Iran asked U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday to push back against the United States after it imposed sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, describing the move as a “a dangerous precedent.” In a letter to Guterres, Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Majid Takht...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper did not have any particular exchange on the U.S.-proposed maritime coalition in the Middle East, Japan’s top government spokesman said on Wednesday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the premier and...

Russian foreign ministry called new American sanctions against Venezuela “economic terror” in a statement Tuesday. "Such steps have no legal basis either in terms of international or domestic Venezuelan law,” said ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. “Obviously, the White House is driven...

Tunisia's biggest political party Ennahda named a candidate for presidential elections on Tuesday, the first time the moderate Islamist party has put up a nominee for the post since the country transitioned to democracy after the 2011 revolution. Party vice president Abdel Fattah Mourou,...

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest smartphone and memory chip maker, is seeking alternatives to Japanese suppliers for some key materials, it said Wednesday with Seoul and Tokyo embroiled in a bitter trade dispute. The row has seen the Japanese government...

The UN's refugee agency voiced concern Tuesday over a law approved by Italy's parliament that imposes stiffer penalties on NGO migrant rescue boats in the Mediterranean, demanding that humanitarian work "not be criminalised or stigmatised". The text, adopted by Italian lawmakers in a...

A suicide car bomber targeted a police station in western Kabul on Wednesday, setting off a huge explosion that wounded at least 95 people, Afghan officials said. Violence is surging across Afghanistan even as the US and the Taliban negotiate a peace deal ahead of elections planned for...

The continued detention of British-flagged tanker Stena Impero is "unacceptable and unjustifiable" and there are concerns for the welfare of the crew after 19 days in confinement, the vessel's owner said Tuesday. Iran's Revolutionary Guards on July 19 seized the Stena Impero in the Strait...

 Libya's internationally recognized government has allocated 40 million Libyan dinars ($28.5 million) for its defense ministry, it said Tuesday, stepping up spending to fend off an eastern offensive as the war enters a fifth month. The government also granted each of its soldiers 3,000...

US President Donald Trump revived his criticism of Google on Tuesday, referencing a fired engineer who claimed the internet giant was working against his re-election. The latest diatribe from Trump was based on allegations voiced by a former Google engineer interviewed on Fox News. "I...

La Liga president Javier Tebas says Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain represent "a danger that football has not seen before" as he stepped up his attacks on the big-spending superpowers. Tebas, who has strongly criticised City before, said the money pumped into the Premier League...

Apple Inc and Goldman Sachs Group Inc rolled out a virtual credit card on Tuesday, which will help the iPhone maker diversify from device sales and also build out the Wall Street bank’s new consumer business. With the card, Apple aims to draw in iPhone owners with 2% cash back on purchases...

Venezuela’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said a new move by U.S. President Donald Trump to freeze all the country’s assets in the United States was an effort to “formalize a criminal economic, financial, and commercial blockade that has already started.” In a statement, the ministry said it...

The Taliban on Tuesday denounced as a sham a presidential election due next month, saying their fighters would do everything they could to block it, while urging people to stay away from rallies that could be attacked. The warning came as both the United States and the Taliban reported...

Saudi Arabia and Formula One are discussing the possibility of holding a race in the country, and team bosses have been asked for an opinion, sources said on Tuesday. The Times newspaper reported that Formula One and the 10 teams would seek reassurance on issues including human rights,...

China might escort Chinese commercial vessels in Gulf waters under a U.S. proposal for a maritime coalition to secure oil shipping lanes following attacks on tankers, its envoy to the United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday. “If there happens to be a very unsafe situation we will consider...

Saudi Arabia has deposited $250 million into the central bank of Sudan to support its financial position, the Saudi Finance Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. The deposit is part of a package with the United Arab Emirates worth $500 million announced in April. Both countries pledged...

Israel has advanced plans for more than 2,300 settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, the latest in a surge of such approvals since US President Donald Trump took office, an NGO said Tuesday. A defence ministry planning committee issued the approvals while meeting over the past couple...

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, a pioneer and giant of modern literature whose imaginative power in “Beloved,” “Song of Solomon” and other works transformed American letters, has died at age 88. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf announced that Morrison died Monday night at Montefiore Medical Center...

The UN's human rights office on Tuesday accused southern Yemeni security forces of perpetrating "retaliatory attacks" against citizens from the country's north. "We have received information from multiple sources about arbitrary arrests and detention, forced displacement, physical assaults...