A general strike paralyzed daily life in Tunisia on Thursday with tens of thousands of public-sector employees staying home to demand higher wages. The Tunisian General Labor Union (TGLU), the country’s largest labor union, urged civil servants to take part in the strike after Wednesday...

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...

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...

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday urged the UN Security Council to intervene to help put an end to illegal Israeli settlement construction. “Palestinians [in the occupied West Bank] are subject to frequent escalation campaigns by the Israeli occupation authorities, attacks by settlers and land...