An Indonesian city has ordered its top civil servants to visit their local mosque for dawn prayers or risk being sacked, underscoring the growing influence of religion across the world's biggest Muslim majority country. Senior bureaucrats in Palembang, co-host of last month's Asian...

Thousands of residents of Syria's last major rebel bastion Idlib headed home within 48 hours of the announcement of a deal to avoid a government offensive to retake it, a war monitor said on Wednesday. As air strikes intensified earlier this month, the looming threat of a Russian-backed...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's government drew widespread criticism Wednesday for a compromise deal that defused a blistering coalition row centred on the head of the domestic intelligence service. Merkel and the two other party chiefs decided Tuesday to relieve Hans-Georg Maassen,...

The Istanbul headquarters of Turkish opposition daily Cumhuriyet hums with the daily excitement of a busy newsroom as reporters work the phones chasing their next story. On the wall, an old front page is proudly displayed, challenging the government. "You will not be able to take us down,"...