A drawing by the French writer Victor Hugo of a hot air balloon escaping from Paris during the 1870 Prussian siege, sold for more than twice its estimate Thursday. Sotheby's said the sketch by the author of "Les Miserables" went for 37,500 euros ($42,000) at its auction room in the French...

US President Donald Trump cannot end legal protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants brought to the US illegally as children, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The 5-4 ruling is the second major blow dealt to Trump this week by the top court as he prepares for Nov. 3 presidential...

Turkish foreign and defense ministries and intelligence will soon work with US counterparts on Libya, Turkey’s top diplomat said on Thursday. Speaking at a webinar with the US-based Turkish American National Steering Committee, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said President Recep Tayyip...

State oil giant Saudi Aramco started laying off hundreds of employees this month, two sources familiar with the matter said, as global energy companies reduce their workforces in response to the coronavirus crisis. Like other top oil firms, Aramco has cut capital spending for 2020 after the...

An Israeli soldier who shot and killed a Palestinian fisherman near the Gaza frontier in 2018 has been given 45 days of community service after an army investigation concluded he fired without authorization, the military said Thursday. The military said a group of Palestinians had...

Scientists believe Leonardo da Vinci's super-fast eye may have helped him catch the enigmatic magic of Mona Lisa's smile. This superhuman trait, which top tennis and baseball players may also share, allowed the Renaissance master to capture accurately minute, fleeting expressions and even...

Spain on Thursday presented an aid package worth more than 4.2 billion euros ($4.7 billion) for the crucial tourism sector, including a campaign to promote the country as a "safe" destination after the coronavirus devastation. The plan comes ahead of Sunday's planned re-opening of Spanish...

Seven Syrians who suffered or witnessed rape and sexual abuse in detention centres under President Bashar al-Assad's regime have submitted a criminal complaint to prosecutors in Germany, an NGO supporting them said Thursday. The four women and three men were held in various detention...

As Syria's economy plummeted further, the local Kurdish-led authority controlled by US-backed fighters in the country's north said Thursday it was more than doubling the salaries of its employees to make up for the loss of the value of the Syrian pound. The announcement came a day after...

Saudi Arabia has proposed a framework to end the latest standoff in southern Yemen between nominal allies under a Saudi-led coalition, three sources said, as violence escalates with the Iran-aligned Houthi movement in the north of the country. Previous clashes between Yemen's Saudi-backed...

Baghdad on Thursday demanded Ankara immediately halt its assault in northern Iraq, where Turkish special forces and helicopters have been targeting Kurdish rebel hideouts. Turkey early Wednesday launched a cross-border operation into the mountainous regions of northern Iraq where the...

The UN on Thursday wrapped up a historic debate about structural racism and police brutality in the United States and beyond -- but rights groups voiced concern that countries might be backing away from committing to concrete action. The urgent debate at the United Nations Human Rights...

Since mid-2019, the rift between Bashar al-Assad and his maternal cousin and tycoon Rami Makhlouf has been growing wider, despite both parties’ initial attempts to find solutions and to keep the dispute from the public. However, with Rami Makhlouf’s media appearance, earlier this year,...

It was still dark in Damascus as I walked down the stairs, my new life contained in a red suitcase. My mother stood next to the taxi door praying for my safety. My father was silent, certain that he would never see me again. I lowered the taxi window and waved to my parents until they...

Iran on Thursday condemned as inhumane a fresh round of U.S. sanctions against its regional ally Syria and said it would expand its trade ties with Damascus. The United States on Wednesday imposed its toughest sanctions targeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to choke off revenue for his...

Russia on Thursday confirmed 7,790 new coronavirus cases, raising the total number of infections to 561,091. The death toll in the country rose to 7,660, as 182 more people lost their lives due to the virus, the country's emergency team said in a daily report. Recoveries increased by...

India has rejected China’s claim on the Galwan Valley in Ladakh in the disputed Kashmir region, which became a battleground between the armies of two countries on Monday. Responding to questions on Thursday, spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs Anurag Srivastava described...

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi met Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, amid tensions with Israel over its annexation plans for the territory. Safadi travelled by helicopter for the rare trip to Ramallah, headquarters of the Palestinian...

French police on Thursday detained six members of the Chechen community on suspicion of taking part in successive nights of violence that rocked the eastern city of Dijon, prosecutors said. From Friday to Monday, Dijon was rocked by clashes and vehicle burnings after an assault this month...

More than one percent of the world's population - a record 80 million people - have now been forced to flee their homes due to violence and persecution, the UN said Thursday. By the end of 2019, one out of every 97 people in the world was living uprooted and displaced, according to a fresh...