European countries will urge Saudi Arabia this week to release detained activists and cooperate with a U.N.-led probe into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in the first rebuke of the kingdom at the Human Rights Council, diplomats and campaigners said. The joint statement, due to be...

European Union states have added 10 jurisdictions to a draft tax haven blacklist, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bermuda, an EU official told Reuters on Tuesday, in a move that would triple the number of listed countries. The measure comes more than one year after the bloc...

Asian markets fluctuated Wednesday as investors await the latest news on the China-US trade talks, though Australian stocks rose and the local dollar fell as weak economic growth data fuelled speculation about a rate cut. With expectations that Washington and Beijing will eventually strike...

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido vowed Tuesday to step up the pressure on President Nicolas Maduro as he offered his backing to a potential public sector strike. The 35-year-old National Assembly leader returned home to a hero's welcome on Monday, having defied a ban on leaving the...

Turkey’s top defense official hosted US special envoy for Syria in the capital Ankara on Tuesday, a Defense Ministry statement said. According to the statement by Turkish side, Hulusi Akar and James Jeffrey discussed the recent developments in Syria, Manbij and east of the Euphrates, in...

Huawei, in the spotlight over the security risks of its telecom equipment gear, urged governments, the telecoms industry and regulators on Tuesday to work together to create a common set of cybersecurity standards. The call by Huawei Chairman Ken Hu came as the world’s largest telecoms...

South Korean intelligence agencies have detected signs that North Korea is restoring part of a missile launch site it began to dismantle after pledging to do so in a first summit with U.S. President Donald Trump last year, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday. Yonhap quoted...

Yemen's government and its Saudi and Emirati backers accused the Houthi rebels of refusing to abide by a deal agreed two weeks ago on redeploying forces away from Red Sea ports in the war-battered country, according to a letter seen by AFP Tuesday. The rebels agreed to pull back their...

 Opposition leader Juan Guaido Tuesday appealed for support from Venezuela's state workers in his push to oust President Nicolas Maduro, whose government has yet to comment on the defiant homecoming of his adversary. Guaido said police officials were among those at a meeting that he...

A senior Tory peer accused the Conservative party of being “institutionally Islamophobic” after the reinstatement of an MP who had Islamophobic remarks. In a letter to Sir Mick Davis, the party’s chief executive, Baroness Sayeeda Warsi asked him to show leadership on the matter after Prime...

A call by French President Emmanuel Macron for reforms of the European Union to pave the way to a “European renaissance” won mainly just polite support on Tuesday from other European leaders. Some officials portrayed Macron’s reform plan as part of a bid to become the new leader of...

Iran has released three Jordanians it arrested in December after they strayed into Iranian territorial waters in the Gulf, Jordan's foreign ministry said on Tuesday. "Iranian authorities released the three Jordanians and handed them over to the acting charge d'affairs at the kingdom's...

German stock market operator Deutsche Boerse plans to slow down some kinds of high-frequency trading by 1,000 times in a pilot project designed to reduce "aggressive" behaviour, it told AFP Tuesday. Trading in German and French share options on its Eurex platform will face a speed limit in...

Israeli authorities banned 133 Palestinians from entering Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque in February, according to a report by a Palestinian non-governmental organization. In its latest report, the Jerusalem-based Wadi Hilweh Information Center said Sheikh Abdul-Azim Salhab, who heads the...

Prime Minister Theresa May's top government lawyer heads to Brussels on Tuesday in a last-ditch bid to secure changes to get her Brexit deal through parliament and smooth Britain's departure from the European Union. Britain is due to leave the EU in 24 days, but parliament's rejection of...

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday welcomed Britain's decision to outlaw the political wing of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, describing it as an "important and constructive" step. Britain announced on February 25 it would seek to make membership of the Shiite movement or inviting support for it a...

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh on Tuesday, footage on the Russian foreign ministry’s official Youtube channel showed. Lavrov is on a tour of the Gulf, also expected to include the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. On Monday Lavrov held talks...

Thousands of Algerians took part in renewed protests in the capital and other cities on Tuesday, calling on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down and rejecting his offer to not serve a full term after elections in April. “Game over” read one poster. “System - go away”, said another....

Sudanese authorities have released a senior opposition leader who had been detained since December in connection with demonstrations against President Omar al-Bashir's rule, his party said on Tuesday. Omar el-Digeir, the chief of the opposition Sudanese Congress Party, was arrested days...

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers complained to the Trump administration on Monday that its response to rights abuses against China’s Muslim minority was inadequate months after it said it was looking into imposing sanctions. “This issue is bigger than just China. It is about...