Saudi Arabia's economy shrank by 7% in the second quarter, a sign of how deeply the new coronavirus hit both the oil and non-oil sectors, while unemployment hit a record high of 15.4%, official data showed on Wednesday. The world’s largest oil exporter is facing a deep recession after the...

Routine blackouts and shaky internet service have made remote learning in the Gaza Strip a challenge for students during the coronavirus pandemic. With schools closed across the Palestinian enclave since a lockdown in August, hundreds of thousands of students have been stuck at home and...

Iraq will protect foreign mission buildings and ensure only the state has weapons, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi told 25 top diplomats on Wednesday, after Washington warned it could shut down its Baghdad embassy. The United States has made preparations to withdraw diplomats from Iraq...

 Serena Williams withdrew from Roland Garros Wednesday as the American's bid for a 24th Grand Slam title suffered another blow, sparking further doubts over the 39-year-old's long-term future in the sport. Williams, a three-time champion in Paris, had arrived at the tournament carrying...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- After three years of in-depth research, Icchiku Yamada, a Japanese researcher, got a master's degree in Genocide Studies from the University of Tokyo. Through his thesis, titled “A study on the Conceptual Framework for Genocide: the Issue of the Genocide of Civilians in the...

Hadi Ahmed wearily sets up a tent in Yemen's Marib province, after fleeing fighting yet again in the government's last northern stronghold which is under intense pressure from Huthi rebels. The Iran-backed fighters have long held the capital Sanaa which lies just 120 kilometres (75 miles)...

Kuwait's new emir was sworn in at parliament on Wednesday as the country prepared to lay to rest late ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who helped steer the U.S.-allied Gulf state through some of the Middle East's most turbulent decades. The cabinet swiftly named designated successor...

Seven months ago, Lebanese mother-to-be Rana Mneimneh was ecstatic she was pregnant, but after a massive explosion at Beirut's port, she lives in constant fear for her baby girl. "Before the blast I was excitedly preparing for the birth of my first child, but since, I've stopped...

It was messy and there was a lot of shouting, but President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden on Tuesday managed during their 90-minute debate to touch on some of the crucial issues facing American voters in November. The following is a look at the key moments of the debate -- the...

More than 60 million people in India -- 10 times the official figure -- could have contracted the novel coronavirus, the country's lead pandemic agency said Tuesday, citing a nationwide study measuring antibodies. According to official data India, home to 1.3 billion people, is the world's...

Israel's parliament approved a law early Wednesday restricting demonstrations as part of a coronavirus-related state of emergency, that critics say is aimed at silencing protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The law, which passed its final reading by 46 votes to 38, was meant...

The relatives of 12 Hong Kong people arrested by China at sea last month called for access to their detained family members in a petition to the mainland’s representative office in the semi-autonomous city on Wednesday. The 12, of whom 10 were facing charges related to anti-government...

 It started out civil enough, with President Donald Trump striding deliberately to his lectern, and Democrat Joe Biden nodding to his opponent and offering, “How you doing, man?” Within 15 minutes, the interruptions and talking over one another at Tuesday's presidential debate had...

After more than a year of circling each other, Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden met on the debate stage Tuesday night in Ohio. The 74-year-old president and the 77-year-old former vice president are similar in age, and they share a mutual dislike....

Armenia and Azerbaijan accused one another on Tuesday of firing directly into each other's territory and rejected pressure to hold peace talks as their conflict over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh threatened to spill over into all-out war. Both reported firing from the other side across...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Hezbollah of maintaining a "secret arms depot" in a residential neighborhood of Beirut, warning it could cause another tragic explosion in the Lebanese capital. In an address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, Netanyahu showed maps...

An international aid group is warning that an additional 700,000 children in Syria face hunger because of the country’s badly damaged economy and the impact of coronavirus restrictions.  Save the Children said in a report released Tuesday that the new figures mean that in the last six...

Telecoms company Huawei Technologies is part of China’s surveillance state, complicit in human rights abuses, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday, as Washington renewed pressure on Europe to ban the company from fifth-generation (5G) networks. Keith Krach, the undersecretary of state for...

 Iranian militias on Tuesday have killed 12 shepherds in the Syrian desert east of Hama province, monitoring group and activists said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that 12 civilians were killed and 4 others were missing in the attack in the eastern...

French police on Tuesday arrested 29 people in a sting operation targeting a network of terror financing for jihadists in Syria, prosecutors said. The network, active since 2019, mostly operated via the purchase of crypto-currency coupons whose references were given to jihadist contacts in...