Omar Hajajla may have a private gateway to his home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, but it is hardly a sign of luxury: it runs beneath an Israeli barrier that cuts him and his family off from the rest of their nearby Palestinian village. Israel began building its West Bank barrier in...

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Thursday measures would be taken to hold to account all those who contributed to Lebanon’s financial crisis through illegal actions be they transfers abroad, manipulation of Eurobonds or other acts. “There is information that we are still in need of...

Campaigning officially ended on Thursday for Iran’s parliamentary election, state media said, a day before a vote seen as a litmus test of the popularity of the Islamic republic The vote to pick 290 lawmakers is Iran’s first since U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of...

A team of IMF experts met Prime Minister Hassan Diab on Thursday at the start of a visit to provide Lebanon with advice on tackling a deepening financial and economic crisis, an official Lebanese source said. The IMF has said the team will visit until Feb. 23 and provide broad technical...

Israel's defense minister said Thursday that the country would allow Palestinian agricultural exports, a move aimed at defusing what has been an escalating trade crisis that had heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions. Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement that...

The death toll in China from the coronavirus outbreak has risen to 2,120, the country’s National Health Commission said Thursday. The commission said there are 11,864 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, now known as COVID-19, while more than 126,000 people are currently under medical...

A German far-right extremist killed at least nine people on Wednesday night in the western town of Hanau, near Frankfurt. The perpetrator, who targeted migrants at two cafes, was identified by security forces as 43-year-old Tobias R., German daily Bild reported.  He and one other...

The international system has failed to take joint action to end the Libya crisis, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Thursday. “The international system failed to take joint action to halt the conflict in Libya. There is also a lack of resolution,” Mevlut Cavusoglu told national broadcaster...

Australia set up a national inquiry Thursday into its month-long bushfire crisis that affected three in four Australians and prompted widespread criticism of the government for its sluggish response to the blazes. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the vast scale of the fires -- which...

Iraqi Prime Minister-designate Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi said Wednesday he has put together a cabinet of political independents and called on parliament to hold an extraordinary session next week to grant it a vote of confidence. Allawi said in a televised speech that if his government wins a...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that talks to set the European Union's budget for the coming seven years will be "very difficult" at an extraordinary summit beginning Thursday. "We think our concerns are not sufficiently addressed on many points, and I therefore see very...

Afghanistan's former vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful warlord who has long held undue sway over the country's politics, called on his supporters Wednesday to take to the streets to protest against the re-election of President Ashraf Ghani. Ghani on Tuesday was declared winner...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Riyadh Wednesday for talks with Saudi leaders focused on countering Tehran, his first visit since a top Iranian general's killing sent regional tensions soaring. The top US diplomat, whose visit follows his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa, will...

A Palestinian teenager died Wednesday from wounds sustained during clashes with Palestinian security forces in the West Bank, the health ministry said. Salah Zakareneh, 17, was shot during a "violent clash" with Palestinian "security forces and armed men in the Qabatiya area" late Tuesday,...

German sportswear maker Adidas said Wednesday store closures in China had brought plummeting sales since the beginning of the novel coronavirus outbreak in late January. "Our business activity in Greater China has been around 85 percent below the prior year level since Chinese New Year on...

The United Arab Emirates has started loading fuel rods into the first reactor at its Barakah nuclear plant, operators said Wednesday, two days after regulators gave the green light. On Monday, the national nuclear regulator announced it has issued the operating license for the first of the...

Sanaullah Dar was due to undergo surgery to remove a tumour in his bladder. Four months later, he was dead, with doctors blaming a lockdown imposed by New Delhi on the restive part of Kashmir it controls. In August, India's Hindu-nationalist government stripped the Himalayan region of its...

Washington has the right to block US federal agencies from buying products by Huawei on cybersecurity grounds, a judge ruled Tuesday, dismissing the Chinese telecom giant's legal challenge to a purchase ban. Huawei filed the suit last year and claimed Congress had failed to provide evidence...

Saudi Aramco shares have lost most of the gains they made since listing in December in a landmark first offering, as oil prices drop amid alarm over the new coronavirus. China's energy demand has sagged as authorities lock down millions of people to prevent the spread of the disease, with...

Opponents of Iran's theocratic leadership are urging an outright boycott of its parliamentary elections, arguing that it is anything but democratic and that casting a ballot serves only to bolster the country's Islamic rulers. The country's supreme leader has urged Iranians to "disappoint...