Saudi Arabia said Monday it was expelling the Canadian ambassador and had recalled its envoy while freezing all new trade, in protest at Ottawa's vigorous calls for the release of jailed activists. The kingdom gave the Canadian ambassador 24 hours to leave the country, in an abrupt rupture...

Syrian regime forces bombed late Sunday a desert area under the control of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group near the province of Sweida in southern Syria, a war monitor said. "The bombing and fighting between the regime forces and IS have intensified during the evening and are...

Protesters flooded the streets of southern Iraq again Sunday, nearly a month into a wave of unrest over corruption and decaying public services, AFP correspondents said. In oil-rich Basra, the southern port city where the protests broke out on July 8, tribal chiefs and Shiite religious leaders...

Iraq’s election commission ignored an anti-corruption body’s warnings about the credibility of electronic vote-counting machines used in May’s parliamentary election, according to investigators and a document seen by Reuters. The devices, provided by South Korean company Miru Systems under a...

Israel’s new Jewish nation-state law has drawn tens of thousands of protesters onto the streets, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains defiant over the legislation which could still bring political benefits. Saturday night’s protest in Tel Aviv organized by Israel’s Druze minority, who...

Four Palestinian high-school friends are heading to California this week to pitch their mobile app about fire prevention to Silicon Valley’s tech leaders, after winning a slot in the finals of a worldwide competition among more than 19,000 teenage girls. For the 11th graders from the...

Yemeni officials and witnesses say recent heavy fighting between pro-government forces and rebels in the port province of Hodeida has killed at least 80 people on both sides. They said Sunday that forces backed by an Arab-led coalition have been trying to seize the rebel-held district...

U.S. President Donald Trump admitted Sunday that his son met with a Russian lawyer in Trump Tower in 2016 "to get information on an opponent" but defended it as "totally legal." It was Trump's most direct acknowledgement that the motive for the June 2016 meeting was to get dirt on Hillary...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Three Syrian workers have died when a huge fire broke out at a bakery in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, media outlets reported Sunday. The blaze took hold at the bakery in the al-Bus area. Footage from the scene showed near total devastation. The...

The Hamas resistance movement and Palestinian factions convened on Sunday in the blockaded Gaza Strip to discuss the current situation and issues in the enclave. “We now have a strategic goal and I think that the factions share with us that the blockade must stop and that the time has...

(CBC)- A Halifax man who is the first person charged with violating Canada's economic sanctions against Syria is back in Damascus doing business there, CBC News has learned. Nader Kalai — a Syrian national with permanent residency in Canada — is known to be a close associate of Syrian...

Saudi Arabia has agreed to admit an Iranian diplomat to head an office representing Iranian interests in the kingdom, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported Sunday, in a rare move after the rivals broke off relations in 2016. "An informed diplomatic source said Sunday that Saudi...

The head of a Syrian research facility that Western countries say was part of a chemical weapons program was killed when his car was blown up, the pro-Syrian government newspaper al-Watan said Sunday. Aziz Asber was the director of the Syrian Scientific Research Centre in Masyaf, near...

Daesh (ISIS) has executed one of dozens of Druze hostages abducted from southern province of Swaida last week, a journalist in the area and an activist group said Sunday. Daesh killed the 19-year-old male student Thursday after kidnapping more than 30 people, mostly women and children,...

 Militants have attacked a high voltage power line serving several Iraqi provinces for the eighth time in two months, the government said Sunday. The electricity ministry said it had to once again repair the 400 kilovolt line between Kirkuk and Diyala after "terrorist attacks of...

Hong Kong's leader joined mainland China Sunday in urging the city's Foreign Correspondents' Club to cancel a planned speech by a Hong Kong independence advocate whose party is threatened with a ban. "We respect the international media and respect the Foreign Correspondents' Club's...

After Donald Trump sniped back at LeBron James' suggestion that he fuels American racial divides, support has flooded in for the NBA great - including from the U.S. president's own wife, Melania. In an interview Tuesday - also broadcast late Friday - Los Angeles Lakers player and...

An Israeli drone attacked a Palestinian militant base in the northern Gaza Strip Sunday, moderately injuring two people, security officials in the Hamas-ruled territory said. They said the facility, north of Beit Lahiya, was used by a small group known as Al-Mujahedeen, which despite...

 An attack carried out by explosive drones targeted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro during his speech on Saturday.  According to a BBC report, Maduro is unharmed after the explosive drones went off while he was giving a speech in the capital Caracas.  The...

Already fragile and is largely dependent on oil revenues, Iraq’s economy has sustained a great damage after the rise of the Daesh terrorist group and simultaneous falling oil prices.  As a result, Iraq’s debts have almost doubled for the past four years.  With its 150...