Political parties in provinces controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq will be heading to the country’s parliamentary elections on May 12 amid unstable economic and political conditions. In 2014’s general election, Kurds, as a second largest population in...

More than 100 girls were missing on Wednesday, police said, two days after a Boko Haram attack on their school in northeast Nigeria that has raised fears of a repeat of the 2014 Chibok kidnapping that shocked the world. Islamist militants stormed the Government Girls Science Secondary...

Now that one of Benjamin Netanyahu's closest confidants has turned state witness, according to Israeli media reports Wednesday, it may mark a turning point for the beleaguered prime minister facing a slew of corruption allegations that could topple him from power. The testimony by...

 The United States military says it has carried out an airstrike against al-Shabab extremists in Somalia, killing three "terrorists." The U.S. Africa Command statement says the airstrike occurred Monday near Jilib town in Middle Juba region. "We assess no civilians were killed in...

 Israel began Wednesday to install houses at its first new settlement in more than 25 years, AFP journalists at the scene said. A number of prefabricated mobile homes were delivered to the site that will become Amichai, the first new settlement sanctioned by the Israeli government...

In a similar fate to that of Pakistan girl Zainab Ansari, a four-year-old girl was recently raped and murdered in an Egyptian village in a case that has sparked outrage. The details surrounding the tragic case of Rodaina Abdou resembles much of what had happened to the Pakistani...

Israeli forces rounded up 20 Palestinians in overnight raids across the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to the Israeli military on Wednesday. The individuals were arrested for "suspected involvement in popular terrorist activities," the army said in a statement without giving...

The French government is set to unveil a tough new immigration bill Wednesday that is proving one of the most divisive of Emmanuel Macron's young presidency. The legislation, which criminalizes illegal border crossings and aims for quicker deportation of those deemed economic migrants,...

Moroccan authorities have broken up a Daesh cell in the North African country, according to the Moroccan Interior Ministry. In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry said six suspects had been detained in the northern city of Tangier for links to the Daesh terrorist group. The...

Turkey's population is expected to cross 100 million in 2040, the country's statistical authority said on Wednesday. Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on its website the population will tally 100.3 million in 2040 and is expected to hit the top in 2069 with 107.6 million....

Turkey will take all possible measures against child abusers, including chemical castration, and a commission will start working on the issue this week, Turkey’s justice minister said Wednesday. Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Abdulhamit Gul said the commission would work on new legal...

Israeli media are reporting that one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's closest confidants has turned state witness and will incriminate Netanyahu in corruption allegations. Police would not confirm Wednesday whether Shlomo Filber would testify, but all the major Israeli media...

High-profile Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to five years in jail Wednesday over tweets critical of the war in Yemen, two human rights groups said. Rajab, a leading figure in 2011 protests against the Gulf state's Sunni minority rulers, was already serving a two-year...

An Egyptian court put former presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh on a terrorism list Tuesday, state news agency MENA reported, following his arrest for alleged contacts with the banned Muslim Brotherhood. Abol Fotouh, a former Islamist who leads the Strong Egypt party, was...

 A group of Turks who reached a Greek island by dinghy from Turkey are seeking political asylum in Greece, authorities in Athens said Tuesday. The 17 were reportedly Turkish civil servants and their families who fled a government crackdown in the wake of a failed 2016 coup....

Egyptian officials say the country will open its border with the Gaza Strip amid a military campaign against militant insurgents in restive northern Sinai Peninsula. The two officials said Tuesday the Rafah crossing point will operate starting Wednesday for four days on a humanitarian basis....

At least 20 undocumented Afghan migrants were held in the central Turkish province of Sivas after they illegally entered the country, according to a security source on Tuesday. The migrants, including 10 children, were caught after gendarmerie forces stopped a minibus on Tokat-Erzincan...

A total of 205 Boko Haram militants have been convicted and 526 others freed for lack of evidence in the second round of mass trials of persons arrested in connection with the insurgency in northeast Nigeria, according to a statement. In the statement issued on late Monday, Salihu Isa,...

ANKARA: Turkey Tuesday released the former co-leader of the country's main pro-Kurdish party, the group said, after she was detained over her opposition to Ankara's offensive in northern Syria. Police arrested Serpil Kemalbay of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in Ankara on Feb.13,...

The hunt for a plane that went missing in Iran's Zagros mountains resumed for a third day on Tuesday with better weather raising hopes for the search and rescue teams. "Given the good weather conditions, clear skies and less wind, there is a good visibility today for continuing the...