US President Donald Trump's surprise backing of Morocco's claim to sovereignty over disputed Western Sahara upended years of international consensus, but will this break a deadlock or inflame a conflict? AFP looks at how a dispute often dubbed a "forgotten war" suddenly shot to world...

Escalating attacks on the Iraqi capital's few liquor stores have terrified shop-owners who fear hardline Islamists are flexing their muscle against alcohol consumption. But there may be a bigger story behind the Baghdad booze bombings, as some suspect turf wars for control of the lucrative...

Karim Benzema spared Real Madrid's blushes on Tuesday with the winning brace which shot the reigning champions to a 3-1 win over Athletic Bilbao that draws them level on points with La Liga Leaders Real Sociedad. Frenchman Benzema headed home a cross from Dani Carvajal with 16 minutes...

Turkey reported 32,102 more coronavirus infections, including 5,105 symptomatic patients, over the past 24 hours, according to Health Ministry data released Tuesday. The total number of cases topped 1,89 million with latest additions, the data showed. As many as 29,247 patients...

One day after the Electoral College affirmed Joe Biden as US president-elect, the top Republican in Congress broke weeks of election silence Tuesday and sent a sober message to a defiant President Donald Trump: it's over. For more than a month Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had...

The United States on Tuesday placed a pro-Iranian group based in Bahrain on its global "terror list," accusing it of plotting attacks on US troops in the tiny Gulf kingdom. The group, Saraya al-Mukhtar, poses a "significant risk of committing acts of terrorism that threaten the national...

America's top diplomat Mike Pompeo on Tuesday accused Russia of continuing to "threaten Mediterranean stability" and sowing "chaos, conflict and division" in countries around the region. In a statement on "Russian Influence in the Mediterranean," the outgoing Secretary of State responded to...

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner will lead a U.S. delegation to Israel and Morocco next week for discussions on the normalization deal the two Middle East countries reached last week, a senior administration official said on Tuesday. The U.S. delegation and an Israeli team will join...

Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine appeared set for regulatory authorization this week after U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff endorsed it as safe and effective in documents released Tuesday. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 300,000 people in the U.S. and the government is...

The path to a new Lebanese government is completely blocked, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said in comments published on Tuesday, but he held out hope that French President Emmanuel Macron might be able to help in a forthcoming visit. Fractious politicians have been unable to agree on a...

 Israel could be open to future cooperation on missile defence with Gulf Arab states that share its concerns over Iran, a senior Israeli official said on Tuesday. But the official, Moshe Patel, who heads the Israeli Missile Defence Organisation which is part of the Defence Ministry,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, is departing amid lingering tension over the president’s baseless claims of election fraud and the investigation into President-elect Joe Biden’s son. Barr went Monday to the White House,...

Ten years ago, a fruit seller set himself ablaze in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid after an altercation with a policewoman about where he had put his cart. Word of Mohammed Bouazizi’s fatal act of defiance quickly spread, sparking nationwide protests that eventually toppled...

A record number of journalists were behind bars this year, a US-based watchdog said Tuesday, accusing governments worldwide of suppressing the media and fueling misinformation amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The annual report by the Committee to Protect Journalists found that 274 journalists...

Iran's foreign minister Tuesday condemned the imposition of US sanctions on neighbouring Turkey over its procurement of Russia's S-400 air defence system, saying it showed "contempt for international law". "We strongly condemn recent US sanctions against Turkey and stand with its people and...

Armenia and Azerbaijan have begun exchanging groups of prisoners of war, part of an "all for all" swap mediated by Russia after a bloody conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday. The six-week conflict between Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenian forces...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday congratulated Joe Biden on winning the US presidential election in November, saying he hoped the countries could set aside their differences to promote global security. Putin wished the US president-elect every success and said that, "for my part,...

Yevgeny Prigozhin, owner of the Russian private military company Wagner Group, will pay 18 million rubles (US$244,000) each to two Russian citizens who were detained in Libya in 2019 on spying charges and released last week.  According to a statement by Prigozhin's company Concord,...

Turkish officials denounced a US decision to impose sanctions on Turkey over its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system. Criticizing the move, Vice President Fuat Oktay said the sanctions will only boost the country's determination to strengthen its national interests and...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr, one of President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies, is departing amid lingering tension over the president’s baseless claims of election fraud and the investigation into President-elect Joe Biden’s son. Barr went Monday to the White House,...