A Tunisian diplomat was kidnapped on Thursday in the Libyan capital Tripoli, Libya's foreign ministry said, two days after gunmen seized Jordan's ambassador. Kidnappings have become commonplace in the oil producer, with foreign officials often the targets. The weak interim...

Iran has acted to cut its most sensitive nuclear stockpile by nearly 75 percent in implementing a landmark pact with world powers, but a planned facility it will need to fulfill the six-month deal has been delayed, a U.N. report showed on Thursday. The monthly update by...

Suspected Sunni Muslim militants killed at least 30 people around Iraq on Thursday including 12 soldiers in an assault on a remote army base in the north, deepening insecurity with a national election just two weeks away. Sectarian bloodshed has increased since the Shi'ite...

Gabriel Garcia Marquez was an enormous influence on a huge number of writers worldwide, in particular through his 1967 novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude". Far beyond South America and the wider Hispanic world, Garcia Marquez's influence was felt by and played out in the work...

Iraqi Kurds are digging a 17-km (10-mile) trench on their border with Syria, reinforcing a political faultline between the two rival parties that dominate on either side of the frontier. Iraqi Kurdish authorities say the ditch, which is approximately 3 meters deep and 2...

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French forces have freed five Malian aid workers who were taken hostage in a February kidnapping claimed by one of the country's top jihadist groups, the presidents of France and Mali said Thursday. "An operation by the French armed forces" freed the five workers -- four Red Cross...

Damascus- Indo Asian News Service: Syria has raised the price of gasoline by 20 percent as part of government-guided austerity measures to cut costly subsidies, the fifth increase in three years. The Ministry of Trade and Consumer Protection announced Wednesday that the price of one...

Separatists flew the Russian flag on armored vehicles taken from the Ukrainian army on Wednesday, humiliating a Kiev government operation to recapture eastern towns controlled by pro-Moscow partisans. Six armored personnel carriers were driven into the rebel-held town of...

Jordan's ambassador to Libya was kidnapped on Tuesday by gunmen who demanded an Islamist militant be released from a Jordanian jail in exchange for the diplomat's freedom. The masked gunmen shot and wounded the driver of Ambassador Fawaz al-Itan's car as they snatched the...

Ukrainian armed forces on Tuesday launched a "special operation" against militiamen in the country's Russian speaking east, authorities said, recapturing a military airfield from pro-Moscow separatists. Gunfire could be heard from the airfield at the town of Kramatorsk after...

The Guardian US and Washington Post were awarded the most prestigious Pulitzer prize on Monday for coverage of secret surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency that sparked wide debate over government spying. Reuters won in international reporting for its coverage of the...

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Lebanon plans to lower internet prices and boost speed after cutting landline and mobile call prices by up to half this month to boost consumption and ease pressure on consumers, its telecoms minister said on Monday. A country of about 4 million people, Lebanon has some of the...

Israel is holding secret talks with some Arab states that do not recognize it, looking to establish diplomatic ties based on a common fear of Iran , Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Monday. Amongst the countries he was in contact with were Saudi Arabia...

Turkey urged executives from Twitter to open an office and start paying Turkish tax on Monday in the first direct talks since a two-week ban imposed on the site as the government battled a corruption scandal. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government blocked Twitter and...

Iran and Russia will find it hard to agree any oil or gas trade deal because they are rivals in both markets , Iran's deputy oil minister for international trade said on Monday. Iran and Russia have been discussing various ways of increasing bilateral trade,...

The United States and three European allies want a global body controlling nuclear exports to consider whether to establish closer ties with non-members including Israel , despite its assumed atomic arsenal, a confidential document showed. The issue is sensitive as Israel...

Libyan prosecutors opened the trial of deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi's sons and more than two dozen of his ex-officials on Monday in a major test for the North African state's transition to a democracy. Gaddafi's sons Saadi Gaddafi and Saif al-Islam did not appear in the...

Ukraine's president on Monday threatened military action after pro-Russian separatists occupying government buildings in the east ignored an ultimatum to leave and another group of rebels attacked a police headquarters in the troubled region. Acting president Oleksander...