The UN must act to stop the violence in Syria, a major conference heard Sunday as bloodshed on the ground claimed more lives.
The head of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi called on participants of the "Friends of Syria" conference to "simultaneously call on the Security Council...
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Al-Qaeda militants killed seven policemen Sunday in an attack on a checkpoint in Yemen's southeast, a security official said, a day after clashes between the army and militants left 40 dead.
"A group of Al-Qaeda terrorists in two vehicles opened machinegun fire on a checkpoint, killing seven...
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Iran on Sunday backtracked on reports that five Iranian "engineers" abducted in Syria had been freed -- the second time in months it retracted news of their liberation.
Kazem Sajjadi, a foreign ministry official in charge of Iranians abroad, told state television that five Iranian pilgrims who...
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Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood is to field its deputy chairman Khairat al-Shater as a candidate in the upcoming presidential election, the group's party and supreme guide said on Saturday.
"The Freedom and Justice Party will nominate Khairat al-Shater as a candidate for the presidency," the FJP said on...
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Monterosso led home a Godolphin one-two in the Dubai World Cup over 2000 metres at Meydan racecourse on Saturday when he swept past his stablemate, Capponi, to win the world's richest race.
The five-year-old, ridden by Mickael Barzalona, advanced from a prominent position to win a race...
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About 500 Arab Israelis demonstrated on Saturday in Jaffa near Tel Aviv to mark Land Day held in memory of six members of their community killed in 1976, an AFP photographer reported.
The demonstration, organised by the Monitoring Committee of Arab Israelis, was held without any incident.
On...
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Amnesty International on Saturday urged Jordan to free six political activists charged with insulting King Abdullah II, as police broke up a demonstration in Amman demanding their release.
The human rights watchdog "is calling for the immediate and unconditional release of six pro-reform activists held for 'insulting'...
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Expectations are low of an international conference Sunday in Istanbul having much impact on the Syrian crisis, as discord among the so-called "Friends of Syria" outweighs their agreements.
More than 70 representatives from Western and Arab countries will gather to craft a solution aimed at halting the...
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Libya's interim government on Saturday announced a ceasefire aimed at ending six days of deadly tribal clashes in a southern desert oasis that cost more than 150 lives.
"We announce that reconciliation efforts have resulted in an accord on a ceasefire," premier Abdel Rahim al-Kib told reporters...
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Turkey is grappling with a refugee crisis stemming from the Damascus regime's military offensive against opponents as the country braces for a new influx of people fleeing the violence.
More than 17,000 Syrians have fled across the border into Turkey to escape President Bashar al-Assad's brutal crackdown...
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Unknown gunmen shot dead a member of the Sahwa anti-Qaeda militia forces along with his wife and son on Saturday north of Baghdad in Iraq's Diyala province, a security official said.
"Unknown gunmen broke into the house of Atia Khalil, a member of the Sahwa (Awakening) forces...
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Gunmen killed a 22-year-old protester near the Bahraini capital early on Saturday, said the main Shiite opposition group Al-Wefaq, blaming militants loyal to the regime.
Ahmad Ismail Hassan was wounded in the stomach when men in civilian clothing fired on protesters calling for "democracy and an end...
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Thousands of Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Israeli troops at Qalandia checkpoint in the West Bank on Friday as hundreds more gathered by Jerusalem's Old City to mark Land Day.
Rallies were also held by refugee communities in neighbouring Jordan and Lebanon to mark the annual event that...
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The UN Security Council on Thursday expressed concern over recent events in Yemen, where followers of former strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh have been accused of hampering the political transition.
"The Security Council expresses concern at the recent deterioration in cooperation among political actors and the risks this...
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Huge crowds rallied in cities across Syria Thursday in a mass show of support for President Bashar al-Assad "to make the world hear our voice" on the first anniversary of a deadly anti-regime revolt.
State television showed tens of thousands of people waving Syrian flags and Assad's...
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The Israeli air force and Gaza militants traded sporadic fire overnight but a fragile truce between the sides that ended four days of violence appeared to be largely holding on Thursday.
Late Thursday morning, militants fired a rocket at the southern desert city of Beersheva, which was...
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Syria's deadly revolt entered a second year Thursday with the regime smashing rebel bastions and peace envoy Kofi Annan awaiting answers from Damascus before the United Nations re-enters the fray.
President Bashar al-Assad's camp and the opposition both called for huge demonstrations to mark the day, after...
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Three Iranians have been named by Indian police as suspects in an attack on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi, the first time Iran has been firmly linked to the bombing, reports said Thursday.
The men entered the country on tourist visas and left after the assassination...
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Uruguay said Wednesday a contingent of its soldiers serving as peacekeepers in the Sinai have been trapped in their base by Bedouins demanding the release of four colleagues imprisoned in Egypt.
Foreign Minister Luis Almagro said about 35 Uruguayan soldiers in the multinational peacekeeping force had been...
