France's ruling party is expected Sunday to be handed a stinging rebuke by voters in the final round of local elections, the first big political test for President Emmanuel Macron since the coronavirus crisis began to ease. The first round controversially went ahead on March 15 just as the...

Hamas has warned that Israeli annexation in the occupied West Bank would be a "declaration of war", but the Islamist group must weigh the cost of a new fight, analysts said. In recent weeks, there have been almost daily protests in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip against US President Donald...

A group of Rohingya say they were beaten by traffickers and drank their own urine to stay alive on a perilous four-month journey at sea until their dramatic rescue near the Indonesian coast. The bedraggled survivors -- about 100 in all, mostly women and children -- described a high-seas...

Vacant religious sites. Abandoned pilgrim tents. Lifeless hotels. A stunning emptiness -- and fears of economic ruin -- haunt the usually bustling city of Mecca after Saudi authorities curtailed the hajj pilgrimage over coronavirus. Islam's holiest city usually hosts millions of pilgrims...