Tunisia is drafting an "economic emergency" bill that will allow the government to bypass bureaucratic hurdles and speed up large-scale projects as it seeks to boost growth and create jobs, a senior official said. Administrative delays and bureaucracy are one of the biggest obstacles...

Oil prices edged up on Friday, supported by a fall in Saudi exports to the United States, but overall markets remained under pressure on the back of a world market awash with fuel. Benchmark Brent crude futures LCOc1 were at $50.69 per barrel at 0756 GMT, up 13 cents or 0.3 percent, from...

The world's biggest smartphone maker Samsung, assailed by a shambolic recall and embroiled in South Korea's wide-ranging corruption scandal, Friday backed away from a planned corporate restructuring. Following the embarrassing recall of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone and under pressure from...

Iraq's influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has threatened to boycott the upcoming provincial elections, urging instead followers to join a "reform revolution." Al-Sadr spoke to thousands at an anti-government protest Friday in Baghdad, calling for continued peaceful rallies. He...

Russia said Friday that six of its soldiers had been killed while successfully repelling a militant assault on a military facility in Chechnya. The National Guard of Russia said in a statement that a group of what it called "armed bandits" had launched an attack under the cover of fog in the...

A battle against ISIS to recapture the Syrian city of Raqqa is likely to start in the coming days, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Friday. "France has always said that Raqqa was a major objective," Le Drian told CNews television station. "Today, one can say that Raqqa is...

Before he killed at least four people in Britain's deadliest attack since the 2005 London bombings, Khalid Masood was considered by intelligence officers to be a criminal who posed little serious threat. A British-born former teacher and Muslim convert, Masood had shown up on the periphery...

China is not militarizing the South China Sea, Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday, although he acknowledged that defense equipment on islands in the disputed waterway had been placed there to maintain "freedom of navigation". China has drawn international criticism for large-scale building in...

 Islamic extremists killed 10 Egyptian soldiers in fighting in a central part of the restive Sinai Peninsula during an army raid on a militant hideout early Thursday, the military said, a toll that underscored its continuing challenges to rein in insurgents in the area. Army spokesman Tamer...

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager Thursday in the occupied West Bank and seriously wounded three other Palestinians, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement. It did not give the circumstances, but said the shooting happened near the Jelazoun Palestinian refugee...

Dozens of residents were buried in collapsed buildings in the Iraqi city of Mosul after an airstrike against ISIS triggered a massive explosion last week and rescuers are still recovering bodies, civil defense agency officials and locals said on Thursday. The exact cause of the collapses was...

Turkey summoned the Russian charge d'affaires on Wednesday and sent him another message Thursday to convey "deep unease" over two incidents in Kurdish militia-controlled Syria, Ankara said. Ankara said one of its soldiers had been shot and killed in southern Turkey on Wednesday by...

Germany needs to change its laws so that asylum seekers guilty of benefit fraud are removed from the asylum process, an ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday, striking a tough tone six months before a federal election. More than a million migrants have arrived in Germany...

The man who mowed down pedestrians and stabbed a policeman in an assault on the heart of British democracy was 52-year-old Khalid Masood, who was born in Kent in southeast England, police said on Thursday. London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement that Masood was known by "a number of...

The top U.S. general in Europe said on Thursday that he had seen Russian influence on Afghan Taliban insurgents growing and raised the possibility that they were helping supply the militants. "I've seen the influence of Russia of late – increased influence in terms of association and perhaps...

Communication channels between the European Union and Turkey must remain open, Germany's foreign minister said Thursday in an escalating row over campaigning by Turkish politicians in Europe. Turkey has been embroiled in a dispute with Germany and the Netherlands over campaign appearances by...

A Bahraini appeals court sentenced three people to death Thursday over bombings that targeted police patrols in a majority-Shiite village, the state-run news agency reported. Seventeen people were found guilty of various charges linked to the formation of a "dangerous terrorist cell that...

Saudi Arabia executed two convicted drug traffickers on Thursday, bringing the number of prisoners killed in the kingdom to 20 so far this year. The state-run SPA news agency named the two men as Saudi Arabian national Nasser Harshan and Pakistani national Namtallah Khasta Qul. Both were...

Experienced Greek coach Takis Lemonis has been appointed for a third time as head coach of Olympiacos, the Super League champions said on Thursday. The 57-year-old, who coached the Piraeus club from 2000-2002 and again from 2006-2008, replaces the sacked Portuguese Paulo Bento, who departed...

The attacker who killed three people near the British parliament before being shot dead was British-born and was once investigated by MI5 intelligence agents over concerns about violent extremism, Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday. Police arrested eight people at six locations in...