Oliver Tree

Athens and Paris have rebelled against Berlin-inspired austerity, but Dublin has taken the harsh medicine dutifully -- and, unlike its testy European peers, grimly borne budget cuts and tax hikes with minimal protest. That may be about to change.

State media said the Bashar al-Assad regime had called on the UN Security Council and Ban Ki-moon for assistance in tackling the escalating crimes committed by terrorists receiving help from abroad.

The bodies, which are so badly mutilated forensic teams have been unable to determine their sex, were left by the side of a road in the western state of Jalisco.

Rescuers have some recovered bodies of 50 people on board the brand new Sukhoi SuperJet 100 aircraft, which crashed shortly after takeoff on Wednesday.

The administrative court suspended the election after it emerged the date had been wrongly set by an independent electoral commission, and not by the military council who rule the country.

The first explosion occurred in the al-Qazzaz district in the south of the city, shortly before 8 a.m. local time.

In Athens, leftist Alexis Tsipras became the second political leader to try and form a government on Wednesday, after first placed New Democracy party leader Antonis Samaras abandoned attempts on Monday.

The Sukhoi SuperJet 100, the first new Russian passenger plane in over 20 years, was on a demonstration flight in the hope of selling to local airlines

Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and his bodyguards are being tried in Baghdad in absentia, charged with running a death squad that targeted senior officials, security forces and Shiite pilgrims.

The leading opposition figure went on hunger strike after accusing prison guards of beating her as they tried to move her to a hospital for treatment for a back injury.

Homs and Idlib have experienced such heavy fighting during the 14-month old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad that they qualified as localized civil wars, according to Jakob Kellenberger.

Prime Minister Marian Rajoy said on Monday the government was ready to step in to save banks, starting with Spain's fourth largest, Bankia, which was first in line for state aid.

While Nicolas Sarkozy has finally met his Waterloo -- and not before time according to a testy French electorate -- analysts are unconvinced Hollande can persuade the rest of Europe, let alone a resolute Germany, to abandon the austerity juggernaut.

According to the think-tank, a generally weaker economic outlook for a longer period in the UK, and revised jobless forecasts mean that only the affluent areas of London, the South East and East of England will escape the trend.

The former KGB strongman is replacing his 'protégé' Dmitry Medvedev, who will almost certainly return to being Prime Minister in a job swap first agreed upon last year.

Labeled the Sopranos of the Afghanistan war, the Haqqanis have built themselves from what was once a rebel force bent on removing the Russians in the 1980s into a Mafia-like organization dealing in smuggling, extortion, and assassination.

The disgraced former IMF chief already faces charges of aggravated pimping in an organized gang for allegedly organizing orgies in France and the U.S.

The two car bombs exploded outside a police station in Makhachkala, one at an ID checkpoint and another 20 minutes later when the area was swarming with rescue workers, troops and firefighters.

Only hours after the alleged raid, Sudan pledged to cease hostilities with the South, warning it retained the right to defend itself against aggression from the south.

The part-nationalized bank is expected to make the announcement on Friday during its first-quarter update, where it will also announce pre-tax losses of under £50 million, down from losses of £106 million this time last year.

Security forces and pro-regime gunmen were called in to break up anti-government demonstrations in the city's main university complex after approximately 1,500 students began protesting in the main campus late on Wednesday.

The strike in Abyan province is the latest in a series of attacks on al-Qaeda targets in the troubled Arabian state, which is battling Islamists Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law) who have won a string of humiliating victories over government troops.

Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov said Thursday he would launch a pre-emptive strike against missile shield facilities, which are planned in Poland, Turkey and Romania.

Data from consultants JBC Energy showed Iran's output fell by 150,000 barrels per day over a two-month period, hitting a 20-year-low of 3.2 million barrels in April.

The U.S. tabled draft resolution, which seeks to apply economic sanctions on the two warring countries if they fail to de-escalate a growing border conflict, was presented to the five permanent members of the Security Council during a meeting in New York on Monday.

Rebel forces reportedly killed 20 troops in a series of pre-dawn raids, including two colonels and 15 soldiers during an attack in the northern province of Aleppo.

The announcement came after seven people were killed in an early morning suicide attack on a compound for international workers in Kabul on Wednesday, with the Taliban claiming the assault was a response to the president's visit.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Herve Ladsous told reporters both sides were responsible for creating an atmosphere of appalling violence and that despite the bloodshed, the small UN presence was having a dampening effect.

A diplomat from the Kingdom said Egyptian forces had detained three Iranian men after uncovering the plot to kill ambassador Ahmed Kattan, but that the Saudis had opted to keep quiet about the plot for fear of stoking anti Saudi-demonstrators in the country.