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The contest to replace British Prime Minister Theresa May is due to narrow today when Conservative Party lawmakers vote to knock out at least one of 10 candidates in the first ballot, though Boris Johnson is far ahead of rivals. The United Kingdom could be heading towards a constitutional crisis over Brexit as many of the candidates vying to succeed May are prepared to leave the European Union on Oct. 31 without a deal but parliament has indicated it will...

President Vladimir Putin said relations between Moscow and Washington were getting worse and worse, noting in an interview published on Thursday that the current U.S. administration had imposed dozens of sanctions on Russia. Putin made his gloomy assessment ahead of a G20 summit in Japan later this month at which he might meet U.S. President Donald Trump. U.S.-Russia ties remain strained by everything from Syria to Ukraine as well as allegations of Russian interference in U.S. politics, which Moscow denies....

Iran has no intention of making or using nuclear weapons, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying on Thursday by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. "Supreme Leader Khamenei made a comment that the country will not and should not make, hold or use nuclear weapons, and that it has no such intentions," Abe told reporters in Tehran following his meeting with Khamenei. Abe's comment was broadcast on Japanese public broadcaster NHK. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas is...

Britain's financial watchdog has defended its controversial decision not to sanction lender RBS or its former executives for past mistreatment of small business customers. The Financial Conduct Authority said it was sticking by its decision not to apply penalties for actions of RBS's former turnaround unit, the Global Restructuring Group. "Our investigation has found that GRG clearly fell short of the high standards its clients expected but it was largely unregulated and so our powers to take action in such...

The global use of the euro currency surged from record lows last year, mostly on a flight from the dollar due to the volatility of American politics and concerns about rising U.S. interest rates, the European Central Bank said on Thursday. Demand for the euro, the world's second most widely used currency after the dollar, fell to historic lows over the past decade. Its rebound suggests both concerns about U.S. politics and growing confidence about the future of the euro...

At least 60 dead seals have been discovered along beaches of the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea in northwestern Alaska, and scientists are trying to determine what caused their deaths, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Wednesday. The dead seals – bearded, spotted and ringed seals – have been found at sites ranging from southern edge of the Bering Strait region to the Chukchi coastline above the Arctic Circle, NOAA's Fisheries said.  Ice in the Bering and...

Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth, said on Wednesday he saw no reason why British businesses could not survive Brexit and the recent visit of President Donald Trump had shown him the issue would also not effect U.S. relations. The royal family is expected to remain neutral on political matters and has mostly avoided making any reference to Brexit, although the 93-year-old queen issued a delicately coded message to lawmakers in January, urging them to seek common ground....

Britain's interior minister Sajid Javid, one of the candidates to replace Theresa May as prime minister, said it was odd that he was not invited to a royal banquet with U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month. Javid, who is of Muslim heritage, was the only senior cabinet minister not invited to the event during Trump's state visit at which guests dined in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace with Queen Elizabeth. The prime minister, the foreign minister, the finance minister,...

The greenhouse gas is created when pollutants from cars and factories react with sunlight