Syria needs to import more than 1.5 million tonnes of wheat a year, with majority from Russia, Interfax news agency reported Syrian economy minister Mohamed Samer al-Khalil as saying. Syria’s crop was hit by low rainfall last year…, adding pressure on an economy already hit by ten years of...

LONDON (AP) — Online companies would have to ramp up efforts to keep harmful content off their platforms and take other steps to protect users under rules that European Union lawmakers are set to vote on Thursday. The 27-nation bloc has gained a reputation as a trendsetter in the growing...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The United Nations says food distribution in Ethiopia’s blockaded Tigray region has reached its “all-time lowest” while more than 50,000 children are thought to be severely malnourished, the latest sign of growing crisis amid efforts to end the country’s 14-month war....

In the dark streets of a Beirut now often without electricity, sometimes the only light that shines is from headlamps worn by scavengers, searching through garbage for scrap to sell. Even trash has become a commodity fought over in Lebanon, mired in one of the world's worst financial crises...

The crowded hospital in Darkush in Syria's rebel-held northwest treats around 30,000 patients every month, for free -- but now foreign aid cuts are threatening its future. Already dwindling funds have caused dire shortages of medicine and equipment in this and other clinics in the Idlib...

BERLIN (AP) — A long-awaited report on sexual abuse in Germany's Munich diocese on Thursday faulted retired Pope Benedict XVI's handling of four cases when he was archbishop in the 1970s and 1980s. The law firm that drew up the report said Benedict strongly denies any wrongdoing. The...

The crowded hospital in Darkush in Syria's rebel-held northwest treats around 30,000 patients every month, for free -- but now foreign aid cuts are threatening its future. Already dwindling funds have caused dire shortages of medicine and equipment in this and other clinics in the Idlib...

Jordan will next week sign a deal with Lebanon and Syria to supply Lebanon with electricity under a U.S. backed regional plan to help the country ease acute power shortages, the energy minister said on Wednesday, Saleh Kharabsheh told state media the deal entails supplying Lebanon with...

 A U.N. agency appealed Wednesday to the international community to donate tens of millions of dollars to help improve living conditions for Palestinians in crisis-hit Lebanon. The appeal by the agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, is asking for an additional $87.5 million is to...

Three of Tonga's smaller islands suffered serious damage from tsunami waves, officials and the Red Cross said Wednesday, as a wider picture begins to emerge of the destruction caused by the eruption of an undersea volcano near the Pacific archipelago nation. Communications have been down...

Israeli police forcibly evicted a Palestinian family from their home in a flashpoint East Jerusalem neighbourhood on Wednesday before a digger tore down the property, ending a standoff that has drawn international attention. Resident Mahmoud Salhiyeh took to the roof of the house in...

 A snowstorm in the Middle East has left many Lebanese and Syrians scrambling to find ways to survive, burning old clothes, plastic and in some cases even sheep manure to keep warm as temperatures plummet and poverty soars. The storm, dubbed “Hiba” in Lebanon, began Tuesday night and is...

CARE: “Mothers last ones to eat, children first ones to freeze” Syrians, fleeing over a decade of war in their homeland, have found their situation exacerbated following the onslaught of heavy winter storms. In Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, temperatures are expected to drop lower than they...

 Satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday appear to show the aftermath of a fatal attack on an oil facility in the capital of the United Arab Emirates claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels. The attack brought the long-running Yemen war into Emirati territory on Monday....

Poland’s Border Guard authorities say that almost 600 attempts by migrants at illegally crossing the border from Belarus have been foiled so far this year. The attempts have continued since their peak in the fall, but the number of registered tries has dropped significantly, to dozens a day...

Three Iranian diplomats have arrived in Saudi Arabia to take up posts at the headquarters of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday. Regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia, which severed diplomatic ties in 2016,...

The Russian-backed Syrian regime forces launched a military campaign against the Islamic State militants in the Badia desert amid hike in attacks on regime army and allied forces that left more than 20 fighters dead in one week. Pro-regime media outlets said the Russian and Syrian warplanes...

 Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman on Monday met with UN envoy to Syria Geir Pedersen, during his visit to Doha, state news agency QNA reported. During the meeting, they discussed latest developments in the Syrian crisis, and stressing the importance of continuing...

 A drone attack claimed by Yemen's Houthi rebels targeting a key oil facility in Abu Dhabi killed three people on Monday and sparked a fire at Abu Dhabi's international airport. Emirati police identified the dead as two Indian nationals and one Pakistani. Six people were also wounded at...

COLLEYVILLE, Texas (AP) — The rabbi of a Texas synagogue where a gunman took hostages during livestreamed services said Monday that he threw a chair at his captor before escaping with two others after an hourslong standoff, crediting past security training for getting himself and his congregants...