The torso armor Russell Crowe wore for his Oscar-winning role in "Gladiator" eclipsed expectations at a Sydney auction on Saturday, selling for 125,000 Australian dollars ($96,000). Sotheby's Australia had estimated the stunt cuirass worn in the 2000 blockbuster would fetch between...

(AFP) -  Brazil's ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is negotiating his surrender after dramatically skipping a first deadline Friday to start his 12-year prison sentence for corruption, a close ally said. The 72-year-old had been ordered to surrender voluntarily by 5:00 pm...

WASHINGTON (AFP) -  The Palestinian representative in Washington warned Friday that the situation in Gaza is explosive and that the region cannot afford to wait for the promised new US peace plan. Husam Zomlot, the Palestine Liberation Organization's envoy to the United States,...

The Russian embassy in London has sent a request for a meeting of its envoy, Alexander Yakovenko, with British foreign minister Boris Johnson to discuss the investigation of an ex-Russian spy and his daughter poisoned in Salisbury, the RIA news agency reported on Saturday. "We hope for...

Some 30 percent of Air France flights have been cancelled as strikes over pay rises appear to be intensifying. Saturday's one-day walkout is affecting international and domestic travel, notably a quarter of flights at Paris' Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports. Air France is urging...

Some 108 Kurdish militants have been "neutralized" in operations targeting southeast Turkey and northern Iraq over the past week, Turkey's armed forces said Saturday. The military uses the term "neutralized" to refer to operations in which opposition forces have been killed, wounded or...

Hundreds are attending the funeral of a well-known Palestinian journalist in Gaza who died after covering mass protests along the Israel border. Yasser Murtaja died Saturday from a gunshot wound sustained while filming Friday in an area engulfed in thick black smoke from protesters...

Residents of the recently liberated Syrian district of Afrin have gained access to running water as Turkey repaired the malfunctioning supply network in the city. "The PKK damaged the water pipelines before they left here. Turks repaired our water supplies," Mohammed Bakir, a civilian...

At least three people were killed and three wounded in a double suicide car bomb attack in the Somali capital on Friday, officials said. Abdifatah Omar Halle, spokesman for the Banadir region administration, told Anadolu Agency that the first attack was a suicide car bomb blast...

A new round of United States sanctions targeting oligarchs and businesses is "aimed at the Russian people," Russia's US embassy said Friday. "We are told that these measures are not aimed against the Russian people, but they are," the embassy said on its Facebook page, calling the...

Paris (AFP) - International donors pledged $11 billion in low-interest loans and aid for Lebanon at a conference in Paris on Friday to try to avert an economic crisis in a country hard hit by the fallout from the Syrian war. Lebanon's growth has plummeted due to political instability,...

Facebook has admitted up to 2.7 million people in the EU may have been caught in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the bloc announced Friday, saying its top data official will demand more answers from the social media giant next week. The EU justice commissioner Vera Jourova will hold...

Washington (AFP) - The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on seven Russian oligarchs accused of supporting and profiting from President Vladimir Putin's efforts to undermine western democracies. Senior US officials described the wealthy international businessmen as members of...

Deadly air strikes slammed into the last opposition-held town in Syria's Eastern Ghouta on Friday, killing 40 civilians in the first bombardment since talks sputtered over a rebel withdrawal. Backed by Russia, Syrian troops had captured nearly all of the one-time opposition stronghold...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime army on Friday has pounded the opposition-held neighborhoods of Daraa city with heavy artillery in a series of repeated violations to the "de-escalation zone" deal, activists said. The ground bombardment on the Old City of Daraa has followed a week of...

TOKYO (AFP) -  Japanese online broker Monex Group said Friday it would buy virtual currency exchange Coincheck, which was hit by a massive hack that saw thieves steal hundreds of millions of dollars in virtual currency. The decision came after Coincheck refunded more than $440...

Saudi Arabia's crown prince travels Sunday to France on the next leg of his global tour, extending his diplomatic charm offensive as he seeks to project a new liberal image of his conservative kingdom. Prince Mohammed bin Salman's two-day official visit, which starts Monday, comes...

 Since Friday morning, thousands of Palestinians have converged on the Gaza Strip’s eastern border with Israel to take part in ongoing anti-occupation demonstrations.  At least seven Palestinians were martyred on Friday by Israeli army gunfire from the other side of the...

In a corner of the departures area at Rostov airport in southern Russia, a group of about 130 men, many of them carrying overstuffed military-style rucksacks, lined up at four check-in desks beneath screens that showed no flight number or destination. When a Reuters reporter asked the...

French President Emmanuel Macron and Russia's Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Friday, with Macron calling on Russia to use its influence to end the conflict in Syria and resume negotiations towards a political transition. "The president underlined the need to put an end to the military...