Oil-rich Gulf nations are relying on a well-worn playbook of spending less and borrowing more to get through the coronavirus crisis but with the outlook for oil clouded by uncertainty the strategy is riskier than before. Previous bouts of belt-tightening have relied on rebounding oil prices...

Saudi Arabia will partially lift its suspension on international flights from Tuesday, the interior ministry said, six months after travel curbs were imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The kingdom will end all restrictions on air, land and sea transport for Saudi citizens "after...

The United States and Iran will face off at the UN's top court on Monday in the latest round of a battle over sanctions on Tehran reimposed by President Donald Trump. Tehran dragged Washington to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague in 2018 after Trump pulled the US out of...

Japan's ruling party on Monday elected chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga as its new leader, making him all but certain to replace Shinzo Abe as the country's next prime minister. Suga easily won the ballot, taking 377 of a total of 534 valid votes from Liberal Democratic Party...

 French President Emmanuel Macron has been pressing Lebanese politicians to deliver on promises to form a new government this week and haul the country out of its worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, his office said on Sunday. Lebanon’s leaders promised Macron on Sept. 1 during...

Taliban and Afghan government forces clashed across Afghanistan hours after the start of long-awaited peace talks in Doha on Saturday, officials said, underscoring the uphill challenge of settling a 19-year insurgency. Talks between the two sides were to begin shortly after a U.S.-Taliban...

 The death toll in Turkey due to the novel coronavirus reached 7,056 on Sunday, rising by 57 people in the last 24 hours, data from the Health Ministry showed. The total number of cases in the country rose by 1,527 on Sunday, for a total of 291,162 cases, the data showed, with 258,833...

Lewis Hamilton celebrated the 90th win of his Formula One career, one short of Michael Schumacher's all-time record, after a crazy crash-strewn Tuscan Grand Prix on Sunday that was twice stopped and re-started. The six-time world champion's Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas completed the...

The Gulf state of Oman on Sunday welcomed a US-sponsored agreement between Bahrain and Israel to normalize their relations.  “Oman welcomes the initiative taken by Bahrain in part of its sovereignty rights,” the government said in a statement cited by the official news agency. Oman...

Greece said Sunday it hoped thousands of asylum seekers left homeless by fires at Europe's largest migrant camp could be rehoused within a week to end a crisis that has seen clashes with police. Asylum-seekers -- including the elderly and very young children -- have been sleeping rough on...

At least 100,000 Belarusian anti-government protesters flooded the centre of Minsk on Sunday, a Reuters eyewitness said, while police detained around 250 people, the Russian Interfax news agency said, citing the Interior Ministry.  Opposition figures called this new mass demonstration...

Lebanon has approved a new work contract allowing foreign domestic workers to resign and keep hold of their own passport, but activists say the exploitative "kafala" system remains in place. The economic crisis-hit Mediterranean country is home to around 250,000 migrants, mostly women from...

 Taliban and Afghan government forces clashed across Afghanistan hours after the start of long-awaited peace talks in Doha on Saturday, officials said, underscoring the uphill challenge of settling a 19-year insurgency. Talks between the two sides were to begin shortly after a...

 Iraq's top Shiite cleric Sunday endorsed early parliamentary elections set for June 2021, following his first meeting in nearly a year with a senior United Nations official. "The parliamentary elections scheduled for next year are of great importance," said Grand Ayatollah Ali...

For two decades Palestinians have revered the founder of the United Arab Emirates for his generosity, especially those living on the Gaza housing estate that bears his name. The $62 million development was gifted to the Palestinians a decade and a half ago by the late Sheikh Zayed bin...

 The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Iran rose by 2,089 to 402,029, a health ministry spokeswoman told state TV Sunday, as the country reported 128 new deaths in the past 24 hours. Sima Sadat Lari said the official death toll stood at 23,157 in Iran, one of the worst-hit...

Protesters set fire to the government's headquarters in the Libyan city of Benghazi, as rare demonstrations over living conditions and corruption continued in the east of the country for a third day. The protests late Saturday also erupted in Al-Bayda, where the government was previously...

India’s coronavirus pandemic figures crossed the 4.7 million mark Sunday after it recorded more than 94,000 new cases, according to health ministry figures. India has registered a daily increase of more than 90,000 infections for five straight days and has added 1 million new cases in less...

Saudi Arabian-led coalition fighter jets early on Sunday attacked barracks and military sites of the armed Houthi movement in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya reported. The coalition also destroyed four Houthi drones at Al-Delmi air base north of Sanaa, Al-Arabiya said, citing...

Mohammad al-Bahadli dug into Iraq's hot desert sand with bare hands to reach his father's corpse. "Now he can finally be with our people, our family, in the old cemetery," 49-year-old Bahadli said, as relatives sobbed over the body, wrapped in a shroud. After restrictions were eased for...