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Women across Switzerland held a strike on Friday to highlight their wealthy nation's poor record on female rights, recreating the passion of the first such walkout 28 years ago. In Lausanne, chanting protesters gathered at midnight outside the cathedral tower, whose bell was illuminated in purple, the official colour of the protest. Blowing whistles and banging pots and pans, hundreds of demonstrators - mostly women but also men - carried placards reading "no means no", "I am not a princess...

Britain’s businesses are being advised to prepare for no-deal Brexit after hard-line Brexiteers took the lead in the latest Conservative leadership vote. The Institute of Directors – one of the UK’s employers’ groups – said companies should not put faith in politicians to produce an agreement as the October 31st deadline looms. Less than half of businesses have Brexit plans, according to its figures, and only 4 per cent of those questioned said they would be using the extension period...

Pope Francis said on Friday that carbon pricing was "essential" to stem global warming, his clearest statement to date in support of the practice. In an address to energy executives at the end of a two-day meeting, he also called for "open, transparent, science-based and standardised" reporting of climate risk and a "radical energy transition" away from carbon to save the planet. Carbon pricing, via taxes or emissions trading schemes, is used by many governments to make energy consumers pay...

A Turkish court has accepted an indictment from the country's banking watchdog (BDDK) requesting a jail sentence for two Bloomberg reporters and 36 other people. The indictment, seen by Reuters, was in relation to a Bloomberg story published in August 2018. The article was about the effects of a sharp decline in the Turkish lira and how authorities and banks were responding. Worries over the Turkish central bank's independence and the country's tense ties with Washington sparked a currency crisis...

Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to replace Theresa May as Britain's prime minister, came under pressure on Friday to face the media over his Brexit plans as another of his rivals dropped out of the leadership battle. Health minister Matt Hancock quit the battle to succeed May as Conservative Party leader, saying the party was looking for a candidate for the present not the future, leaving six contenders amongst whom Johnson is the overwhelming favourite. He won the backing of 114...

The full extradition hearing to decide whether Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be sent to the United States to face accusations including spying charges will take place in February next year, a London court ruled on Friday. Assange, 47, is accused by U.S. authorities of 18 charges including conspiring to hack U.S. government computers and violating an espionage law. He is currently in a London prison after being jailed for 50 weeks for skipping bail after fleeing to the Ecuadorean...

Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to replace Theresa May as Britain's prime minister, must face more scrutiny over his Brexit plans, his closest rival said on Friday with a taunt that his hero Winston Churchill would not shy away from the media. Johnson has pledged that Britain will exit the European Union on Oct. 31, warning his divided Conservative Party "delay means defeat". He argues that if Britain is prepared for a no-deal Brexit, the EU will bend to his argument...

German analysis of Britain’s current political impasse has been making the rounds on Twitter – with no translation needed. The article – entitled Der große Clusterfuck der Tories – has been shared on social media under the caption: “My German is not that great. But I think I understand the headline.” It was penned before Britain secured an extension to Article 50 and warned that leaving the EU could have disastrous economic and social consequences for Britain. Describing Theresa May...

The World Health Organization (WHO) should and is likely to declare an international emergency over the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has now spread to Uganda, experts said as a WHO advisory panel met on Friday. Congo's epidemic is the second worst worldwide since West Africa's Ebola outbreak in 2014-16, with 2,084 cases and 1,405 deaths since being declared in August. The WHO said on Thursday that two people had died in Uganda having arrived with...