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A British newspaper on Wednesday published emails it claims were sent by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and his wife, allegedly revealing the regime sought advice from Iran on suppressing protests.
The Guardian newspaper admits it "is impossible rule out the possibility of fakes" in the cache of...
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US President Barack Obama on Wednesday warned Iran that the window for diplomacy to solve a nuclear showdown was "shrinking," stiffening his rhetoric ahead of looming new talks on the issue.
Obama sent a public message to Iran as preparations went ahead for a new round of...
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A militia that held two British journalists accused of illegal entry into Libya have handed the pair over to the government, the deputy interior minister said Wednesday.
"The two journalists were handed over to the interior ministry and are now under the government's control," Omar al-Khadrawi told...
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Iran condemned on Wednesday what it said was the use of oil as a political tool against producers, referring to Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear programme, as Saudi Arabia promised to cover any shortage in supplies.
At the 13th biennial International Energy Forum, which concluded in Kuwait...
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Syria could send eight athletes to the 2012 Olympics, but IOC chief Jacques Rogge has warned that if those competitors are implicated in war crimes, they will be banned from entering London.
Rogge said that between six and eight Syrians "have the potential" to qualify for the...
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A fragile truce that ended four days of violence between Israel and Gaza militants appeared to be largely holding on Wednesday, despite sporadic rocket fire and air raids.
Israeli police said a rocket was fired from Gaza at the southern city of Beersheva on Wednesday evening, but...
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"Assad has killed so many people that he deserves a fate worse than Kadhafi's," spits Ammar al-Wawi, a one-time Syrian officer now second-in-command of the rebel Free Syrian Army.
And despite the fact that the FSA, "armed only with Kalashnikovs and pistols," is at an overwhelming disadvantage...
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UN-Arab League mediator Kofi Annan and Russia on Wednesday urged President Bashar al-Assad to speed up efforts to end the bloodletting in Syria, as regime forces seized another rebel city.
On the eve of the first anniversary of an anti-Assad revolt, the opposition suffered setbacks on both...
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Four men move deftly and carefully across a field, their silhouettes outlined by the light of a full moon, bearing a stretcher.
Five lives are at stake as they hasten to carry to safety in nearby Turkey a man shot during a demonstration in the Syrian city...
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Iran on Wednesday made a formal request for a date and venue to be fixed for talks to resume with world powers focusing on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili sent a letter to EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton saying he wanted...
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Civil unrest is putting 1.4 million people at risk from hunger in Syria, which must raise cereal imports by around a third to offset a loss in local output, the United Nations' food agency said Wednesday.
"Continued civil unrest in the Syrian Arab Republic since mid-March 2011...
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Hundreds of Syrian activists will gather Thursday in Turkey near the Syrian border to commemorate the first anniversary of the uprising against the Syrian regime, a protest organiser said Wednesday.
"Between 350 and 400 activists, along with a hundred others settled in Turkey said they would be...
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Nearly a quarter of Yemen's population of 22 million need emergency food assistance, the World Food Programme announced on Wednesday.
A WFP food security survey indicates that "almost one quarter of the Yemeni population needs emergency food assistance now," said Lubna Alaman, the UN agency Yemen representative,...
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The latest conflict in Gaza put Hamas in a delicate position, forcing it to weather criticism from other groups as it sought a quick truce to avoid a full-blown war, analysts said.
The four-day flare-up that began with Israel's assassination of the leader of the radical Popular...
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Azerbaijan has arrested 22 people on suspicion of plotting attacks on the US and Israeli embassies in Baku on behalf of neighbouring Iran, the national security ministry said Wednesday.
"Twenty-two citizens of Azerbaijan have been arrested by the national security ministry for cooperating with the Iranian Sepah,"...
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a defiant and at times mocking defence of his economic and political management on Wednesday in an unprecedented interrogation by a largely hostile parliament.
"So far no major violation has been proved against my government... If you rate us at less than...
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The main opposition coalition stood accused of having become an "accomplice" to the bloodshed in Syria as three prominent figures announced their resignations on Wednesday.
A Syrian National Council official, contacted by AFP, said Haitham al-Maleh, Kamal al-Labwani and rights activist Catherine al-Telli had quit due to...
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A Jerusalem court on Wednesday acquitted an Israeli antiques dealer of faking a host of spectacular relics including a casket said to contain the bones of Jesus' brother, court documents showed.
Oded Golan was accused of committing fraud in producing what the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) ruled...
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Russia on Wednesday criticised President Bashar al-Assad for his "big delay" in implementing reforms, saying Damascus risked escalating the Syria crisis by failing to take Moscow's advice.
In a rare public rebuke from Moscow to the Syrian leader, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Assad of "inertia" and...
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International mediator Kofi Annan confirmed Wednesday that he has received a reponse from the Syrian regime, after he made "concrete" proposals earlier to Damascus on ways to halt the crisis.
"The Joint Special Envoy (JSE) for Syria Kofi Annan has now received a response from the Syrian...
