A fire broke out at Iraq’s Oil Ministry headquarters in central Baghdad on Thursday, according to a local police source. Ahmed Khalaf, a Baghdad police officer, told Anadolu Agency that the fire had torn through at least one floor of the building. Civil-defense teams, he said, were...

Venezuela‘s president has raised the country’s minimum wage by 300 per cent as part of routine wage increases as his government battles hyperinflation. Nicolas Maduro increased the minimum wage to 18,000 bolivars, around £5.20, per month amid an economy suffering from annual inflation...

A Japanese volcano erupted on Thursday, spewing ash and smoke six kilometres into the air over a small southern island. There were no reports of injuries or damage from the eruption on Kuchinoerabu, in the far south of Japan. A local official said there had been no evacuations on the...

A fresh group of at least 700 Honduran migrants headed for the U.S. arrived Wednesday at Agua Caliente border crossing on the Guatemalan frontier, according to La Prensa newspaper. Migrants who held proper documents for travel were allowed to cross into Guatemala as border guards have taken...

The number of refugees that have arrived in Sudan from Ethiopia has reached 1,500, the Khartoum-based Al-Shuruq satellite channel reported Thursday. The channel said Ethiopian refugees have been facing tough humanitarian conditions following their decision to flee the Amhara region...

The death toll from a terrorist attack on a hotel complex in the Kenyan capital Nairobi has risen to 21, the country’s top law enforcement official said late Wednesday. "Six other bodies were found at the scene. One police officer succumbed to his injuries while undergoing treatment," said...

Rohingya Muslims, forced to emigrate from their homeland to escape oppression and horrific massacres, cannot escape their painful memories. Nearly 1.5 million Rohingya Muslims who fled from ethnic and religious persecution in Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh are struggling to survive in...

Authorities apprehended a Georgia man Wednesday who allegedly sought to attack the White House and other federal buildings in Washington, D.C. Hasher Taheb, 21, is suspected of planning to use an anti-tank rocket and other explosives to attack the executive mansion and other "targets of...

Far-right Islamophobic group Pegida staged an anti-Islam demonstration in front of a mosque in the Netherlands late Wednesday. The demonstration was held outside the Abi Bakr Issidik Mosque, frequented by members of the Moroccan community, in Utrecht, the central Netherlands. During the...

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras managed to secure the support of 151 MPs from Greece’s 300-seat legislature late Wednesday, avoiding snap elections and clearing the way for the ratification of an agreement ending a dispute over Macedonia’s name. Tsipras was forced to call for the vote...

U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged President Donald Trump on Wednesday to delay his State of the Union address as long as the partial government shutdown is ongoing. Alternatively, Pelosi wrote in a letter to the president, Trump could submit his speech in writing to...

Turkey condemned the terrorist attack in Syria's northern city of Manbij on Wednesday which killed U.S. soldiers and civilians. Turkey is saddened by the bombing attack killing U.S. soldiers and civilians in the center of Manbij and strongly condemns this heinous terrorist attack, the...

The French government on Wednesday called for former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn, who has spent the last two months in Japanese custody, to be replaced as chief executive of carmaker Renault. Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire called for Renault's board to meet "in the coming days "to pick a...

A local government in central Japan is experimenting with robots to aid residents with government help. Authorities in Ogaki in Gifu Prefecture showcased robots that can independently guide people to the “right information” window or “teach” them how to fill out government forms, the Japan...

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence claimed Wednesday the Daesh terrorist group has been finally defeated just after it claimed an attack that took the lives of a yet determined number of service members and civilians in Manbij, Syria. "The caliphate has crumbled and ISIS has been defeated,"...

Turkey's Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu met with his Somali counterpart on Wednesday in Ankara. Security Minister Abukar Hassan Islow arrived in the Turkish capital to hold "important and productive" official talks with Turkish authorities. He was welcomed by Soylu and his delegation....

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasimi has condemned the arrest of Iranian journalist Marzieh Hashemi by the U.S. authorities, calling for her immediate release. In a Wednesday statement carried by Iranian state television, Qasimi alleged that Hashemi had been subjected to...

An Israeli official on Wednesday paid a rare visit to one of Cairo's most prominent mosques, according to Israel’s embassy in Egypt. On its official Facebook page, the embassy published photos of Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz touring the Great Mosque of Mohamed Ali Pasha in Old...

Germany urged the international community on Wednesday to step up efforts to end the war in Yemen. “Yemen will face a humanitarian catastrophe if we do not succeed in ending the war,” Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said at an international conference in Berlin. The conference hosted by the...

At least five people were killed in Egypt by a severe sandstorm that struck several parts of the country on Wednesday. According to local media reports, one person was killed and two others injured when a building partially collapsed in the northeastern Port Said province. Another four...