Yemen’s leading separatist group will abandon its aspirations for self-rule to implement a stalled peace deal brokered by Saudi Arabia, it announced early Wednesday in a major step toward closing a dangerous rift between nominal allies in the chaotic proxy war. Nizar Haitham, a spokesman...

Turkey's parliament passed a law regulating social media on Wednesday, that critics said will increase censorship and help authorities silence dissent. President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, which has a majority with an allied nationalist party, had backed the bill. The assembly began...

Panama hats and designer sunglasses, champagne buckets and luxury cars: in the mountain resort town of Faqra, Lebanon's economic crisis is not immediately obvious. Digging into a crunchy salad at an exclusive country club in the Lebanese mountains, Zeina el-Khalil said she was glad to have...

 Italy’s upper house of parliament approved on Tuesday a request by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to extend until Oct. 15 a state of emergency, expanding his government’s powers as it tackles the coronavirus health crisis. Opposition parties had objected, accusing Conte of trying to...

Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards launched a military drill in the Gulf on Tuesday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, at a time of high tension between Tehran and Washington. There have been periodic confrontations in the Gulf in recent years between the Guards and the U.S....

The United Nations said on Tuesday it was still waiting for Yemen’s Houthi group to authorize deployment of an assessment team to a decaying oil tanker that is threatening to spill 1.1 million barrels of crude oil off the war-torn country’s coast. Two weeks ago U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock...

The novel coronavirus is neither seasonal, nor does it occur in waves, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in answer to questions at the twice-weekly UN press briefing held virtually in Geneva that the COVID-19 virus likes all weathers...

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert who has led the country through multiple health crises for decades, defended his work Tuesday to protect Americans' health after the president retweeted a controversial video later removed by social media companies. "I have not...

First Abu Dhabi Bank, the United Arab Emirates' biggest lender, said Tuesday its net profits for the second quarter and first half of 2020 had plunged due to the impact of coronavirus. FAB's net profit for the second quarter of this year dropped 25 percent to $657 million compared to $872...

France called Tuesday for a UN-led observer mission to evaluate the treatment of China's Uighur population and accused Beijing of "indefensible practices" against the Muslim minority. The proposal by Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian comes as tensions rise between France and China after...

Pilgrims were quarantined Tuesday in the Muslim holy city of Mecca ahead of the dramatically downsized hajj as Saudi authorities strive to prevent a coronavirus outbreak during the five-day pilgrimage. Up to 10,000 people already residing in the kingdom will participate in the annual ritual...

The leader of a major Christian group in Lebanon Tuesday blamed the militant group Hezbollah and its local allies led by President Michel Aoun for the rapidly deteriorating economy and worsening relations with neighboring Arab countries, saying the only solution is for them to leave power....

A Saudi court has sentenced a Yemeni blogger to 10 months in prison, a fine of 10,000 riyals ($2,600) and deportation for a social media post supporting equal rights for people in same sex relationships, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). The group said Mohamad al-Bokari fled Yemen in...

Taliban announced Tuesday that they will observe a three-day ceasefire in Afghanistan for the Muslim occasion of Eid al-Adha, starting Friday, the group's spokesman said. "In order for our people to spend the three days of Eid in confidence and happiness, all fighters are instructed not to...

A new bout of deadly violence in Sudan's ravaged Darfur region is an attempt to sabotage the country's fragile transition since last year's ouster of strongman President Omar al-Bashir, analysts say. It threatens to derail Khartoum's renewed efforts to stabilise a harsh, drought-plagued...

The Venice Film Festival will put the accent on homegrown Italian cinema in September among its eclectic offering of international films, as the prestigious festival goes forward facing unprecedented challenges in the time of coronavirus. In a chaotic festival year that has seen the...

Ferrari chairman John Elkann has admitted that the iconic car manufacturer's Formula One team "is not competitive" after a miserable start to the 2020 season that has left them far behind dominant Mercedes. "This year, we are not competitive mainly because of a series of design errors in...

A trio of paintings by British street artist Banksy will be auctioned in London on Tuesday, with the expected proceeds of more than $1 million to be donated to a Palestinian hospital. The triptych will go under the hammer at Sotheby's after the artist donated them to help fund a new stroke...

Turkey could pause energy-exploration operations in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for a while pending talks with Greece, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Tuesday. In an interview with broadcaster CNN Turk, Kalin said President Tayyip Erdogan had requested that operations be put on...

The governor of Iran's western province of Kermanshah, governor Fazlollah Ranjbar, contradicted reports from Iran's Mizan news agency, that attributed a fire outbreak of fuel tanks fires to an explosion. "We did not have any explosions anywhere in the city today and the black smoke that...