European Union foreign ministers will weigh later Friday what action the bloc could take should Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu push ahead with plans to annex the West Bank in coming months. The ministers had planned to welcome the formation of a new government and offer EU...

On the Turkish capital's bridges and bus stops, Ankara mayor Mansur Yavas urges wealthier residents to help poorer citizens during the coronavirus pandemic by paying off their debts to grocers. "Kindness is more contagious than disease," the advert proclaims, showing a large black book with...

Turkish officials says Kurdish rebels have opened fire and killed two municipality employees who were distributing aid in a district that has been placed under quarantine due to the coronavirus outbreak. A third employee was wounded. The attack occurred Thursday on a road near the district...

A Palestinian rammed a car into Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Thursday before being shot dead, the Israeli army said. "An assailant drove at a high speed towards (Israeli) soldiers adjacent to a military post near the community of Negohot, southwest of Hebron," an army...

Virtual reality tours have replaced flag-waving rallies as Palestinians facing coronavirus restrictions create digital spaces to lament the loss of their physical homeland in 1948. Cellphone apps and Zoom video chats are among the other online tools Palestinians are using to mark the Nakba,...

Iran warned of a possible coronavirus cluster hitting another province Thursday as it announced 71 new deaths and more than 1,800 infections nationwide. "We are in situation similar to previous days (in most provinces) save for Khuzestan, which is still in a critical condition, and it seems...

After more than 500 days of political deadlock, three inconclusive elections in a year and finally an unprecedented power-sharing deal between rivals, Israel was poised to swear in a new government on Thursday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former military chief Benny Gantz agreed...

The United States accused Tehran Wednesday of defying the U.N. resolution endorsing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with a satellite launch last month and also argued it is continuing to violate a U.N. arms embargo. The U.S. Mission to the United Nations made the allegations at an informal...

Every year, Maher al-Rubaye would marvel at the gold-leaf walls of Iraq's Imam Ali mausoleum. He still visits the shrine today -- through a screen from his living room. The spread of the new coronavirus in Iraq has prompted the closure of major mosques to visitors, including the ornate...

Egypt is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a second bundle of financial support after receiving nearly $2.8 billion in emergency financing, the central bank deputy governor said Wednesday. Asked about a Bloomberg News report that Egypt would seek a further $5 billion from...

FormerIsraeli army chief Gabi Ashkenazi, who spent nearly four decades in the military, will be nominated as Israel's next foreign minister, his Blue and White alliance said Wednesday. Ashkenazi held talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jerusalem ahead of his "appointment as...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Israel Wednesday for talks on regional security and the country's plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank. Pompeo was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming defence minister Benny Gantz, a day before a unity...

 Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager during clashes in the occupied West Bank Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo landed in Israel. The health ministry announced that Zaid Qaysia, 15, was "killed by a live bullet in the...

While walking in Beirut during the coronavirus lockdown recently, Omar Frangieh was struck by the number of face masks and gloves littering the Lebanese capital. The photographer, concerned that contaminated waste could itself transmit the disease, took 200 photos of discarded personal...

 Lebanon’s government agreed on a “full closure” of the country for four days, the presidency said as the cabinet met on Tuesday to try to ward off a second wave of coronavirus infections. The closure starts on Wednesday night. Authorities have warned of a resurgence in recent days...

All mosques in Iran will reopen temporarily on Tuesday, a further step in the government’s plans to ease restrictions that aimed to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, the official IRIB news agency reported. The decision to reopen the mosques was made in consultation with the...

 Lebanon will begin negotiations with the International Monetary Fund in the next two days, the finance minister said Tuesday, after Beirut officially requested IMF assistance this month. "There is contact with the IMF and in the coming two days we will start the negotiation...

The Israeli army suffered its first fatality this year on Tuesday when a Palestinian stonethrower killed a soldier in the occupied West Bank, a day before US-Israeli talks on annexation. The army said the 21-year-old soldier was hit in the head "during operational activity" in the village...

Hundreds of people protested outside the Iranian consulate in western Afghanistan Monday over the deaths of several migrants who were allegedly forced into a river by Iranian border guards and drowned. Afghan officials claim the migrants died while they were illegally crossing into...

In the harshly-lit corridors of a Beirut hospital, a team of nurses has been snapping pictures with their mobile phones of life behind the scenes of the battle against the coronavirus. The images taken at the Hotel-Dieu de France Hospital and selected by AFP for a photo project offer a...