France's government Saturday extended a hand to unions waging a crippling, weeks-long transport strike against pension reform, offering to withdraw the most contested proposal that would in effect have raised the retirement age by two years to 64. The overture came as protesters clashed...

Resident's of Syria's last major opposition bastion Saturday welcomed a UN vote renewing cross-border aid to the country, as relief groups condemned restrictions to the programme which is helping millions. The United Nations Security Council on Friday voted to extend humanitarian aid to...

At least 17 civilians were killed in airstrikes Saturday by the Bashar al-Assad regime in northwestern Syria, said a local civil defense agency.  Regime warplanes have targeted Idlib’s city center, Maarrat al-Numan and Saraqib districts and 11 villages in the morning hours, said...

The death toll from a suicide bombing at a mosque in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta rose to 15 Saturday, officials said. The blast during Friday evening prayers wounded at least 20 other people, police said. "Two of the wounded people died overnight in the hospital," said...

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will face each other in the final of the inaugural ATP Cup after winning epic three-set matches Saturday to steer Spain and Serbia into the decider. World number one Nadal ground down pumped-up Australian Alex de Minaur to guide the Davis Cup champions...

Hundreds of Iraqis on Saturday mourned two reporters shot dead the previous evening in the country's southern city of Basra, where they had been covering months of anti-government protests. Ahmad Abdessamad, a 37-year-old correspondent for local television station Al-Dijla, and his...

 Omar al-Tawil, a 15-year-old school boy in Damascus, is one of 24,000 Syrian youngsters now learning Russian at school after the country added the language of the government’s most powerful ally to the curriculum. Many young people in Syria, where Moscow intervened in 2015 to...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, responding to Iran's statement that a missile shot down a Ukrainian airliner this week, said Saturday that his government sought a full investigation and full cooperation from the Iranian authorities. All 176 people on board, including 57 Canadians,...

Two luxury waterfront high-rises in southern India were reduced to rubble in controlled explosions Saturday in a rare example of authorities getting tough on builders who break environmental rules. The 19-floor H2O Holy Faith complex of 90 flats -- overlooking Kerala state's famous lush...

Pope Francis appointed a new ambassador to France on Saturday, following the resignation of an archbishop who has been questioned by police on sexual assault claims. The new envoy is Italian Archbishop Celestino Migliore, 67, who had been serving as the Holy See's ambassador to Russia, the...

Crisis-hit Lebanon on Saturday said it "regrets" being among seven countries stripped by the United Nations of voting privileges in the General Assembly for failing to pay their dues. The UN decision could "harm Lebanon's interests, its prestige and reputation," the foreign ministry said in...

A statement by Iran saying it accidentally shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane confirms one of the working theories of the Ukrainian state security service (SBU) on what caused the crash, SBU chief Ivan Bakanov said on Saturday. Contrary to what some experts had said initially, the SBU...

Tunisia's parliament Friday rejected the government proposed by Prime Minister-designate Habib Jemli after months of negotiations between political parties to fill positions. Jemli, an independent, was nominated by the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party after it came out on top in legislative...

North Korea said Saturday it had received Donald Trump's letter wishing a happy birthday to leader Kim Jong Un, but warned it will return to nuclear talks only when Washington fully accepts its demands. The US president and Kim have held three meetings since June 2018 but negotiations have...

Haitham bin Tariq, Oman's culture minister and the 65-year-old cousin of late Sultan Qaboos, has been sworn in as the new royal ruler, the government said Saturday. "Haitham bin Tariq was sworn in as the new sultan of the country... after a meeting of the family which decided to appoint the...

President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded Saturday that Iran punish those responsible for the downing of a Ukrainian airliner, pay compensation and apologise. "We expect Iran... to bring the guilty to the courts," the Ukrainian leader wrote on Facebook, calling also for the "payment of...

Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said of Oman, the Arab world's longest-serving ruler, has died aged 79, state media say. Last month he returned home after undergoing medical checks and treatment in Belgium. There were reports he was suffering from cancer. Sultan Qaboos deposed his...

The U.S. Friday rebuffed an Iraqi request to prepare to pull out its troops, amid heightened U.S.-Iranian tensions after the U.S. killing of an Iranian commander in Baghdad. Seeking to tighten pressure on its arch foe, the United States meanwhile imposed more sanctions on Iran, responding to an...

The U.S. military tried, but failed, to take out another senior Iranian commander on the same day that an American airstrike killed the Revolutionary Guard's top general, U.S. officials said Friday. The officials said a military airstrike targeted Abdul Reza Shahla’i, a high-ranking...

Daesh (ISIS) gloated over the recent U.S. killing of a senior Iranian general, who rose to prominence by advising forces fighting the extremists. In the first Daesh comments since Gen. Qassem Soleimani's slaying, the group said his death "pleased the hearts of believers." The editorial was...