Daesh (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for a gun assault on a political rally in the Afghan capital Friday that killed 29 people and wounded 61. "Two brothers... targeted a gathering of apostates... in Kabul city with machine guns, hand grenades and rocket-propelled grenades," it said in a...

An eerie emptiness enveloped the sacred Kaaba in Mecca's Grand Mosque, Islam's holiest site, where attendance at Friday prayers was hit by measures to protect against the deadly new coronavirus. An imam said during his sermon he hoped for an end to the epidemic and backed a decision by...

Representatives of Iraq's top Shiite cleric did not deliver his weekly sermon in Karbala on Friday, a first since the fall of Saddam Hussein, due to fears of spreading the novel coronavirus. Religious authorities had already closed the shrine of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet...

Iran’s death toll from coronavirus infections jumped on Friday to 124, as 17 died over the past 24 hours and more than 1,000 were additionally diagnosed with the disease, a health ministry spokesman said in Tehran. The number of infections rose to 4,747, he said. Iran had reported 3,513...

A volley of gunfire rang out in Kabul on Friday at a ceremony attended by top Afghan government officials. Former President Hamid Karzai, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah and a number of other figures fled the site in the capital Kabul, a spokesman of the chief executive told Anadolu...

The novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, infected more than 97,000 people across the world, according to a data collecting website "worldometer". The death toll has risen to 3,390 worldwide, including 3,042 in China, where the virus outbreak first emerged from the city of Wuhan...

 At least one militant on a motorbike blew himself up outside the U.S. embassy in Tunisia Friday wounding five police, local media reported, in the country's most serious apparent attack since the summer. Embassy officials confirmed the attack in a tweet on its official Twitter feed,...

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has relieved the economy minister in the latest cabinet reshuffle, official media reported citing a royal decree, as the kingdom grapples with plunging oil prices. Saudi Press Agency said late Thursday that the king "relieved" Mohammed al-Tuwaijri from his...

A surge in 1948 Palestinian voter turnout was key to depriving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist allies of a parliamentary majority in this week’s Israeli election. Undercutting Netanyahu’s ambitions was celebrated as sweet payback in the nearly 2 million-strong minority...

Brief clashes broke out at Turkey's border with Greece on Friday, where thousands of refugees have been encouraged to leave for the European Union. Greek police fired tear gas at migrants trying to break through the fence, who responded by throwing stones, according to AFP journalists at...

Saudi Arabia reopened two of the most holy religious sites in Islam, Al-Haram Mosque in Mecca and Al-Masjid al Nabawy in Medina, after they were closed for sterilization to halt the spread of the new coronavirus, state TV Al-Ekhbariya reported on Friday. Saudi Arabia closed the sites to...

Tension flared at Greece’s mainland border with Turkey early on Friday as volleys of tear gas were fired from the Turkish side of the fence towards Greek border guards. There has been a standoff in the border area of Kastanies since Feb. 28, when Ankara said it would no longer hold back...

A ceasefire deal between Moscow and Ankara in Syria’s Idlib region needs to be cemented with a no-fly zone to stop any further bombings of hospitals, Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said on Friday. “It would be wise to add a no-fly zone,” he told reporters on arriving for a meeting with EU...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again fallen short of a parliamentary majority with his hard-line allies, final election results confirmed Thursday, extending the country's year-old political deadlock and weakening the longtime leader as he prepares to go on trial for corruption...

Lebanon’s financial prosecutor froze the assets of 20 Lebanese banks, their top bosses and board members as part of a probe, state media and judicial sources said on Thursday. Local banks are at the heart of a financial crisis crippling Lebanon as the clock runs down on its looming debt...

Iraq has ordered schools to teach pupils online, cancelled Friday prayers and suspended trade with major partner Iran, after confirming its first three deaths from the new coronavirus. Authorities stepped up attempts to contain COVID-19 on Thursday. With students scheduled to return to...

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday called on all nations to hold Iran accountable for its nuclear commitments and said Tehran’s failure to report nuclear material was a clear violation of safeguard agreements. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which is policing Iran’s...

Nine Palestinians including several children were killed after a fire broke out in a bakery in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian authorities said, without specifying the cause. Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave, said 85 people were injured...

At least 11 people were killed and 22 others wounded when a five-storey residential complex collapsed in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Thursday, leaving additional victims trapped in the rubble. The building had initially been constructed as a four-storey complex, but another floor was...

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Thursday warned that major differences remain between Britain and Europe after a first round of trade talks ended in Brussels. Barnier was speaking to reporters after four days of talks that launched months of intense closed-door...