It's an astonishing statement for a refugee from war-torn Syria, but Taher has had enough of the xenophobia he has experienced in Germany. "I want to return to Syria -- very afraid here," he said this week, speaking outside a refugee centre in the small eastern town of Freital, which has...

Israel's parliament on Thursday passed into law the ability to force-feed prisoners on hunger strike, a move that has met vehement opposition from the country's medical association. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist coalition weathered a lengthy parliamentary debate and the...

Afghanistan said on Wednesday that Mullah Omar, the elusive leader of the Taliban movement fighting to topple the government, died more than two years ago. The announcement came a day or so before a second round of peace talks had been tentatively scheduled, and news of the fate of the...

On the first visit to Iran for 12 years by a French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius conveyed an invitation from President Francois Hollande to Iran's President Hassan Rouhani to visit France in November. If Rouhani accepts, he will be the first Iranian president to make a state...