Jordan will organize an international conference in support of East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al Aqsa mosque compound on Dec. 20, according to the country’s Islamic affairs minister.  “The Aqsa mosque is facing grave and daily violations and incursions that provoke the sentiments of...

NATO foreign ministers will discuss security challenges this week, the head of the organization said on Monday. "NATO Foreign Ministers are meeting this week to address a wide range of security challenges, including Russia’s destabilising behaviour, violent extremism in the Middle East...

Israeli forces rounded up 13 Palestinians in overnight raids across the occupied West Bank, according to the Israeli military on Monday.  The individuals were arrested for “suspected involvement in popular terrorist activities”, the army said in a statement, without elaborating on...

Qatar will withdraw from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as of January, the country’s energy minister announced on Monday.  Speaking at a press conference, Saad al-Kaabi said the decision comes after Qatar reviewed ways in which it could improve its global...

Yemeni officials say some 50 rebels wounded in fighting will be flown to neighboring Oman for treatment. Their planned evacuation Monday on an Ethiopian Airways flight from Sanaa would meet one of the conditions set by the Houthi rebels to participate in peace talks in Sweden later this...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that China had agreed to cut import tariffs on American-made cars, a potential boon for automakers including Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and BMW (BMWG.DE) who manufacture in the United States for export to China. Trump, fresh from agreeing a 90-day...

After a months-long investigation into the Myanmar government’s persecution against the Rohingya, a U.S.-based humanitarian rights law group has found that there is a reasonable basis to conclude that Rohingya are victims of genocide. The Washington-based Public International Law and...

Omani Energy Minister Mohammed bin Hamad al-Rumhy said on Sunday that he believed there was a consensus among OPEC oil producers that oil output should be cut. Asked if he thinks there is a consensus for a cut, he told reporters: “I think so, yes. We enjoyed the benefits of cuts.”...

Four Libyan oil export ports that were closed last week because of bad weather have reopened, a Libyan shipping source and port engineers said on Sunday. Tankers were docking at the eastern Ras Lanuf, Es Sider, Zueitina and Brega ports as well as the western Zawiya terminal linked to the El...

Iran has ended its seasonal ban on rice imports, allowing importers to register their orders, Iranian news agencies reported on Sunday. Deputy Agriculture Minister Ali Akbar Mehrfard announced the end of the annual ban in a letter dated Nov. 28, the ISNA semi-official news agency reported....

  China and Argentina signed a $9 billion currency swap deal to boost the crisis-stricken South American country's foreign currency reserves, its central bank announced Sunday. Struggling to recover after a currency crisis earlier this year, Latin America's third largest economy sought...

Authorities in the Houthi-held Yemeni capital Sanaa are sterilizing water supplies at wells, distribution networks and houses to help stem the world’s worst outbreak of cholera. Nearly four years of war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Iranian-aligned Houthi group have crippled...

The Israeli police have said their investigation has found sufficient evidence for bribery and fraud charges to be brought against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, in a third corruption case against the leader. Authorities on Sunday alleged Netanyahu awarded regulatory...

US president on Saturday agreed to not raise the tariff rate on goods imported from China, the White House announced. According to a statement issued by the White House, President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a "highly successful meeting" during the sidelines of...

Perpetrators of the violence in ongoing protests in Paris will be punished, said French president Saturday. Speaking during a press conference of the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Emmanuel Macron said that those who are responsible for the attack on police officers and vandalization of a...

Iran said Sunday its missile program is defensive and not in breach of U.N. resolutions, the state news agency IRNA reported, without confirming a U.S. allegation Tehran had carried out a new missile test. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Saturday condemned what he described as...

The murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is not an issue of Turkey but the whole world, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday in Buenos Aires. Erdogan said Turkey never saw the killing of the journalists as a political issue, adding that the incident is and will...

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday that the wave of violence and vandalism in Paris on Saturday could not be justified in any way and had nothing to do with a peaceful expression of legitimate anger. “No cause justifies that security forces are attacked, shops pillaged,...

Thousands of people waving Spanish flags rallied in Madrid on Saturday in support of national unity and against Catalonia’s ongoing campaign to secede from Spain. The Catalan secession crisis and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s decision to take a more conciliatory tone with...

Yemen's central bank is awaiting deposits worth $3 billon from foreign sources, the state news agency SABA quoted its governor, Mohammed Zammam, as saying on Saturday. "There is a set of decisions the United Nations or some countries will take regarding the new deposits," Zammam said....