Prime Minister Theresa May filed formal Brexit divorce papers on Wednesday, pitching the United Kingdom into the unknown and triggering years of uncertain negotiations that will test the cohesion of the European Union.

President Donald Trump is proposing immediate budget cuts of US$18 billion from programs like medical research, infrastructure and community grants so US taxpayers, not Mexico, can cover the down payment on the border wall. The White House documents were submitted to Congress amid negotiations over a catchall spending bill that would avert a partial government shutdown at the end of next month. The package would wrap up US$1.1 trillion in unfinished spending bills and address the Trump administration's request for an immediate US$30 billion in additional Pentagon spending.

North Korean women are deprived of education and job opportunities and are often subjected to violence at home and sexual assault in the workplace, a United Nations human rights panel said on Monday. After a regular review of Pyongyang’s record, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women voiced concern at rape or mistreatment of women in detention especially those repatriated after fleeing abroad.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit urged the United Nations on Sunday to prevent Iran from pushing the region to the “edge of an abyss,” saying that the missile recently fired from Yemen into Saudi Arabia represents an act of hostility against all Arab countries. "Iran has adopted a sectarian policy and empowered itself with the nuclear deal [signed in 2015 between Tehran and several world powers]," said Aboul Gheit during a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo convened after a request made last week by Saudi Arabia.

Arab foreign ministers gathered in Cairo on Sunday at Saudi Arabia s request for an extraordinary meeting to discuss alleged "violations" committed by Iran in the region. The Arab League meeting comes as tensions have been rising between long-standing rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, including over League member Lebanon.

Clinging to his now virtually powerless post, longtime Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was fired as ruling party chief to cheers Sunday, and was set to discuss his expected exit with the army commander who put the world’s oldest head of state under house arrest days ago. A day after huge crowds rallied peacefully in the capital, Harare, for the 93-year-old Mugabe to go, members of the ruling party’s Central Committee stood, cheered and sang as Mugabe was recalled. Meeting chair Obert Mpofu referred to him as “outgoing president.”

Hopes of finding survivors from a missing Argentine submarine with 44 crew members aboard have been revived after the navy said it had detected what could be distress calls. There has been no contact with the ARA San Juan since early Wednesday, prompting Buenos Aires to launch an air and sea search with help from countries including Brazil, Britain, Chile, Uruguay and the United States. The search has, however, been complicated by stormy conditions, Argentine navy spokesman Enrique Balbi said on Saturday.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun tweeted on Thursday that he hoped the country s political crisis was over following Saad al-Hariri s acceptance of a French invitation to visit Paris. Earlier a source close to Hariri said the prime minister, who resigned this month while in Saudi Arabia but has yet to return to Beirut, was expected to leave Riyadh for France within the next 48 hours.

Greeks voiced despair and disbelief on Thursday after a flash flood killed at least 15 people and left hundreds homeless, with many blaming a system that allowed houses to be built on dried up river beds. In the towns of Nea Peramos and Mandra west of the capital Athens, crumpled cars and mangled furniture lay on roads caked in the thick mud left behind by a raging torrent that smashed through homes on Wednesday morning.

Zimbabwe s military seized power early on Wednesday targeting "criminals" around President Robert Mugabe but gave assurances on national television that the 93-year-old leader and his family were "safe and sound". Soldiers and armoured vehicles blocked roads to the main government offices, parliament and the courts in central Harare, while taxis ferried commuters to work nearby, a Reuters witness said.

Russian MPs on Wednesday backed new legislation that could force foreign media outlets to register as “foreign agents” in a reciprocal response to US pressure on Kremlin-backed TV channel RT. Lawmakers approved amendments that would allow any international media that receive financing from abroad to be classified as “foreign agents,” a measure previously used only against NGOs.

The citizenship crisis engulfing Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s government deepened on Tuesday as an eighth lawmaker exited parliament and the main opposition party drafted in a high-profile candidate for a key by-election. Turnbull’s center-right government has already lost its majority in parliament, accounting for four of the eight lawmakers to be forced out or to resign from parliament in recent weeks because they were dual citizens. That status is banned under the Australian constitution to prevent split allegiances.

Saudi Arabia is to host a meeting of the Syrian opposition later this month as the United Nations prepares to convene new peace talks with the government buoyed by victories over the Islamic State group. The meeting will be held in Riyadh from November 22 to 24 at the request of opposition factions and will aim to form a "joint negotiating delegation to resume direct negotiations in Geneva under the auspices of the UN," the official Saudi Press Agency reported late on Monday.

A top Lebanese Christian religious figure is to head to Saudi Arabia where he is expected to meet with Lebanon s prime minister who resigned earlier this month in a surprise televised address from the kingdom. Cardinal Bechara el-Rai had planned his visit before Saad Hariri announced his resignation in Riyadh on Nov. 4, throwing Lebanon into crisis.

The British government has said the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar “looks like ethnic cleansing,” Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman said on Monday. As new accounts emerged of atrocities in Rakhine state, where government forces claim to be targeting “terrorists,” Downing Street called on Myanmar’s government to permit access for aid agencies.

Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 surface-to-air missiles has been completed but Ankara is discussing a further deal with a European consortium to help it develop its own missile defense system, Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said. The decision by NATO member Turkey to buy the S-400s from Moscow has been seen by some of its Western allies as a snub to the alliance. The deal has also raised concern because the weapons cannot be integrated into NATO defenses.

Saad Hariri, whose resignation as Lebanon s prime minister a week ago sent shockwaves across the region, said Sunday he is "free" in Saudi Arabia and will return to Lebanon "very soon". In an interview from Riyadh with his party s Future TV, Hariri brushed aside rumours that he was under de facto house arrest in the kingdom, from which he announced his surprise departure on November 4.

EU Brexit chief Michel Barnier said Sunday that he is making contingency plans for the “possible” failure of divorce talks with Britain, which he has given two weeks to reach preliminary agreement on key issues. “It’s not my (preferred) option,” he told French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD). “But it’s a possibility. Everyone needs to plan for it, member states and businesses alike. We too are preparing for it technically.”

NATO countries have still not agreed how many extra troops they will send to Afghanistan to boost local forces in their fight against the resurgent Taliban, the alliance s chief admitted Thursday. NATO this week announced it wanted to send around 3,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, bringing the Western military footprint up to about 16,000 soldiers to help the Afghans break the stalemate in the 16-year fight against the Taliban.

The International Criminal Court on Thursday approved a prosecution request to formally investigate war crimes allegedly committed in Burundi by the government and government-linked groups against political opponents from April 2015 to October 2017. The decision follows Burundi’s decision to seek withdraw from the court as of Oct. 26, 2017. However, the court will still have jurisdiction over crimes committed while Burundi was a member.

After a brief truce with China to cooperate on North Korea, President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing on Wednesday amid mounting U.S. trade complaints, with limited prospects for progress on market access, technology policy and other sore points. The strains between the world s two biggest economies are fueling anxiety among global companies and advocates of free trade that they could retreat into protectionism, dragging down growth.