BEIJING (AP) — China’s best-known entrepreneur, e-commerce billionaire Jack Ma, made his fortune by taking big risks. The former English teacher founded Alibaba Group in 1999, when China had few internet users. Online payments service Alipay launched five years later, before regulators said...

The Lebanese government imposed a new lockdown Monday that is set to last from Jan. 7 until Feb. 1, in a bid to to curb the dangerous spread of coronavirus as the holiday season comes to a close.

The European Union says it will redouble its efforts to save the Iran nuclear agreement despite what it calls Tehran’s "important breach" of commitments made in the 2015 deal by starting to enrich uranium to new levels. EU spokesman Peter Stano said that Iran’s actions "will have serious...

Turkey's exports reached $169.5 billion in 2020, the trade minister announced Tuesday, citing preliminary data. The headline figure, despite the severe economic contraction and shrinking in foreign demand in our export markets, especially the in EU, is the exporters' success, Ruhsar Pekcan...

Samples of the CoronaVac vaccine brought to Turkey’s capital last week, are under tests in the Health Ministry labs for emergency use approvals, said the ministry on Tuesday. The samples of the vaccine, developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, which were brought on Dec. 30, 2020, are tested in...

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama will pay an official visit to Turkey on Jan. 6 on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's invitation, Turkey's Communications Directorate said on Tuesday. In a statement, the directorate said bilateral relations between Turkey and Albania as well as steps...

The densely populated Gaza Strip has long lacked sufficient drinking water, but a new project helps ease the shortage with a solar-powered process to extract potable water straight from the air. Unusually, the project operating in the Islamist-run Palestinian enclave, which has been...

One is a headscarf-wearing cleaning lady from the poor suburbs of Istanbul, the other a jet-setting psychiatrist who breaks glass ceilings and harbours suspicions about conservative Islam. Together, the two women make for a compelling story in a hit Netflix series that has pushed...

Saudi Arabia will reopen its airspace and land and sea border to Qatar as of Monday, Kuwait’s foreign minister said, citing a deal towards resolving a political dispute that led Riyadh and its allies to impose a boycott on Qatar. “Based on [Kuwait’s ruler Emir] Sheikh Nawaf’s proposal,...

The US military on Monday blamed the Taliban for a spate of assassinations of prominent Afghans, the first time Washington has directly accused the insurgent group of the killings. The charge comes as the Afghan government and Taliban are due Tuesday to resume peace talks in Qatar, as both...

A huge cache of arms and ammunition was seized by Turkish security forces following an operation in the country's southeastern region against PKK, a terrorist organization, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. Gendarmerie forces carried out search activity after the Yildirim-1 Cudi...

Britain began vaccinating its population with the COVID-19 shot developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca on Monday, touting a scientific "triumph" that puts it at the vanguard of the West in inoculating against the virus. Britain, which is rushing to vaccinate its population faster...

Israel's defence minister said on Monday that he wants the country to buy a third squadron of stealth F-35 warplanes from the United States, and that he hoped a deal could be clinched before President Donald Trump steps down on Jan. 20. Israel has been in talks with Washington on how to...

The US reversed a decision to bring an aircraft carrier home from the Gulf Sunday, with the Pentagon saying that due to "recent threats" by Iran the USS Nimitz would stay in position. The Nimitz has been patrolling Gulf waters since late November, but in a statement issued on December 31,...

A long-awaited bill for protection of women against domestic violence in Iran has finally made headway. The Cabinet on Sunday evening approved the bill titled, Protection, Dignity, and Security of Women against Violence, which had been under review since September 2019. It will now be...

The US has ordered the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz to remain in the Middle East, citing Iranian threats against US officials, in a move to reverse its decision last week. In a statement on Sunday night, Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller said: "Due to the recent threats issued by...

(AP) — Nancy Pelosi was narrowly reelected Sunday as speaker, giving her the reins of Democrats' slender House majority as President-elect Joe Biden sets a challenging course of producing legislation to tackle the pandemic, revive the economy and address other party priorities. The...

Chanting anti-American slogans, thousands of Iraqis converged on a landmark square in central Baghdad on Sunday to commemorate the anniversary of the killing of a powerful Iranian general and a top Iraqi militia leader in a U.S. drone strike. Roads leading to Tahrir Square were closed off...

Hezbollah on Sunday marked the first anniversary of killing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard General Qassem Soleimani with a ceremony at Lebanon's southern border with Israel. In a symbolic event on a hill outside Kfar Kila overlooking the Israeli settlement of Metula, a batch of...

The airport of Yemen's second city Aden re-opened Sunday, days after 26 people were killed there in deadly blasts apparently targeting the country's new government. A plane of the national carrier Yemenia from Khartoum was the first to land Sunday as services resumed after Wednesday's...