Barack Obama

Police fired tear gas Monday in another night of unrest in a Missouri town where a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager, just hours after President Barack Obama called for calm.
      

German Ambassador to Ankara Eberhard Pohl was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Aug. 18 following media reports claiming German secret services have been eavesdropping on Turkey for some time. The Turkish Foreign Ministry asked for an explanation from the ambassador and said in a public statement that it would be “grave” if even only part of the media reports were true.

Iraqi Kurdish fighters backed by U.S. warplanes have retaken the country's largest dam from jihadists, Kurdish officials said, as the United States and Britain step up their military involvement.

Nuri al-Maliki finally bowed to pressure with Iraq and beyond on Aug. 14 and stepped down as prime minister, paving the way for a new coalition that world and regional powers hope can quash a Sunni Islamist insurgency that threatens Baghdad.

By Costas Iordanidis

Last Sunday’s Turkish presidential election confirmed Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the third most powerful political leader of the European system – in the broader sense of the word – after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Police in Ferguson, Missouri, fired tear gas, stun grenades and smoke bombs, to disperse some 350 protesters late Aug. 13, the fourth night of racially-charged demonstrations after police shot to death an unarmed black teen.

U.S. President Barack Obama has called Turkey’s president-elect, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and "congratulated" him for his latest poll victory.

Obama called Erdoğan in the evening of Aug. 12 as a first in recent months. Erdoğan had earlier complained on a television programme that he couldn't speak to Obama "for a long time."

A Russian convoy of 280 trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Ukraine set off on Tuesday amid Western warnings against using help as a pretext for an invasion.
   

Oscar-winning actor and comedian Robin Williams was found dead on Monday from a suspected suicide at his home in Northern California.

An investigation into the cause of the death of the 63-year-old actor is underway, but “the Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia“, international media outlets reported.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Aug. 11 Iraq had taken "a promising step forward" in designating a new prime minister, vowing to step up support for a new Iraqi government in a widening conflict that his administration had hoped to avoid.