Frankfurt / AFP Greece has “basically achieved” the objectives of the reforms required by its creditors and its eurozone partners will begin discussing possible debt relief for the country, according to European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker. “We are now at the time of the first review of the programme (to aid Greece) and the objectives have been basically achieved,” ...

  AFP Eurozone finance ministers hold an emergency meeting on Monday to try to thrash out a difficult deal on fresh reforms for Greece as fears grow of a repeat of last year’s chaotic bailout negotiations. The ministers from the 19 countries that use the euro — the Eurogroup — will also discuss debt relief for Greece, which the International ...

  Bloomberg The U.K. will be safer staying in the European Union, two former chiefs of the country’s security services said, before voters head to the polls next month in an in-out referendum. Cooperation with the 27 other EU members means Britain is better placed to tackle threats ranging from IS terrorism to cyber-attacks by hostile governments, former MI5 chief ...

  FRANKFURT / AP Production of the 500-euro banknote is being discontinued amid concerns it had become too popular among crooks and money launderers. The European Central Bank, the monetary authority for the 19 countries that use the shared currency, made the decision at a meeting. The ECB said it was taking into account concerns that the banknote, which is ...

  Manila / AFP Security forces fanned out across the Philippines on Sunday on the eve of national polls, following a vicious and deadly election campaign dominated by presidential favourite Rodrigo Duterte’s threats to kill thousands of criminals. Surveys show Duterte, mayor of the southern city of Davao, has a clear lead in Monday’s presidential elections as millions of voters ...

  Kuwait City / AFP The UN special envoy to Yemen held talks on Sunday with the country’s warring parties in a bid to break an impasse, a day after the government pulled out of direct negotiations. Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed held separate morning talks in Kuwait City with delegates, and plenary or committees’ meetings were planned in the afternoon, ...

  Istanbul/ AFP Turkish forces launched a salvo of artillery strikes on northern Syria that killed 55 members of the ISgroup, Turkish news agencies reported on Sunday. Artillery units stationed near the border struck IS group targets near Aleppo on Saturday evening, destroying three missile launchers and three vehicles according to the state-run Anatolia news agency and the Dogan news ...

  Ghazni / AFP At least 73 people were killed on Sunday when two buses and an oil tanker burst into flames in a head-on collision in eastern Afghanistan, health officials said, in one of the worst road accidents in the war-battered nation. Many of the dead, including women and children, were burned beyond recognition and dozens of others were ...

  CAIRO / AP Militants opened fire on a microbus filled with plainclothes police in a Cairo suburb early Sunday, killing eight of them, including an officer, in an attack claimed by a local IS affiliate. The attack was the deadliest in the heavily policed capital since November, when gunmen attacked a security checkpoint, killing four policemen. That attack was ...

  Madrid / AFP Three Spanish freelance journalists who were kidnapped in Syria nearly 10 months ago returned to Spain on Sunday to be reunited with their families. The trio, all experienced conflict zone reporters, arrived at the Torrejon air base near Madrid on a flight from Turkey, the government said in a statement. Antonio Pampliega, Jose Manuel Lopez and ...