Eight people were killed in isolated clashes in Turkey on Sunday during municipal elections that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes will validate him in his battle against a corruption scandal. The voting may have become a crisis referendum on the rule of Mr Erdogan and...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has selected a new ambassador to represent Tehran at the United Nations, Hamid Abutalebi, a veteran diplomat who has held key European postings in the past, Iranian sources said. Abutalebi, who has served as Iran's ambassador to  Italy ,...

Over 50 million eligible voters cast their ballots in Turkey's local elections, amid corruption allegations and damaging security leaks that have shaken the 12-year rule of the  Justice and Development Party  (AKP) government.   The municipal elections have become a...

The emir of Qatar, a key backer of Sudan's Islamist regime, is to visit cash-strapped Khartoum for talks on bolstering ties, days after the  UN and African Union raised an alarm  over the upsurge in violence in Darfur. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani's one-day trip on...