- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Too hot by day, Dubai's floodlit beaches are packed at night
- A 'forgotten' valley in storm-hit North Carolina, desperate for help
- Italy targets climate activists in 'anti-Gandhi' demo clampdown
- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
- Israel-Hamas war causes 86-percent dive in Gaza GDP: IMF
- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Oil rallies, stocks mostly retreat on Middle East tensions
- Phasing out teen smoking could save 1.2 mn lives: study
- 'Welcome relief': Asia producers hail EU deforestation law delay
- Japan PM slated to announce plans for 'happiness index'
- Turkish inflation falls less than expected in September at 49.4%
- Easing inflation lifts profit at UK supermarket Tesco
- Skiing calls on UN climate science to combat melting future
- China wine industry looks to breed climate resilience
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong drops after surge
- Dutch airline KLM unveils 'firm' cost-cutting measures
- Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion
- Senegal looks to aquaculture as fish stocks dwindle
- Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?
N. Ireland moves closer to fresh elections over post-Brexit impasse
Northern Ireland on Thursday appeared headed for a second election this year after the leader of the pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party said his grouping had not changed its position on contentious post-Brexit trade rules.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson told reporters insufficient action had been taken to address their concerns on the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol governing post Brexit trade.
The party would therefore not be supporting the nomination of ministers to the executive, he said, speaking before a special sitting of the Northern Ireland assembly at Stormont.
"We need to remove the rubble of the protocol that has undermined our economy, that has inhibited our ability to trade within our own country and changed our constitutional status without our consent, a protocol that every day is harming businesses and driving up the cost of living for every single person in Northern Ireland," he said.
New British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's message to the parties was to "get back to Stormont... because the people of Northern Ireland deserve a fully functioning and locally elected executive", his official spokesman said.
- 'Time is running out' -
UK government efforts to resolve months of political stalemate have failed to secure a breakthrough in recent days.
Chris Heaton-Harris, Britain's Northern Ireland minister, held talks with the political parties on Wednesday in a fresh bid to get them to form a new executive.
If no agreement is reached by Friday, London will be legally required to call early elections for the devolved assembly in the volatile province.
"If the executive is not formed by 28 October, I will call an election," the minister said in a statement earlier. "Time is running out."
Northern Ireland has been without a functioning government since February, when DUP collapsed the executive over its staunch opposition to post-Brexit trade rules there.
It wants the protocol -- agreed by London and Brussels as part of Britain's 2019 Brexit deal -- overhauled or scrapped entirely. They say it weakens the province's place within the United Kingdom.
Many unionists also argue the pact is threatening the delicate balance of peace between the pro-Irish nationalist community and those in favour of continued union with Britain.
The Brexit measures -- which effectively keep Northern Ireland in the European Union's single market and customs union -- were agreed to avoid the return of a hard land border with the neighbouring Republic of Ireland, which remains an EU member.
Eliminating that hard border was a key strand of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
- 'Perpetual standoff' -
Pro-Irish party Sinn Fein scored a historic first electoral victory in May, further complicating efforts to restore power sharing.
Sinn Fein leader Michelle O'Neill on Thursday condemned the DUP's "perpetual standoff with the public, the majority of whom they do not speak for or indeed represent".
O'Neill is set to become Northern Ireland's first minister if the executive can be restarted.
Britain's Conservative government, which has been wracked by turmoil and had three prime ministers in two months, has urged Brussels to revise the protocol and is passing contentious legislation to rip it up.
Britain has previously threated to unilaterally modify it.
That has sparked fears of a trade war and worsening relations with Europe, when the economic landscape is already gloomy.
The impasse was discussed in a phone call on Wednesday between Sunak and Irish premier Micheal Martin.
Sunak also spoke by phone to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said on Twitter that she hopes to find "joint solutions under the protocol... that will provide stability and predictability".
M.Mendoza--CPN