Saudi Arabia will allow around 1,000 pilgrims residing in the kingdom to perform the hajj this year, a minister said Tuesday, after it announced the ritual would be scaled back due to coronavirus. "The number of pilgrims will be around 1,000, maybe less, maybe a little more," Hajj Minister...

China and India have agreed to reduce tensions a week after clashes on their disputed Himalayan border left 20 Indian troops dead in brutal hand-to-hand fighting. The June 15 battle, reportedly fought with fists, clubs and rocks, was the first time troops have been killed on their border...

The US is no longer demanding Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad step down from office, and is instead seeking a radical change in the regime's behavior, President Donald Trump's special envoy for the country's conflict said Monday.  "We are not demanding total victory. We are not...

Emmanuel Macron's party is staring at defeat in municipal elections Sunday, dealing a blow to the French president's bid to chart a fresh course for the remaining two years of his term in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. In cities and towns across France, his Republic on the Move (LREM)...

The Taliban killed at least 291 Afghan security personnel over the past week, a top government official said Monday, accusing the insurgents of unleashing a wave of violence ahead of potential talks. The previous week was the "deadliest" in the country's 19 years of conflict, said Javid...

Nearly 260 million children had no access to schooling in 2018, the United Nations education agency said in a report Tuesday that blamed poverty and discrimination for educational inequalities that are being exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak. Children from poorer communities as well...

President Donald Trump on Tuesday faced another difficult day in office with the publication of a tell-all book by former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, after efforts to block the book release failed in a US court. Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened,” is an account of his...

Saudi Arabia this year will limit the annual Hajj pilgrimage to people living inside the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, shutting the doors to pilgrims from abroad. Only a limited number of people from all nationalities living in Saudi Arabia will be allowed to perform the annual...

The Libyan Defense Ministry said Monday the return of the central city of Sirte and al-Jufra base to the government's control would serve the best interests of all brotherly and friendly countries. "It serves the interests of all brothers and friends to return Sirte and al-Jufra to the...

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians searching for their relatives have stepped up their efforts after the US adopted the Caesar Act, a law which imposes sanctions on the Syrian regime for war crimes. Families, who have long given up on ever finding their relatives, click on web links...

More than nine million people have now been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, according to an AFP tally drawing on official sources, as of Monday. More than half of the 9,000,091 cases are in Europe and the United States: Europe having recorded 2,537,451 and the United States...

Finland's Nokia Oyj plans to cut 1,233 jobs at its French subsidiary Alcatel-Lucent International, equivalent to a third of the unit's workforce, the group said on Monday, confirming an earlier Reuters report. The announcement has political resonance in France as Nokia bought the unit five...

Dozens of girls from a state-run shelter for runaways and victims of sexual abuse -- including seven who are pregnant -- have tested positive for coronavirus, Indian officials said Monday, raising fears about its spread in institutional homes. A probe was launched after almost 60 out of 171...

The novel coronavirus pandemic is still accelerating and its effects will be felt for decades, the World Health Organization's director-general told an online conference Monday. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual health forum organized by Dubai authorities that the greatest threat...

Iran’s currency Monday dropped to its lowest value ever against the dollar and officials warned Iranian exporters to bring their foreign earnings home from abroad. Money exchange shops briefly traded the Iranian rial 200,000 for a dollar and later in the day, the currency was valued at...

World stocks reversed earlier losses and the dollar slid Monday as investors shrugged off worries that rising coronavirus infections in parts of Europe and the United States over the weekend could scupper a quick economic rebound. Torn between record stimulus and growing fears of a second...

Coldplay, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Hudson, David Beckham, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. Megastars of music, film, sport, fashion and regional governance will join online events on Saturday to support the search for a coronavirus vaccine....

A Russian court on Monday sentenced two leftist activists to long prison terms on controversial terror charges in a case that has sparked widespread criticism. Viktor Filinkov, 25, and Yuli Boyarshinov, 28, were accused of belonging to the "Network" terrorist group, which prosecutors said...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel sharply condemned as "abhorrent" a rampage in Stuttgart where hundreds of partygoers brutally attacked police officers, her spokesman said Monday, as concerns grow that law enforcers are increasingly treated with contempt. Hundreds of people unleashed a riot...

The World Health Organization sent out a fresh warning on Monday over the dangers of the new coronavirus even as France returned to life by staging an annual music festival and sending millions of children back to school. In spite of numerous European countries further easing their lockdown...