In its more than 1,400-year existence, the majestic domed structure of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul has served as the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral, a mosque under the Ottoman Empire and a museum under modern Turkey, attracting millions of tourists each year. The 6th-century...

Iraq's official death toll from the novel coronavirus has surpassed 2,000, the health ministry said Wednesday, as the war-ravaged country's crippled healthcare system struggles to cope. Health authorities announced there were now 51,524 cases of the COVID-19 disease in the country and that...

Thousands of Palestinians protested in Gaza on Wednesday against Israel's plans to annex parts of the West Bank, where Palestinian authorities announced a new five-day lockdown amid a worrying resurgence of the coronavirus. Israel's centre-right coalition government had set July 1 as the...

Gaza's Hamas rulers fired a volley of rockets into the sea Wednesday in a warning to Israel not to annex part of the West Bank, sources in the Islamist organisation told AFP. The showcase launch of about 20 test rockets from the coastal Palestinian territory came as thousands of people in...