President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded Saturday that Iran punish those responsible for the downing of a Ukrainian airliner, pay compensation and apologise. "We expect Iran... to bring the guilty to the courts," the Ukrainian leader wrote on Facebook, calling also for the "payment of...

Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said of Oman, the Arab world's longest-serving ruler, has died aged 79, state media say. Last month he returned home after undergoing medical checks and treatment in Belgium. There were reports he was suffering from cancer. Sultan Qaboos deposed his...

The U.S. Friday rebuffed an Iraqi request to prepare to pull out its troops, amid heightened U.S.-Iranian tensions after the U.S. killing of an Iranian commander in Baghdad. Seeking to tighten pressure on its arch foe, the United States meanwhile imposed more sanctions on Iran, responding to an...

The U.S. military tried, but failed, to take out another senior Iranian commander on the same day that an American airstrike killed the Revolutionary Guard's top general, U.S. officials said Friday. The officials said a military airstrike targeted Abdul Reza Shahla’i, a high-ranking...

Daesh (ISIS) gloated over the recent U.S. killing of a senior Iranian general, who rose to prominence by advising forces fighting the extremists. In the first Daesh comments since Gen. Qassem Soleimani's slaying, the group said his death "pleased the hearts of believers." The editorial was...

Thousands of protesters marched in Algiers Friday against the regime, vowing to keep up the movement that has rocked Algeria for nearly a year. The unprecedented protest movement that erupted in February 2019 has continued to demand the dismantling of the political system and its...

Two suspects that allegedly vandalized banks in December have been arrested, a statement from the Lebanese Army said Friday. The Army’s statement said riots took place in Jounieh and in areas nearby, in December and earlier this month, some of which were documented in videos that were...

At least 10 people were killed and 16 others wounded in a bomb blast during evening prayers at a mosque in southwestern Pakistan Friday, police and a doctor said. Police chief of Balochistan province Mohsin Hassan Butt told AFP the blast took place in a satellite town of Quetta, the...

The Pentagon accused the Russian navy on Friday of "aggressive" actions in the Arabian Sea after one of their ships very nearly collided with a US Navy destroyer. The Russian ship ignored collision warning blasts from the USS Farragut and came extremely close before turning away, narrowly...

The United States on Friday announced fresh sanctions against eight top Iranian officials it accused of working to destabilize the region, as well as against more than a dozen leading producers of metals in the Islamic republic. "As a result of these actions, we will cut off billions of...

Thousands of Iraqis rallied across the country on Friday, reviving a months-long protest movement against the government and adding criticisms of both the US and Iran to their chants. The anti-regime demonstrations had been overshadowed recently by spiralling tensions between Tehran and...

Iraq's most senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric on Friday condemned mutual U.S. and Iranian attacks on Iraqi territory and warned of deteriorating security in the country and the wider Middle East as a result of Washington's confrontation with Tehran. European foreign ministers were also meeting...

Lebanon's banks will not go bankrupt and deposits are secure but the country needs foreign support to pull itself from crisis, Central Bank Gov. Riad Salameh said on Thursday, amid deep financial strains that have shaken confidence in banks. Speaking to broadcaster MTV in his first extended...

Tunisia's parliament looked poised to reject a proposed new government Friday after only one party said it would support it in a vote of confidence, meaning a complex coalition-building process may need to start again. Designated prime minister Habib Jemli urged parliament to support his...

French union leaders on Friday began crunch meetings with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and other top officials over a hotly contested pension overhaul that has sparked the country's longest rail strike in history. Expectations of a breakthrough were low, however, after the government...

Gale-force winds in Australia merged two enormous fires into a megablaze across land almost four times the area of New York City on Friday, while thousands rallied to again demand action on climate change. "The conditions are difficult today," said Shane Fitzsimmons, rural fire service...

The Israeli defence ministry has hailed a "breakthrough" in the development of cheaper laser-based air defences, as tensions soar in the region after Iran hit US targets in retaliation for a high-profile assassination. The lasers, still under development, would be capable of intercepting...

Hundreds of people have been killed or raped in attacks on the Hema ethnic group in eastern DR Congo's Ituri province, in what "may amount to crimes against humanity" or even genocide, the UN said on Friday. "At least 701 people have been killed and 168 injured during inter-ethnic tensions...

Iraq's caretaker premier Adel Abdel Mahdi has asked the United States to send a delegation to Baghdad to begin preparing for a troop pullout, his office said on Friday. In a phone call late Thursday with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Abdel Mahdi "requested that delegates be sent to...

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has accepted an invitation from Iran to take part in its investigation into the crash of a Ukrainian airplane in Tehran, the agency confirmed late on Thursday. The NTSB said in a statement its Response Operations Center had received...