Newcastle United have confirmed the club’s takeover by a Saudi Arabian-led consortium, ending Mike Ashley’s 14-year ownership. The controversial £300m deal received Premier League approval almost 18 months after it was first proposed. It hands the keys of St James’ Park to owners...

 Germany and Denmark have brought home 11 women and 37 children from a camp in northeastern Syria where suspected Islamic State members have been held, the German foreign ministry said Thursday. Germany repatriated 23 children and their eight mothers from the Roj camp on Wednesday...

After Syrian farmer Abdelbaqi Souleiman lost his last wheat crop to a wildfire, he had hoped for a better harvest this summer. But this spring there was hardly any rain. "Last year the field I planted was burnt to the ground," said the 48-year-old. "This year there wasn't enough...

The Lebanese army has seized 28 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a fertiliser also used in making explosives, in a town near the Syrian border. Hundreds of tonnes of the substance, improperly stored in Beirut, caused a huge blast in August last year which killed more than 200 people, injured at...