Politics by country

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will visit Egypt, his ministry announced Friday, the first such high-level trip in more than a decade as the countries repair relations damaged in the wake of the 2011 Arab Spring.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will pay a one-day visit to Egypt on March 18 amid ongoing efforts to mend ties between Ankara and Cairo.

Çavuşoğlu will be the first senior Turkish official to visit Egypt in the last decade.

Presidential candidates Andrija Mandic and Milo Djukanovic billboards in Podgorica, Montenegro. Photo: BIRN/Samir Kajosevic

Greek police fired tear gas and protesters hurled firebombs on Thursday as more than 40,000 people took to the streets to slam the government and voice outrage at last month's train disaster that killed 57 people.

The protests were accompanied by a 24-hour strike -- the biggest yet since the disaster -- this time called by Greece's leading private as well as public sector unions.

French President Emmanuel Macron ordered his prime minister to wield a special constitutional power Thursday that skirts parliament to force through a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 without a vote.

A poll by the Pulse company for Skai TV gives ruling New Democracy a lead over main opposition SYRIZA, but with a drop in its share and a narrowing of the gap.

A group of unknown assailants involved in incidents during the protest rallies in Athens vandalized the car of SYRIZA representative Olga Gerovasili on Thursday. 

The draft election manifesto of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party marks a return to more orthodox, free market economic policies, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Turkey is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14 and opinion polls show that Erdogan will face his biggest electoral challenge yet in his two decades in power.

Albania's opposition Democratic Party, which is riven by factions, will be able to run in the May local elections after all - after the Commission of Sanctions and Complaints, CSC, overturned an earlier decision of the Commissioner of Elections not to let it run.

BELGRADE - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic received the credentials of new Cuban Ambassador to Belgrade Leyde Ernesto Rodriguez Hernandez on Thursday, thanking Cuba for its principled commitment to international law and support for Serbia's sovereignty and territorial integrity.