Chinese President Xi Jinping repeated on Thursday a call for a political resolution to the Syrian crisis and his country’s support for an inclusive political transition and offered to boost aid for Syrian refugees, Reuters reported. “China respects the reasonable demands of the...

  A visit visa can be converted into a permanent residency permit for a close family member of an expatriate worker under special conditions, a senior Passport Department official said during a phone-in service with Arab News readers on Wednesday....

BANGKOK (AP) — The three-finger salute from the Hollywood movie "The Hunger Games" is being used as a real symbol of resistance in Thailand. Protesters against the military coup are flashing the gesture as a silent act of rebellion, and they're being threatened with arrest if they...

BEIRUT - John Kerry arrived in Beirut on Wednesday, beginning an unannounced visit that is the first by a US secretary of state to Lebanon in five years, an AFP journalist said.   Kerry is in Beirut to announce $290 million in aid to boost UN efforts in Syria and neighboring...

PARIS (AP) — A suspected French jihadist who spent time in Syria is in custody over the shooting deaths of three people at a Belgian Jewish museum, prosecutors said Sunday, crystalizing fears that European radicals will parlay their experiences in Syria into terrorism back home....

Italy's navy says it has picked up nearly 3,000 people in the last 24 hours as they attempted to cross the Mediterranean by boat. The navy released pictures on Saturday showing the rescue of migrants from overcrowded and unsafe boats. The video showed at least 450 people being...

An American fighting for a hardline Islamist group carried out a deadly suicide bombing in Syria, US officials said Friday, in the first such case in the war. The confirmation came amid growing fears over the flood of foreigners into Syria, with no end in sight in the three-year...

(Reuters) - A Pakistani man whose pregnant wife was bludgeoned to death by angry family members who did not approve of the marriage fondly recalled a brief life together with the woman he fell in love with at first sight. Farzana Iqbal, 25, was murdered by a group of assailants...

(Reuters) - The defeated candidate in Egypt's presidential election, Hamdeen Sabahi, appealed on Friday against results that gave former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi victory, saying election rules had been broken. Leftist politician Sabahi won 3 percent of votes in the...

(Reuters) - Syria's economy , rocked by four years of civil war, is shrinking fast as industrial and agricultural output falls, leaving almost two thirds of the population in extreme poverty, according to a U.N. sponsored report released on Wednesday. The study, conducted by...

The trial of a former Lebanese minister accused of plotting attacks and transporting explosives has been postponed to December 5, a judicial source told AFP on Friday. Michel Samaha was due to face a military court on Friday but the judge, Brigadier General Khalil Ibrahim,...

United Nations, (IANS/WAM) Syria has suffered $143.8 billion in economic losses due to the continuing civil war in the country, according to a new UN report. The joint report by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research and the UN says that even as the death toll from Syria's...

CAIRO (AP) — With nearly all votes counted, Egypt's former military chief has won a crushing victory over his sole opponent with more than 92 percent of the votes, according to results announced by his campaign early Thursday. The campaign of retired field marshal Abdel-Fattah...

(Reuters) - Sweden's biggest security threat comes from around 200 Islamists in the country with the potential for involvement in militant attacks, including young people radicalized after joining the war in Syria , the state's spy chief said. Increasing Russian espionage...

Egypt extended on Tuesday polling in the country for a third day, in a move that was met with objections from rival presidential runners Abdel Fatah al-Sisi and Hamdeen Sabahi. The Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission’s decision came a day after authorities declared Tuesday a public...

(Reuters) - The Egyptian government launched a determined effort to get out the vote on Tuesday after lower than expected turnout in a presidential election threatened to undermine the credibility of the frontrunner, former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. After Sisi called for...

(Reuters) - Former army chief Abdel Fatah al-Sisi is expected to emerge from a second and final day of voting on Tuesday as Egypt's next president, with supporters seeing him as the man who can pull the Arab world's most populous nation back from the brink. Since the overthrow...

(Reuters) - An American volunteer cardiologist was shot dead in Pakistan on Monday, a member of his minority Ahmadi community said, in the latest attack on a group that says it is Muslim but whose religion is rejected by the state. Mehdi Ali Qamar had taken his wife, young...

(Reuters) - The leader of the protesters occupying Libyan oil ports said on Monday he did not recognize Prime Minister Ahmed Maiteeq's new government and suggested a previously agreed deal to end his blockade could be in jeopardy. Ibrahim Jathran, who wants more autonomy from...

(Reuters) - Egyptians voted on Monday in an election expected to anoint Abdel Fatah al-Sisi as president, with supporters hoping another military strongman can end three years of turmoil despite fears for democracy in the Arab world's most populous nation. After the overthrow...