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A Libyan Coast Guard ship picked up more than 350 migrants at sea Wednesday after a potentially deadly encounter with a German rescue boat. No casualties have been reported, and all the migrants rescued off the coastal city of Sabratha are back in Tripoli. A Libyan navy spokesman said the migrants were packed on a wooden boat. As the Coast Guard vessel approached, another boat from the German rescue group Sea Watch came dangerously close to ramming the Libyan ship. Sea Watch was apparently attempting to drive off the Libyans. It is unclear if Libyan authorities plan to take legal …

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Keen to stem growing resentment of globalization, which it sees as one of the drivers of a wave of anti-EU populism, the European Union’s executive said on Wednesday that the bloc had to work to make free trade fairer. French nationalist Marine Le Pen secured 34 percent of votes in France’s presidential runoff on Sunday with an anti-EU platform that promised to shield French workers from “savage globalization,” and the bloc is still smarting from Britain’s vote to leave. “Europe must help rewrite the global rule book so that free trade becomes fair trade. So that globalization becomes sustainable and …

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Italian authorities suspect arson caused the deaths Wednesday of three Gypsy sisters in Rome whose camper burst into flames as they slept. The three sisters, aged 4, 8 and 20, were killed, but their parents and eight other siblings escaped the blaze in the Centocelle neighborhood. The Italian news agency ANSA said prosecutors had opened an arson investigation after family members reported that they received threats in recent days and that a nearby camper was torched last week. Italian politicians, including President Sergio Mattarella, denounced the crime, and Pope Francis sent his chaplain to comfort the bereaved family and offer …

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Tens of thousands of people rallied on Wednesday in the Czech Republic’s capital and other major cities against President Milos Zeman and Finance Minister Andrej Babis. The protesters gathered at Wenceslas Square in downtown Prague demanded Babis’ firing and Zeman’s resignation in the latest development of the Czech political crisis. The public demonstrations follow Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka asking the president last week to get rid of the finance minister over his unexplained business dealings, especially charges that he hadn’t properly explained suspicions that he avoided paying taxes. Babis, one of the richest people in the country, has denied wrongdoing …

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Three shepherd children in Portugal were jailed and threatened with being boiled alive in olive oil when they claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to them 100 years ago. The Catholic Church doubted their story too. From that unpromising start, the children’s reported visions would go on to strengthen the faith of Portugal’s persecuted Catholics and make the small farming town of Fatima one of the world’s foremost pilgrimage sites, with around 6 million visitors a year. Now, the Portuguese youngsters’ long-ago testimony is giving the Catholic Church its youngest saints who did not die as martyrs. Pope Francis plans to …

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Three women stare down from the gallery wall — colorful, defiant and imbued with a spirit of working for the many not the few. They are a brigadier, a factory worker and a youth volunteer with a hoe. They are paintings of socialist realism. They are also all Albanian women from the time of Enver Hoxha, who created one of the world’s most closed societies until his death in 1985. Visitors to Greece’s capital have a relatively rare opportunity to see Hoxha-era art on display outside its regular home in Tirana’s National Gallery of Art. The portraits are part of …

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The European Union foreign policy chief Tuesday sought to reassure the international community that the bloc remains strong, despite Britain’s planned departure and anxiety caused by elections in several member states.   In her annual briefing to the United Nations Security Council, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini said the bloc marks its 60th birthday, about to lose member Britain but as strong as ever.   “Indeed, our British friends have decided to leave us – which is very sad for all of us – but life goes on and the European Union as well goes on,” she told the council. …

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Britain’s political centrists and liberals can only look on jealously. The victory of Emmanuel Macron across the English Channel in France’s presidential race is reviving talk in Britain of a progressive alliance to deprive the Conservatives of a likely landslide win in next month’s parliamentary elections. The leaders of the country’s main opposition Labor Party, however, are rejecting out of hand any electoral pact with the Liberal Democrats and Greens, despite mounting calls from activists for them to do so. “Labor is a national party and everyone needs to have the opportunity to vote for a Labor candidate,” senior Labor …

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