards the capital Baghdad in a campaign to recreate a large mediaeval Islamic caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria. While Obama has ruled out sending combat troops, U.S. officials say options under consideration include air strikes on Sunni insurgents threatening the Shi’ite-led government.



Egypt has asked Google Inc., which owns YouTube, to remove disturbing footage of a sexual assault that took place in Tahrir Square earlier this week.