A Saudi-led coalition struck the home province of Yemen's UAE-backed separatist leader on Wednesday, after he failed to show up for talks in Riyadh and was kicked out of the country's presidential body.

The leader of Yemen's separatists is heading to Riyadh on Tuesday for talks, a Yemeni official told AFP, after days of fighting between his UAE-backed forces and pro-Saudi rivals.

Former Israeli premier Naftali Bennett, widely regarded as a leading contender in next year's legislative elections, called on Monday for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing his office of "treason" over alleged Qatari funding to his aides.

The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May

Washington, United States -- Conflicts and related fatalities have more than tripled since the early 2000s, fueling extreme poverty, the World Bank said Friday. Economies in fragile and conflict-affected regions have become "the epicenter of global poverty and food insecurity, a situation increasingly shaped by the frequency and intensity of...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday insisted gains in the conflict against Iran would help with the country's war footing in Gaza and bringing the hostages home but said "more time" was needed.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decried the deaths of Palestinians seeking food aid as "unacceptable", and the world body's rights chief condemned attacks on civilians as "a war crime" following a similar shooting near the same site on Sunday.

Beirut, Lebanon - On Beirut's chaotic, car-choked streets, Lebanese student Fatima Fakih rides a shiny purple bus to university, one of a fleet rolled out by authorities to revive public transport in a country struggling to deliver basic services. The 19-year-old says the spacious public buses are "safer, better and...

On a visit to Riyadh earlier this month, US President Donald Trump said he would lift US sanctions on Syria, a move that should help pave the way for economic recovery in the war-torn country.

Poonch, India -  A ceasefire appeared to hold on Sunday between India and Pakistan, hours after the nuclear-armed rivals accused each other of violating a truce that brought them back from the brink of all-out war. The ceasefire was agreed on Saturday after four days of missile, drone and artillery...

Pakistan and India agreed Saturday to a full and immediate ceasefire after days of deadly jet fighter, missile, drone and artillery attacks -- news surprisingly announced by US President Donald Trump, who congratulated them on using "common sense".

Hamas's armed wing released a video on Saturday showing two Israeli hostages alive in the Gaza Strip, with one of the two men calling to end the 19-month-long war.

Washington, United States - US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged India and Pakistan to restore direct communication to "avoid miscalculation" in a series of calls as the conflict neared all-out war, the State Department said early Saturday. Rubio placed telephone calls to the rivals' top diplomats and, for the...

Pakistan charged India Friday with bringing the nuclear-armed neighbours "closer to a major conflict", as the death toll from three days of missile, artillery and drone attacks passed 50.

Damascus, Syria - Syrian Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bashir said Friday Damascus and Ankara had reached a deal for Turkey to supply natural gas to the war-torn country via a pipeline in the north. "I agreed with my Turkish counterpart Alparslan Bayraktar on supplying Syria with six million cubic metres of...

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories - First responders in Gaza said Thursday that their operations were at a near standstill, more than two months into a full Israeli blockade that has left food and fuel in severe shortage. Israel denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where it...

India and Pakistan accused each other Thursday of carrying out waves of drone attacks, as deadly confrontations between the nuclear-armed foes drew global calls for calm. The fighting comes two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing an attack on the Indian-run side of disputed Kashmir, which Pakistan denied.

A Hamas official told AFP on Tuesday that it was "necessary to reach a ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip, three weeks after Israel resumed bombardments on the Palestinian territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened Wednesday to seize parts of Gaza if Hamas did not release hostages, while the militant group warned they would return "in coffins" if Israel did not stop bombing the Palestinian territory.

Russia has mounted a rapid counteroffensive in the western border region of Kursk over the past week, recapturing much of the territory Ukraine seized in a shock incursion last August.

The UN migration chief expressed concerns about large-scale refugee returns destabilizing Syria further, particularly affecting religious minorities who fled violence during the Assad regime’s brutal crackdown and subsequent years of conflict

Fifty-four journalists were killed worldwide while carrying out their work or because of their profession in 2024, a third of them by the Israeli army, according to an annual report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published Thursday.

Israeli attacks have killed dozens in Gaza and Lebanon is the past 24 hours, while EU chief visits Beirut asking for immediate halt of war between Israel and Hezbollah. UN envoy to Syria says "extremely critical" to avoid Syria being dragged into war.

Israel intensifies airstrikes across Lebanon and Gaza, escalating cross-border violence as Netanyahu urges troops to push Hezbollah back and prevent rearmament, while Hezbollah claims missile attacks on an Israeli base in Haifa.

Hezbollah's Qassem, succeeding slain Nasrallah, pledges resistance as Israel intensifies Gaza strikes, killing scores. International anger grows after Israel's UNRWA ban amid Lebanon and Gaza humanitarian concerns escalating rapidly.

More than one billion people are living in acute poverty across the globe, a UN Development Program report said Thursday, with children accounting for over half of those affected. The index uses indicators such as inadequate housing, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel, nutrition and school attendance.

