With his popularity battered by food shortages, economic chaos and rampant crime, it is hard to understand how Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has clung to power.

As Britain embarks on the path to Brexit with formal notification of its intention to leave the European Union, here is a short glossary to make the months of negotiations ahead a little bit less confusing:

- BrexitBorn out of the contraction of "British" and "Exit", Brexit means the UK's withdrawal from the EU.

In a slick online video, 22-year-old Turkish student Ali Gul sits in front a drum kit and framed artwork while making tart remarks about Turkey's political leadership. He wraps up by musing that he'll probably get arrested if the video goes viral.

The video clocked tens of thousands of hits. This month, Gul was detained.

Anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny has cemented his status as leader of Russia's opposition movement by organizing the largest unauthorized protest in recent years against President Vladimir Putin's rule.

President Donald Trump suffered a bitter defeat Friday in his first major legislative challenge as Republican lawmakers shot down his effort to repeal Obamacare. It was the latest in a string of major setbacks to have hit his two-month-old presidency.

As an international coalition prepares a final push to drive the Islamic State (IS) group from Raqa, here are five facts about the northern Syrian city:

What happened to the leaders whose power was challenged in the so-called Arab Spring that began in late 2010?

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, toppled in a 2011 revolt then jailed, was freed on Friday in a country still coming to terms with the consequences of the uprising that ended his 30-year rule.

The thorniest point in a declaration by EU leaders at a summit in Rome this week to mark the bloc's 60th birthday is about a so-called multi-speed union.

As the EU turns 60 amid a divorce from Britain and other mid-life crises, the question is increasingly not how it can bounce back, but how it can survive.

Today's European Union is the product of efforts led by France and Germany in the wake of World War II to bring peace to a continent that had seen centuries of war.