Algeria has launched Islamic finance products in a bid to attract money from the informal market, but bankers warn it will take more to fix the country's struggling economy. Falling oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic have battered the North African country, triggering alarm bells among...

Protesters were set to rally in Bangkok Sunday against the government as tensions rose in the kingdom after the arrest of three activists leading the pro-democracy movement. Thailand has seen near-daily demonstrations for the past month by student-led groups denouncing Premier Prayut...

Israel's army launched new air strikes Sunday against Hamas positions in Gaza and closed the fishing zone around the Palestinian enclave in response to rockets and firebombs sent into Israeli territory. The measures came after a week of heightened tensions, including clashes on Saturday...

  Mahmoud Arnaout is another pro-Bashar al-Assad militant who fled to Germany in 2018 after participating in the regime's military operation in the southern suburbs of Damascus. Arnaout, 46, originally from the Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus, lives in the city of...

The deputy leader of the separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Yemen, Hani bin Breik, said he intends to visit Israel after the signing of a deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to normalize their relations. "If visits are open to the southerners [in Yemen] to Tel Aviv,...

Many Emirates are waiting for an opportunity to visit Israel, the leader of the Jewish community in the Gulf state said on Saturday. "The Jews in the UAE will be happy to receive Israelis who are expected to visit the country soon," Solly Wolf told the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation....

ROME: The number of migrants reaching Italy by sea shot up from the previous 12-month period, but in contrast to recent years, the majority of the arrivals didn’t need rescue and made it to shore by themselves. According to Interior Ministry figures released Saturday, from Aug. 1, 2019...

Almost half of Brazilians think President Jair Bolsonaro bears "no responsibility at all" for the country's more than 100,000 dead from the coronavirus pandemic, the world's second highest death toll, according to a new Datafolha poll. The poll was published Saturday in Brazil's Folha...

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Turkey will not back down to threats of sanctions nor to incursions on its claimed territory in the Mediterranean Sea, where it is in a standoff with Greece. “We will never bow to banditry on our continental shelf. We will not back down against...

More than 21,000 people reached Italy between August 2019 and the end of July, up 148% year-on-year, the minister said, speaking at an annual Aug. 15 press conference. Lamorgese said the majority of the arrivals were “autonomous landings, hard to manage... with small boats and...

The shock announcement that the UAE and Israel are normalizing relations has been applauded by allies and booed by rivals, but for many Gulf citizens there is deep unease over the embrace of a longtime enemy. Palestinian leaders have cast the deal as a "betrayal", a view shared by many...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A rigged motorcycle exploded in the border city Jarablus in northern Syria, killing one person and wounding seven more people. The blast took place in the city center near the main bakery, according to Zaman al-Wasl reporter. In August 2016, the Turkish army...

US President Donald Trump, who has used belittling nicknames to describe his opponents throughout his political career, toyed with a name change Friday for his Democratic rival in the Nov. 3 election, Joe Biden. Unable to hold his signature large campaign rallies because of the...

Trailblazing Afghan women's rights campaigner Fawzia Koofi, a member of the Afghan negotiating team that will hold talks with the Taliban, has been wounded in a gun attack near Kabul, officials said Saturday.a Gunmen opened fire on Koofi, 45, and her sister Friday when they were...

The Arab League and Saudi Arabia remained silent Friday on a deal between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel to normalize relations.    Among the Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia’s close ally, Bahrain, became the first to congratulate the UAE on the deal. Oman also...

The US Postal Service is warning states that it may not be able to meet deadlines for delivering mail-in ballots before Election Day, according to a report Friday.    The ballots would complicate an already tricky electoral process in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic....

Fresh Israeli air and tank strikes hit Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip late Friday, Israel's army said, in further reprisals for firebombs suspended from balloons that floated over the border from Gaza. "Fighter jets, military helicopters and tanks targeted Hamas positions in the Gaza...

European Union ministers agreed Friday to draw up a list of targets in Belarus for a new round of sanctions in response to strongman Alexander Lukashenko's post-election crackdown.  At a videoconference hosted by Brussels' diplomatic chief Josep Borrell, the foreign ministers also...

Hezbollah's leader said Friday the group was not concerned with the verdict of a U.N.-backed tribunal over the 2005 assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri due on August 18. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said if any members of the four members of the group are indicted, Hezbollah would stand by their...

 Lebanon's Prosecutor General Ghassan Oueidat has pressed charges against 25 people, including senior port and customs officials and security officers, over the massive Beirut port blast that killed 172 people, a judicial source told Reuters on Friday. It was not immediately clear what...