Ethiopian forces will take control of the Tigray region's capital Mekelle in coming days, the military said late on Friday, a day after the Prime Minister announced the "final phase" of an offensive in the region. Federal forces seized control of Wikro, a town 50 km (30 miles) north of...

This month, the BBC has launched a major new series on Radio 4 called Mayday, the result of a year-long investigation into the mysterious death in Istanbul last November of James Le Mesurier, co-founder of the White Helmets. Each of the episodes takes the listener on a labyrinthine...

Spain's leftist minority government is managing a delicate balancing act to govern with the support of several smaller regional nationalist parties, including the heirs of the former political wing of armed Basque separatist group ETA. The strategy has so far paid off for Socialist...

 President Donald Trump’s legal team suffered yet another defeat in court Friday as a federal appeals court in Philadelphia roundly rejected the campaign's latest effort to challenge the state’s election results. Trump’s lawyers vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court despite the judges'...

German federal prosecutors are investigating evidence of chemical warfare in Syria. DW and Der Spiegel gained exclusive access to witnesses and documents that form part of the landmark inquiry. The rockets sounded different that night. This time they lacked the explosive impact that had...

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh may be the most senior Iranian nuclear scientist to have been assassinated but he is certainly not the first, joining at least four others during the past decade. In killings Iran said were aimed at sabotaging its nuclear energy ambitions – it does not acknowledge...

At least 270 Syrian families have left a north Lebanon town, as hostility toward them mounted over a murder allegedly committed by a Syrian national, the UN refugee agency said Friday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees condemned “collective reprisals against Syrians in the...

The World Health Organization’s top emergency expert said on Friday it would be “highly speculative” for the WHO to say the coronavirus did not emerge in China, where it was first identified in a food market in December last year. China is pushing a narrative via state media that the virus...

Uzbekistan plans to repatriate another group of its citizens, mostly women and children, from Syria where they are staying at crowded camps with other families of Islamic State fighters, an Uzbek government source told Reuters on Friday. A government delegation from Tashkent has visited the...

Lebanon's parliament voted Friday in favour of a sweeping financial audit of state institutions, a week after a consultancy firm terminated its contract to audit the central bank over missing data. The International Monetary Fund and France are among creditors demanding an audit of...

 At least 270 Syrian families have left a north Lebanon town, as hostility towards them mounted over a murder allegedly committed by a Syrian national, the UN refugee agency said Friday. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees condemned "collective reprisals...

The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen bombed rebel camps including in the capital Sanaa on Friday, witnesses and AFP correspondents said, days after the Huthis attacked an oil facility in Saudi Arabia. Several coalition air strikes targeted Huthi military camps in Sanaa, as well as the...

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer wants to exclude criminal offenders from Syria from a general stop of deportations that applies to the war torn country, a spokeswoman for the ministry said on Friday. Seehofer aims to replace the existing rule by individual checks when criminal...

Saudi Arabia formally suspended imports of meat, eggs and other products from Turkey earlier this month, the Turkish exporters’ union said, after a months-long informal boycott of Turkish goods over political tensions between the two regional rivals. Turkish exporters have reported...

 Iran on Friday announced that all government offices will effectively close and operate with only essential staff, further tightening coronavirus measures as the country struggles to contain its most widespread wave of infection yet. Starting this Saturday - the first day of Iran’s...

The United Nations said 32 tons of emergency aid were flown into Khartoum on Friday to help the growing number of refugees fleeing into Sudan from Ethiopia. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, said a second airlift from Dubai was due to arrive on Monday, with more than 43,300 registered refugees...

One person was shot dead and 49 wounded on Friday in clashes between anti-government protesters and supporters of a firebrand cleric in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, medics said. Followers of Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr turned out in Baghdad and Nasiriyah on Friday, rivalling the...

The European Union and Britain said on Friday there were still substantial differences over a Brexit trade deal as the EU chief negotiator prepared to travel to London in a last-ditch attempt to avoid a tumultuous finale to the five-year Brexit crisis. With just five weeks left until the...

Turkey on Friday rejected a call by the European Parliament for sanctions against Ankara over President Tayyip Erdogan’s recent visit to the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in north Cyprus, calling the demand “disconnected from the realities”. On Thursday, the European Union’s parliament...

Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro has said he will not take a vaccine against the coronavirus even after it receives approval from his own government. "I'm telling you, I won't take it (the vaccine)," he said in a video posted to social media on Thursday. "It is my right." Brazil has...