Iran's state gas company said on Monday it had slashed supplies to neighbouring Iraq over arrears of more than $6 billion, after the Iraqi electricity ministry said the cuts placed Baghdad and other cities at risk of serious power shortages. "The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity owes more than...

Nearly two years after the overthrow of autocrat Omar al-Bashir, Sudan is taking steps to rejoin the international community from which it was long shunned. That includes its film industry. For the first time in its history, Sudan has a submission for the Academy Awards. Produced by a...

Iran warned Israel on Monday not to cross its "red lines" in the Gulf in the final days of Donald Trump's presidency and following a reported Israeli submarine deployment. Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh stressed the Islamic republic would defend itself against any American...

Pfizer has postponed the delivery of new batches of its coronavirus vaccine to eight European nations including Spain, the Spanish health ministry said Monday, a day after the EU began its immunisation campaign. The Spanish branch of Pfizer informed Madrid on Sunday night of the delay in...

Loujain al-Hathloul, who was sentenced on Monday to five years and eight months' prison, has become emblematic of the fight for women's rights in Saudi Arabia. The 31-year-old long campaigned for women to be able to drive and for an end to the kingdom's notorious guardianship system, which...

Russia said late on Sunday it had sent more military police to an area in northern Syria where fighters backed by Turkey have clashed with Kurdish forces near a strategic highway patrolled by Russian and Turkish troops. The deployment comes ahead of talks in southern Russia on Tuesday...

Covid and a traumatic presidential election left the US reeling in 2020, but even with Donald Trump gone and Joe Biden promising to heal the nation there'll be no quick return to normal in 2021. For many in the world's richest country, 2020 was the year that seemed never-ending -- an...

Saudi Arabia has extended its suspension of commercial passenger flights by at least one week and possibly two amid concerns over a new variant of the coronavirus. Saudi Arabi will however allow flights in "exceptional cases", an interior ministry official said according to the official...

Temperature checks, queues for tests and inspections at airports -- Chinese authorities have stepped up health checks to snuff out the threat of a coronavirus resurgence. China, where the virus first emerged around a year ago, largely contained its outbreak, and its economy has roared back...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday signed into law a $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package, restoring unemployment benefits to millions of Americans and averting a federal government shutdown in a crisis of his own making. Trump, who leaves office on Jan. 20 after losing...

Most British businesses have made preparations for the end of the Brexit transition period, cabinet office minister Michael Gove said on Monday, adding it was important they were ready for changes to trading and regulatory rules. Asked if businesses were ready for the end of the transition...

A Chinese court handed a four-year jail term on Monday to a citizen-journalist who reported from the central city of Wuhan at the peak of last year’s coronavirus outbreak, on grounds of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” her lawyer said. Zhang Zhan, 37, the first such person known to...

At least 9,500 people have fled their homes in Ain Issa, northeast Syria, following an escalation in clashes between the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (TSNA) and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in mid-December. The SDF – the military forces of the Autonomous...

A Palestinian monitoring group reported looting acts by Syrian forces and allied militias against the property of Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus,  The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria said in a report that despite the return of about 600...

Lebanon's army said Sunday it had arrested eight people after a dispute led a group of Lebanese nationals to set fire to an informal refugee settlement in the country's north. The army said it "arrested two Lebanese nationals and six Syrians over a personal dispute... between a number of...

Lionel Messi will miss Barcelona's last match of the calendar year after the Catalan giants announced on Sunday that ankle treatment will keep him out of their midweek La Liga match with Eibar. In a statement, Barca said Messi "is completing the treatment for his right ankle, and is...

 United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, in his capacity as the ruler of Abu Dhabi, on Sunday established a Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs that will also oversee matters relating to petroleum and natural resources. The current Supreme...

Voters went to the polls in Niger on Sunday for an election that could seal a first peaceful handover between elected presidents, against the backdrop of a bloody jihadist insurgency. The West African country, unstable since gaining independence from France 60 years ago, is ranked the...

UN envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, called on Sunday for reaching a solution to the conflict in war-torn Yemen by 2021. "2020 has been another year of cruelty for Yemenis with the continuation of bloodshed, displacement, economic freefall, and the outbreak of COVID-19." Griffiths said in...

Turkey said on Sunday its military killed 15 militants from the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which it said was preparing to carry out an attack in a region of northeast Syria controlled by Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies. In an offensive last year dubbed the Peace Spring Operation, Turkey...