Protests in Lebanon entered a second week on Thursday with demonstrators blocking main roads in Beirut and other parts of the country, AFP correspondents and Lebanese media reported. Sparked on October 17 by a proposed tax on calls made through messaging apps, the protests have morphed into...

Former military chief Benny Gantz received an official mandate Wednesday to try to form Israel's next government, but with no easy path to ending Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's long hold on power. After inconclusive elections in April and September, Gantz's nomination marked the first...

 Hoping to succeed where earlier Arab Spring revolutions have struggled, Sudan's new government is seeking support to build a youth-focused economy through fundamental reforms and a new safety net, its finance minister says. In an interview with AFP in Washington, Finance Minister...

Mohamed Salah returns to the Liverpool line-up for Wednesday's Champions League clash with Genk in Belgium after missing the weekend draw with Manchester United due to injury. The Egyptian sat out the Premier League match at Old Trafford, which finished 1-1, because of an ankle problem....

A state prosecutor has pressed charges against former Lebanese prime minister Najib Mikati over alleged corruption, state media said Wednesday, amid unprecedented anti-graft protests. The former prime minister, who was last in power in 2014, denied the allegations, saying they carried a...

Journalists called Wednesday for a Palestinian court decision to close 59 websites and social media pages to be overturned, with activists saying it appeared to be aimed at silencing critics. A Palestinian Authority (PA) court in the occupied West Bank on Monday ordered the sites, most of...

The head of an Algerian political party that was part of the ruling coalition under former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika became the first candidate Wednesday to register for presidential polls. Azzedine Mihoubi, leader of the Democratic National Rally party (RND), submitted his candidacy...

Fourteen people will go on trial in Paris next May over the January 2015 attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and other targets that heralded a wave of jihadist strikes on France, judicial sources said Wednesday. The trial will take place from May 4 to July 10, lawyers and a judicial...

 Yemen’s warring parties have set up joint frontline observation posts in the flashpoint port city of Hodeidah, the United Nations said on Wednesday, the latest step in U.N. efforts to maintain a ceasefire in the Red Sea port city. A ceasefire and troop redeployment agreement for...

Iraqi authorities committed serious human rights violations and abuses in their response to a wave of anti-government protests earlier this month that saw 149 civilians killed, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said. In a report by its Human Rights Office published late...

President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday opened a major summit aimed at reviving Russia's influence in Africa, telling leaders from the continent he would seek to double trade in the coming years. All 54 African states were represented at the first Russia-Africa Summit in the Black Sea resort...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and presidential adviser Jared Kushner will lead an American delegation to Saudi Arabia's annual financial conference, US media reported Tuesday, after widespread boycotts of last year's event in protest at the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi....

A week of unprecedented Lebanese street protests against the political class showed no signs of abating Wednesday, despite the army moving to reopen key roads. Demonstrations sparked on October 17 by a proposed tax on WhatsApp and other messaging apps have morphed into an unprecedented...

Police in southeastern England said 39 people were found dead Wednesday inside a truck container believed to have come from Bulgaria. The truck, which is said to have entered Britain via the Welsh port of Holyhead on Saturday, was found by ambulance workers at Waterglade Industrial Park...

Kais Saied, a political outsider and retired law professor, was sworn in as Tunisian president on Wednesday after he won a landslide victory in this month’s election. Saied’s victory delivered a heavy blow to a governing elite accused of failing to improve living standards or end...

A migrant was killed, six were hurt and two missing Wednesday after a migrant boat collided with a Greek coastguard patrol vessel, officials said. The collision occurred near the Aegean island of Kos, the coastguard said, adding that the migrant boat, carrying 34 people, had no lights on....

China has invited a Taliban delegation to attend an "intra-Afghan" conference in Beijing, a spokesman said Wednesday, after a prospective deal between the United States and the insurgents collapsed last month. Suhail Shaheen, a Taliban political spokesman, said on Twitter that Mullah Abdul...

The American troops withdrawing from Syria will stay in Iraq "temporarily" before returning to the United States, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday. In an interview with CNN, Esper said the US forces were pulling out in phases, and had now moved from the "immediate zone of...

Security forces are trying to persuade protesters to reopen roads across Lebanon through peaceful means but will not use force if they refuse, a security source said on Tuesday as the country remained paralyzed by anti-government demonstrations. Aiming to defuse anger at the political elite...

A U.S. prosecutor Tuesday called Turkey's Halkbank a "fugitive" after it failed to make an initial court appearance in a criminal case accusing it of conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Lockard said at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan...