SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A North Korean diplomat who served as the country’s acting ambassador to Kuwait has defected to South Korea, according to South Korean lawmakers who were briefed by Seoul’s spy agency. Ha Tae-keung, a conservative opposition lawmaker and an executive secretary of...

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran warned the Biden administration on Tuesday that it will not have an indefinite time period to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers. Iran also said it expects Washington to swiftly lift crippling economic sanctions that former President Donald...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military is exploring the possibility of using a Red Sea port in Saudi Arabia and an additional two airfields in the kingdom amid heightened tensions with Iran, the military said Tuesday. While describing the work as "contingency" planning, the...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops on Tuesday shot and killed a Palestinian male suspected of trying to attack soldiers at a West Bank intersection, the military said. The Israeli army said the alleged assailant attempted to stab troops near the Israeli settlement of Ariel in the occupied West...

The Netherlands experienced on the night of Monday 25 to Tuesday 26 January a second outbreak of violence orchestrated by opponents of the curfew supposed to contain the coronavirus epidemic. The main cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, but also other localities (Amersfoort, Geleen,...

Facebook is launching its news section Facebook News in the UK on Tuesday, which provides paid press articles to publishers. The United Kingdom thus becomes the second country to benefit from this service, launched at the end of 2019 in the United States with the desire to promote...

An inevitable third confinement? Faced with an epidemic of Covid-19 still active and faced with the new situation of variants, the executive must decide this week whether it is still tightening the screw to fight against the coronavirus. A health defense council is scheduled for Wednesday...

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced Monday that Russia will send 24 million doses of its Sputnik V vaccine.   After a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lopez Obrador said on Twitter he thanked his Russian counterpart for agreeing to...

Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Monday spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, calling for support in the debt negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and with the Paris Club.  The leaders' videoconference lasted around 40 minutes, with Fernandez thanking...

Bilateral relations and new chances for collaboration were on the agenda as Azerbaijan’s president received Iran’s foreign minister in the capital Baku on Monday. Azerbaijan is “very satisfied” with the cooperation level between the two countries, Ilham Aliyev said, recalling that there...

Russia has accused Western countries of encouraging rallies in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Tens of thousands defied a heavy police presence to join the rallies on Saturday. More than 3,500 were detained, monitors say. On Monday, President Vladimir Putin said the protests...

Taiwan has reported a large incursion by Chinese warplanes for the second day running, a show of force that coincides with the first days of US President Joe Biden's term of office. Sunday's operation involved 15 aircraft and followed a similar drill that led to a warning from Washington....

Turkey and Greece on Monday launched the first direct diplomatic contact in the form of exploratory talks in nearly five years to address their disputes related to sovereignty rights in the Eastern Mediterranean. The meeting in Istanbul, led by Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal and...

ALEPPO — Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has seemingly come a long way in seizing control over Idlib and aspires to expand that control at the Turkish-backed opposition's expense in northwestern Syria. Since early 2019 and after battling Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions, HTS has directed its attention...

The fifth round of Syrian constitutional committee talks started on Monday in Geneva – in a fresh attempt to end the almost decadelong conflict and find a path to peace under U.N. mediation. Negotiators of the Bashar Assad regime as well as opposition leaders attended a session of talks to...

The United Nations has launched an alarm over deteriorating security conditions at Al Hol camp in northeast Syria, where there have been 12 murders in just under two weeks. Twelve murders have taken place in a refugee camp in northeast Syria in just under two weeks, according to the United...

Over half of children in war-torn Syria are missing out on education, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said Sunday, with a third of schools in ruins or commandeered by fighters. The figures are a sharp rise from previous estimates when UNICEF said a third of Syrian children were out of...

Israel is an apartheid regime that works to perpetuate Jewish supremacy over Palestinians in the entire territory under its control, one of Israel’s most prominent rights groups has said, prompting backlash from Israeli authorities and supporters of the country. In a new position paper...

Iran has asked Indonesia to provide details about the seizure of an Iranian-flagged vessel, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday, a day after Jakarta said it had seized Iran and Panama-flagged tankers in its waters. Indonesia said on Sunday its coast guard had...

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund plans to double its assets to 4 trillion riyals ($1.07 trillion) by 2025, Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Sunday, a move that would make it one of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds. The fund would invest 3 trillion riyals in new sectors over...