Afghan farmer Gulnar Malik had seen her share of hardships as war ravaged her country for decades -- but nothing prepared the mother of five for the arrival of the Islamic State group. IS militants seized her village in the east Afghanistan province of Nangarhar, bordering Pakistan, nearly...

Talal Afifi has worked for years to revive Sudanese cinema which has languished through decades of authoritarian rule. With the fall of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir, he sees new hope. Bashir's Islamist-backed rule of 30 years had seen cinemas shuttered and US sanctions prevent imports...

Iraq’s rival parties were negotiating the contours of a new government Monday, after the previous Cabinet was brought down by a two-month protest insisting on even more deep-rooted change. After just over a year in power, premier Adel Abdel-Mahdi formally resigned Sunday after a...

At least 208 people are believed to have been killed during a crackdown on protests in Iran last month that followed a sharp fuel price hike, Amnesty International said Monday. “The number of people believed to have been killed during demonstrations in Iran that broke out on Nov. 15 has...

 Air strikes killed 19 civilians Monday in Syria's last major opposition bastion, the site of the deadliest clashes between regime forces and armed groups since an August ceasefire came into force, a monitoring group said. More than 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the north, a...

Britain’s governing Conservative Party has ramped up its campaigning efforts on social media platform Facebook with a surge of ads highlighting policy areas to younger voters. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives have raised record campaign funds before the Dec. 12 election, but...

President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute on Monday to 13 French soldiers killed in Mali last week and vowed no respite in the fight against Islamist militants in the region. The soldiers died when their helicopters collided in the dark as they hunted militants. It was the biggest loss of...

An indictment submitted to Israel’s parliament on Monday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu names more than 300 prosecution witnesses, including wealthy friends and former aides, in three graft cases against him. By formally sending the indictment to the legislature, after announcing...

At least three Russian servicemen were injured in a bomb explosion in northern Syria on Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The incident occurred when an improvised explosive device detonated during regular joint patrols by Turkish and Russian forces near Ayn al-Arab in Aleppo...

Turkey is not blackmailing NATO with its rejection of a defence plan for the Baltics and Poland, and has full veto rights within the alliance, a Turkish security source said on Monday ahead of a NATO alliance summit in London. Reuters reported last week that Turkey was refusing to back a...

Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif voiced support on Monday for reducing tensions in the Gulf as he hosted his counterpart from traditional mediator Oman for talks in Tehran. The visit by Oman's minister of state for foreign affairs, Yusuf bin Alawi, came a week after he held a...

Saudi Arabia is hosting a two-day media summit that began on Monday, just days after a crackdown on writers and bloggers and a year after journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder. Riyadh, which appears to be intensifying a crackdown on free expression, is seeking to shore up its international...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made clear Monday that the United States did not plan a military intervention in Venezuela even as he vowed that leftist leader Nicolas Maduro would one day fall. In a speech on Latin America, Pompeo renewed President Donald Trump's promise to battle socialism...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 50 people were arrested by the State Intelligence in the eastern suburbs of Damascus amid a major conscription campaign as regime army mobilizes forces to take last rebel stronghold in northwestern Syria. The Capital Voice, local news site, said that...

Russia started pumping gas to China on Monday through the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, also known as the eastern route. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping took part in the launch ceremony via teleconferencing, the Kremlin said in a statement published...

Mohammed Akki left his home in Morocco’s Middle Atlas mountains to seek regular work and a better life in the town of Azrou, but he still lives on the margins in a country enjoying an investment boom. Every morning, Akki walks miles into Azrou, where he may or may not find work as a day...

Iran is stilling its oil despite U.S. sanctions on Tehran's exports, the country's Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri was quoted on Monday as saying by state TV, adding that Washington's "maximum pressure" on Tehran had failed. "Despite America's pressure ... and its imposed sanctions on our...

Pep Guardiola says he is satisfied with the state of mind of his Manchester City players even though they twice lost the lead to draw 2-2 with Newcastle and slip further behind Premier League leaders Liverpool. Guardiola, whose defending champions are 11 points adrift of Jurgen Klopp's team...

Iraq's rival parties were negotiating the contours of a new government on Monday, after the previous cabinet was brought down by a two-month protest movement demanding more deep-rooted change. After just over a year in power, premier Adel Abdel Mahdi stepped down last week after a dramatic...

Iraq has been rocked by two months of anti-government protests that brought down premier Adel Abdel Mahdi on Sunday, but its lucrative oil industry has been curiously insulated from the turmoil. AFP looks at how the energy industry of OPEC's second-largest producer has weathered the...