In making peace with the Taliban, the United States is moving to end its longest-ever war and also signalling a major shift: After two decades, an era of global US military interventionism is winding down. Since the September 11, 2001 attacks killed 3,000 people and traumatized the American...

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Bombardment of the Libyan capital Tripoli intensified on Friday, residents said, as the United Nations envoy called for a return to a ceasefire agreed last month and eastern forces said they shot down several drones. Residents said the shelling was among the heaviest...

Lebanon announced on Friday it was closing the country’s schools effective Feb. 29 until March 8 as a precautionary measure against the spread of coronavirus, an education ministry statement said. Lebanon on Friday confirmed the country’s fourth case of the virus and has restricted...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will witness the signing of a U.S.-Taliban agreement on a withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, President Donald Trump said on Friday, heralding an agreement that could help his re-election campaign. The deal, part of...

Saudi Arabia temporarily suspended entry of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) citizens to Mecca and Medina, the foreign ministry announced in a statement published by the state news agency Friday. The statement added it will exclude from that decision the citizens of the GCC who had been...

 The rapid spread of the coronavirus increased fears of a pandemic on Friday, with six countries reporting their first cases and the World Health Organization (WHO) raising its global spread and impact risk alert to “very high”. World shares fell again, winding up their worst week...

Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in OPEC, and some other members are considering agreeing an output cut of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) for the second quarter of 2020, more than an initially proposed cut of 600,000 bpd, the sources said. The Financial Times newspaper was first to...

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus will shut four checkpoints linking the two sides of the ethnically-split island for seven days as a precaution against the spread of coronovirus, Cypriot media reported on Friday. Two media outlets quoted Cypriot Health Minister Constantinos Ioannou saying the...

Japan's schools prepared to close for almost a month and entertainers, topped by K-pop superstars BTS, canceled events as a virus epidemic extended its spread through Asia into Europe and on Friday, into sub-Saharan Africa. The expectation that Japan would close all its elementary,...

Asian stock markets plunged further Friday on spreading virus fears, deepening a global rout after Wall Street endured its biggest one-day drop in nine years. The Tokyo and Shanghai benchmarks sank by an unusually wide margin of 3.7%. Seoul and Sydney dropped by more than 3% and Hong Kong...

A major cycling race in the United Arab Emirates was canceled early Friday after two Italians tested positive for the new coronavirus, setting off a quarantine that also ensnared four-time Tour de France winner Chris Froome of Britain. The Abu Dhabi Sports Council's decision to cancel the...

K-pop superstars BTS canceled an upcoming concert series in South Korea's capital as the country that exports entertainment worldwide tries to contain a soaring virus outbreak. It follows a near-shutdown of entertainment in hard-hit parts of China, the world's second-biggest economy and...

For years, Ibrahim al-Dabba has been saving up money to make the umrah pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites in Saudi Arabia, which for many Palestinians is the only way to leave the impoverished and isolated Gaza Strip. He registered with a tourism agency back in September, hoping to make...

The United States on Thursday urged India to respect the right to peaceful assembly and called on all sides to refrain from violence after sectarian riots in Delhi killed at least 33 people. In a cautious statement, the top US diplomat for South Asia sought to show little distance with...

Leading Israeli Arab politician Ayman Odeh has made US President Donald Trump and his controversial peace plan the main target of his campaign for Tuesday's general election. "We have an opportunity to defeat the Trump plan in these elections," said Ayman Odeh, head of the mainly Arab Joint...

A former housekeeper at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence is suing the leader's wife Sara for pain and suffering allegedly caused during her employment there, the housekeeper's attorney said Thursday. Opheer Shimson says his client is demanding $190,000 in...

 Tunisia has a new government at last, after four months of arguing among rival parties in the young North African democracy. After a 15-hour debate, the Tunisian parliament voted 129-77 with one abstention to approve the government of Prime Minister-designate Elyes Fakhfakh early...

Eight MPs from Germany's radical-left Left party said Thursday they had filed a criminal complaint against Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers, accusing them of complicity in the US killing of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani. Their complaint relates to the US Air Force's massive...

Britain warned Thursday it would not commit to following European Union rules in a post-Brexit trade deal, and threatened to abandon talks in June if no compromise was possible. Two days after EU ministers approved their own joint approach to the negotiations, which start Monday, Prime...

Iraq announced the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the capital Baghdad on Thursday, taking nationwide infections to six and raising concerns about the capacity of the dilapidated health system to respond. The government announced sweeping measures late Wednesday to try to contain the...