Oil prices shoot up as Biden suggests that Israel might target Iranian oil facilities, while GCC Arab states, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, reassure Iran of neutrality in the conflict between Tehran and Israel.

Nicosia, Cyprus - Israel and Lebanon's Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike on a Beirut suburb, have been sworn enemies for decades. Here is a history of their long conflict: 1982: Israel invades Lebanon; birth of Hezbollah Hezbollah -- the "Party of...

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused Israel of seeking regional war, as he attempted to cast Tehran as restrained and appealed to the West, including the United States, for talks on flashpoint issues.

Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said the death toll in Israeli strikes Monday rose to 492, including 35 children, the bloodiest daily toll in nearly a year of cross-border clashes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel has dealt serious blows to the Lebanese group Hezbollah, as rapidly escalating cross-border exchanges raised fears of an all-out war. Netanyahu's remarks follow a night of intense rocket fire at northern Israel that had sent hundreds of thousands of people to...

A second wave of device explosions killed 20 people and wounded more than 450 in Lebanon on Wednesday, officials said, stoking fears of an all-out war in the region. On Tuesday, pager explosions killed 12 and injured more than 2,800 people in Lebanon blamed on Israel.

Lebanon's health minister said nine people were killed and some 2,800 wounded Tuesday when pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded across the country. The blasts "killed nine people, including a girl", minister Firass Abiad said in a casualty update.

As the Russia-Ukraine conflict grinds on, the West's financial commitment grows, while neither Zelenskyy nor Putin shows interest in peace talks. Zelenskyy, backed by Western support, has postponed elections, and the war allows him to stay in power as well as avoid focusing on Ukraine’s struggling economy.

Doha, Qatar - Top US diplomat Antony Blinken appealed Tuesday to Hamas urgently to accept a ceasefire plan to ease suffering in Gaza but also entered a public spat with Israel as he capped a new round of shuttle diplomacy. The US secretary of state closed his ninth wartime trip to...

A Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, confirmed that the Islamist movement had received the latest proposal but said it presented "no real progress in the negotiations". Hamas has called for a permanent ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, demands repeatedly rejected by Israel.

Palestinian Territories -- Explosions, air strikes and gunfire rattled northern Gaza on Saturday, the third day of an Israeli military operation that has uprooted tens of thousands of Palestinians and compounded what the UN called "unbearable" living conditions in the territory. An AFP correspondent reported ongoing explosions from the Shujaiya...

Netanyahu said Israel would be able to "redeploy some forces to the north" on the border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire with the Hezbollah movement have escalated, but said this would be "primarily for defensive purposes".

Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Basal told AFP that at least 20 were killed in a strike on a house in Al-Tuffah neighborhood, while a strike in Al-Shati refugee camp claimed the lives of four others. Against a grey backdrop of destruction, men used a donkey cart to remove...

The hospital reported an electrical generator failure earlier in the night, which risked complicating the treatment of patients. Prior to the strike, the hospital had received at least 70 dead and more than 300 wounded since Tuesday, mostly women and children.

Hamas had told mediators it "cannot agree to a deal that doesn't that does not secure... a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the achievement of a serious, real captive exchange deal", he said.

Rocket sirens blared in Tel Aviv for the first time in months, with an AFP correspondent reported hearing at least three blasts. Israel's offensive has killed at least 35,984 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

Palestinian Territories - Israel launched devastating air strikes on Gaza Thursday, while also expressing readiness to resume stalled talks on a truce and hostage release deal with Hamas to pause the war raging since October 7. The Gaza Strip's civil defence agency said two pre-dawn air strikes had killed 26...

The city on the Egyptian border had been sheltering 1.4 million Palestinians, according to the United Nations, but Israel's military operation sparked an exodus of nearly 360,000 people from Rafah so far, said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Popplewell was kidnapped from his home during Hamas's October 7 attack along with his mother, Hanna Peri, who was released during a one-week truce in November -- the only pause so far in more than seven months of war. Popplewell's older brother was killed in the attack.

Israeli forces are carrying out "offensive action" across southern Lebanon, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday without specifying whether ground troops had crossed the border. He also claimed that "half of Hizbollah's commanders in southern Lebanon have been eliminated" in months of violence.

Hizbollah fighters fired "dozens of Katyusha rockets" at northern Israel "as part of the response to the Israeli enemy's attacks on... civilian homes, specifically the horrific massacre in Hanin and the killing and injuring of civilians," the group said in a statement.

Gulf states are grappling with the widening Middle East conflict as hostilities between Iran and Israel threaten their security and ambitious plans to reshape their economies. Leaders of the resource-rich Gulf monarchies engaged in a rapid round of diplomacy after last weekend's Iranian drone and missile strikes on Israel raised...

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has seen a surge in violence since early last year, particularly since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in Gaza on October 7. At least 468 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers across the West Bank since October 7, according...

Iran's UN envoy, Amir Saeid Iravani, retorted that the Islamic republic was exercising its "inherent right to self-defence" and "had no choice" but to act. He insisted his country did "not seek escalation or war", but would respond to any "threat or aggression".