The scene, amid a sweeping reform drive, was a striking contrast to the days when religious police wielded unbridled powers and drove people out of malls and shops to enforce the Islamic world's only mandatory prayer-time shutdown. Last month Riyadh, keen to stimulate an economy hit by low...

Sudan urged the U.N. Security Council on Monday to lift its suspension of troop withdrawals and ensure all peacekeepers leave Darfur by June 2020, but the African Union said overall security in the vast western region "remains volatile." Sudan's U.N. Ambassador Omer Mohamed Siddig told the...

President Hassan Rouhani Tuesday told the United States to "take the first step" by lifting all sanctions against Iran, a day after US President Donald Trump said he was open to meeting. "The step is to retreat from sanctions. You must retreat from all illegal, unjust and wrong sanctions...

China has said it will stage military exercises in the East China Sea near Taiwan this week, with relations tense between Beijing and the self-ruled island. This will be the third set of drills in a month and comes after the recent US approvals of arms sales worth billions to Taiwan,...