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Iranian oil exports are likely to fall by nearly half within six months, the IEA said Wednesday while holding its estimate of global oil demand steady for the first time in six months.
The report underscored two forces in the oil market, where prices have risen sharply,...
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Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Wednesday that the oil-rich kingdom stands ready to cover any shortfalls of crude supplies in the market.
"As I have noted many times before, Saudi Arabia and others remain poised to make good any shortfalls -- perceived or real --...
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Saudi Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz went to Algeria for a vacation after the results of medical tests he underwent in the United States were "reassuring," the royal palace announced on Wednesday.
Prince Nayef, the kingdom's veteran internal security czar, "has finished previously scheduled medical tests...
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The UN and Arab League were considering Syria's response to their proposals to end the bloodshed as Amnesty International Wednesday alleged detainees in Syria faced a "nightmarish world" of torture.
"The scale of torture and other ill-treatment in Syria has risen to a level not witnessed for...
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Iran launched a "sophisticated cyber-attack" in an attempt to disrupt the BBC's Persian service, which is watched by over seven million viewers weekly, the broadcaster's chief was to claim Wednesday.
Director-general Mark Thompson is expected to use Wednesday's address to the Royal Television Society to accuse Iran...
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Three men, including a British citizen, have been charged with conspiring to defraud the US government over a kickback scheme involving contracts for ammunition disposal in Iraq, according to the US Justice Department.
Briton Ahmed Sarchil Kazzaz and his business, Leadstay Company, were charged in federal court...
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An Iranian whose release reportedly had been sought by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is undergoing deportation proceedings after serving a five year prison sentence for arms smuggling, a US official said Tuesday.
Amir Hossein Ardebili, who was arrested in October 2007 in the Republic of Georgia and...
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Israel and militants in Gaza began observing an Egyptian-brokered truce on Tuesday after four days of violence, which officials on both sides warned could flare up again.
The ceasefire was holding after more than 72 hours of cross-border fighting in which 25 Gazans were killed, most of...
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Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Brunei are in talks with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) about sending female competitors to the London Olympics, IOC director general Christophe de Kepper revealed on Tuesday.
"These three countries are very co-operative and are trying to find a solution with us, including...
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Kuwait Petroleum Corp and France's Total on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding to be partners in a Kuwait-China oil refinery joint venture, the French energy giant said.
The joint venture, in partnership with China's Sinopec, will develop a refinery with a processing capacity of 300,000 barrels...
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French oil giant Total is in talks to tap opportunities to invest in autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan, its chief said Tuesday as Baghdad insists contracts should go through the central government.
"Kurdistan is part of Iraq. A lot of companies are investing in Kurdistan-Iraq and we don't see...
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Egypt's finance minister said on Tuesday that the government deficit was not as bad as announced a day earlier, but the figure still exceeds what had been forecast for the fiscal year ending in June.
On Monday, ministry official Abdel Aziz Tantawi said the budget deficit will...
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Two Israeli naval vessels passed through Egypt's Suez Canal on Tuesday, headed from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, Israeli and Egyptian sources said.
"It was routine, they were on their way to Eilat" where Israel has its Red Sea naval base, an Israeli security source told...
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France is to reduce the strength of its UN peacekeeping contingent in southern Lebanon by 400, just under a third of its troops there, the foreign ministry said Tuesday.
A statement from the ministry said the decision had been taken in agreement with the United Nations and...
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President Bashar al-Assad's regime has launched a counter-offensive against what it says are lies by foreign media groups hell-bent on serving the propaganda interests of gangs terrorising Syria.
Anti-regime activists on Monday posted online videos showing the bodies of dozens of women and children they said were...
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China and Arab countries agree on the need to find a "political solution" to the crisis in Syria, Chinese envoy Zhang Ming said on Tuesday after talks in Cairo with Arab League officials.
"We all recognise that there is great agreement between China and the Arab League...
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Tensions in the Middle East, as well as speculation, are behind recent increases in oil prices, two Gulf oil ministers said on Tuesday.
"There is a lot of tension in oil-producing countries," said the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammad bin Dhaen al-Hamli, on the...
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday announced parliamentary elections for May 7, even as monitors said violence raged in flashpoint provinces and rebel fighters killed 22 regime troops in ambushes.
The announcement came as UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan said he was expecting a response from...
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Just days after returning from Washington for talks on the Iran nuclear threat, Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu found southern Israel hammered by rockets from Gaza, with the premier insisting the two threats are linked.
Four days of cross-border violence in and around Gaza ended with a truce agreement...
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Ten people were killed Tuesday as battles intensified between Al-Qaeda and Yemeni forces, many of which are still led by relatives of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who handed over power three weeks ago.
Five militants were killed in an air strike on their car in Yemen's...
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Israel says its unique "Iron Dome" short-range air defence system is performing well, intercepting the vast majority of rockets fired at southern cities in the latest barrage by Gaza militants.
So far three experimental batteries have been deployed since March 2011 -- around Ashkelon, Ashdod and the...
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