Hundreds of officials who worked for former Republican President George W. Bush are set to endorse Democratic White House hopeful Joe Biden, people involved in the effort said, the latest Republican-led group coming out to oppose the re-election of Donald Trump. The officials, who include...

Turkey will try the 20 suspects in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi -- including two former aides to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- in absentia on Friday, his fiancee told AFP Tuesday. Khashoggi, 59, a Riyadh critic commentator who wrote for The Washington Post, was...

Hong Kong police made the first arrests under Beijing's new national security law on Wednesday as the city greeted the anniversary of its handover to China with protesters fleeing water cannon. The commemorations came a day after China imposed a sweeping security law on the city, a historic...

One person was killed and several others injured during largely peaceful demonstrations in Sudan Tuesday, a government spokesman said, as tens of thousands of people took to the streets demanding faster reform and greater civilian rule in the country's transition towards democracy. Waving...

An explosion from a gas leak in a medical clinic in northern Tehran killed 19 people, Iranian state TV reported Tuesday. Authorities initially said 13 people were dead, but Jalal Maleki, spokesman for the Tehran Fire Department, later told state TV that the toll had risen to 19....

 Saudis braced Wednesday for a tripling in value added tax, another unpopular austerity measure after the twin shocks of coronavirus and an oil price slump triggered the kingdom's worst economic decline in decades. Retailers in the country reported a sharp uptick in sales this week of...

Russians are set to approve constitutional reforms on Wednesday denounced by critics as a manoeuvre to allow President Vladimir Putin to stay in the Kremlin for life. The changes were passed weeks ago by Russia's parliament and copies of the new constitution are already on sale in...

Germany takes over the European Union's six-month presidency Wednesday, with outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel staking her legacy on a massive economic recovery plan to help the bloc cope with the coronavirus fallout. Merkel's last major role on the international stage comes as the...

Britain's Defense Secretary Ben Wallace confirmed Tuesday having seen US intelligence briefings about alleged Russian bounties offered to Afghan militants to kill American troops. "I am aware of the intelligence," Wallace told a parliamentary defence sub-committee hearing when asked...

The US State Department has put the ambassador to Israel's official residence outside Tel Aviv up for sale, in a decision aimed at cementing the American embassy's controversial move to Jerusalem. The beachfront mansion in the affluent Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya is going on the market...

Tens of thousands of Sudanese protesters flocked to the streets Tuesday calling for reforms and demanding justice for those killed in anti-government demonstrations that ousted president Omar al-Bashir last year. The protests in several cities and the capital Khartoum went ahead with...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday urged the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Iran, warning that the Middle East's stability was at risk, but he faced wide skepticism over US threats to trigger sanctions. The United States is adamant about prolonging the ban on...

A top US health expert warned Congress on Tuesday that new coronavirus cases could more than double to 100,000 per day if authorities and the public fail to take steps to suppress the pandemic. Infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, a leading member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus...

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday urged Russians to take part in a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms to ensure "stability, security and prosperity". In a televised address before the week-long ballot ends on Wednesday, Putin said Russians should vote for the country "we want to...

The Lebanese army has scrapped meat from all meals it offers to soldiers on duty as food prices skyrocket because of a deepening economic crisis, state media said Tuesday. Lebanon is in the throes of its worst economic downturn since the 1975-1990 civil war, with poverty surging to now...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears determined to carry out his pledge to begin annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, possibly as soon as Wednesday. His vision of redrawing the map of the Holy Land, in line with President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan, has been welcomed by...

India’s first COVID-19 vaccine got the approval for human trials from the country’s drug regulator, as number of coronavirus-related cases and deaths continues upward, a drug company announced. The vaccine, named COVAXIN, has been developed by Bharat Biotech compnay, in collaboration with...

China’s president on Tuesday signed a decree imposing a controversial new security law on Hong Kong, local media reported. Xi Jinping signed the decree after the Standing Committee of China’s 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China’s top legislative body, unanimously voted to pass the...

Oil prices will consolidate at around $40 a barrel this year, with a recovery gaining steam in the fourth quarter and into 2021 on OPEC-led production cuts and as economies limp back from coronavirus lockdowns, a Reuters poll showed Tuesday. The survey of 45 analysts forecast benchmark...

A Yemeni rights group Tuesday accused both sides in the country’s civil war of arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and torture of hundreds of people in the past four years in unofficial detention centers across war-torn Yemen. The Mwatana Organization for Human Rights said it...