Hasanain Alminshid had received death threats for his human rights activism for years, but ignored most of them. After his mentor was gunned down outside a police station, he finally made the difficult choice to flee Iraq. “It’s too dangerous now. There have been killings in the open in...

The IMF Monday urged Middle East and North African countries to accelerate reforms and diversification efforts as the energy-rich region faces unprecedented challenges due to the coronavirus and low oil prices. In its latest regional economic outlook report, the International Monetary Fund...

French police raided the homes Monday of dozens of suspected militants three days after the beheading of a teacher who had shown his pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, the interior minister said. The raids came a day after tens of thousands of people took part in rallies countrywide...

Oil producer group OPEC+ will meet Monday to discuss the weakening demand outlook in the face of rising coronavirus infections as well as increased output from Libya but is unlikely to recommend immediate action, OPEC+ sources said. An OPEC+ joint ministerial monitoring committee,...

Almost every day Wafa Ali Mustafa posts a number to Facebook. Today she has counted to 2663. Each number represents a day since her father went missing in Damascus more than seven years ago. It is a bitter truth that the disappearance of Wafa's father, Ali, is far from an isolated case....

Worldwide coronavirus cases crossed 40 million on Monday, according to a Reuters tally, as the onset of winter in the northern hemisphere fuelled a resurgence in the spread of the disease. The Reuters tally is based on official reporting by individual countries. Experts believe the true...

Torture, humiliation and coerced confessions are rampant in North Korea's pretrial detention system which treats people as worth "less than an animal", a rights group said Monday in a report on the country's opaque legal processes. US-based Human Rights Watch drew on interviews with dozens...

Belgium imposed a nationwide overnight curfew on Monday as Switzerland made wearing face masks compulsory in indoor public spaces, the latest desperate measures by European governments to fight a powerful second coronavirus wave. More than 250,000 people have died of the virus in Europe but...

Calls have been growing inside Libya and abroad for holding legislative and presidential elections in the conflict-ridden country, instead of staging a new 18-month transitional period. Fayez al-Sarraj, head of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), has earlier called for...

A new ceasefire in the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh appeared to be in jeopardy on Monday, with ethnic Armenian forces and Azerbaijan accusing each other of renewed shelling. The ceasefire was agreed Saturday after a deal brokered by Russia a week earlier failed to halt the worst...

A top White House counterterrorism official recently met with the Assad regime in Syria to negotiate the release of US hostages, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. Kash Patel, a deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and top White House counterterrorism official, traveled to...

A top White House official flew to Damascus for talks to free U.S. hostages believed to be held in Syria, people familiar with the matter said. (The Wall Street Journal)

Ben Smith of the New York Times is not known for pulling his punches. The former editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed, who revealed the dossier on suspicions that the Kremlin held kompromat on Donald Trump, is on a new beat – the US media. Smith’s most recent column was a bombshell, his target...

Israel and Bahrain on Sunday agreed to establish formal diplomatic relations, making the small Gulf country the fourth Arab state to normalize ties with Israel. The U.S.-brokered agreement capped a one-day visit by a high-level delegation of American and Israeli officials to Bahrain....

President Donald Trump and rival Joe Biden hit the ground Sunday in the swing states that will decide the US election, as the campaign turns increasingly vicious 16 days before voting. Trump, scrambling to make up lost ground, is on a furious multi-state barnstorming tour hopping from...

 Tens of thousands of opposition supporters rallied on Sunday in the city of Karachi as part of a campaign to oust Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, who they accuse of being installed by the military in a rigged 2018 election. Nine major opposition parties formed a joint platform...

The U.S. military on Sunday defended its air strikes against Taliban fighters last week as the insurgent group accused Washington of violating their signed agreement and warned of consequences if such actions continued. The Taliban launched a major offensive in the southern province of...

Right-wing nationalist Ersin Tatar, backed by Ankara, scored a surprise victory in a run-off presidential election Sunday in breakaway northern Cyprus, official results showed.  Tatar, who advocates a two-state solution on the divided island, won 51.73 percent, ahead of incumbent...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday said that arms sales to Iran would breach UN resolutions and result in sanctions, after Tehran said the longstanding UN embargo on arms trade with the Islamic republic had expired. "The United States is prepared to use its domestic authorities to...

The leaders of Lebanon’s Maronite and Orthodox Christian churches urged Lebanese leaders on Sunday to stop delaying talks on forming a government in scathing sermons in which they blamed them for the country’s financial crisis and political deadlock. Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, leader...