Palestinian vice president Hussein al-Sheikh met on Friday with former UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov, who is expected to head the US‑backed Board of Peace in Gaza.

A Russian warship arrived off South Africa's main naval base Friday to join Chinese and Iranian vessels for military exercises that risk further damaging Pretoria's relations with Washington.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday insisted the Islamic republic would "not back down" in the face of protests after the biggest rallies yet in an almost two-week movement that has shaken the clerical authorities.

Israel's President Isaac Herzog on Thursday met with former UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov, whom media reports say is expected to represent the US‑backed Board of Peace in Gaza.

The United States could run Venezuela and tap into its oil reserves for years, President Donald Trump said in an interview published Thursday, less than a week after toppling Nicolas Maduro.

Paris, France -- Eating some common food preservatives is linked to a slightly higher risk of eventually developing cancer and diabetes, according to two large French studies published Thursday. However, outside experts called for more research and emphasized that these kinds of observational studies cannot demonstrate a direct cause-and-effect relationship....

Aidaros Alzubidi was accused of high treason and removed from Yemen's Presidential Leadership Council on Wednesday, while the coalition bombed his home province after he refused to attend talks in Riyadh.

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.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Wednesday that Washington will control sales of Venezuelan oil "indefinitely," a day after President Donald Trump announced Venezuela's interim leaders had agreed to US-managed marketing of 30-50 million barrels of crude.

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.

Venezuela's parliament swore in Delcy Rodriguez as interim president on Monday, two days after US forces seized her predecessor Nicolas Maduro to face trial in New York.

Oil prices have experienced choppy trading since the surprise US raid Saturday on Caracas that saw Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife taken to New York.

"States must not threaten or use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state," Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the UN rights office, told reporters in Geneva.

Venezuela's interim president Delcy Rodriguez on Sunday created a commission to seek the release of president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who were removed from power by US forces in Caracas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel would not allow arch-foe Iran to restore its ballistic missile programme, just days after US President Donald Trump issued a similar threat.

Having spiked in an initial reaction to the military operation to apprehend Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, oil prices quickly dropped again on expectations that Venezuela -- which sits on about a fifth of the world's oil reserves -- will crank up production quickly.

Tokyo, Japan -- A Japanese sushi entrepreneur paid a record $3.2 million for a giant bluefin tuna Monday at an annual prestigious new year auction in Tokyo's main fish market, smashing the previous all-time high. Dave Gershman at the Pew Charitable Trusts' international fisheries team used news of the auction...

The United States is ready to work with Venezuela's remaining leaders if they make "the right decision," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday after an audacious US operation removed the oil-rich country's president, Nicolas Maduro.

After a US military operation that seized Nicolas Maduro, President Donald Trump said he wants to allow American oil companies to head back into Venezuela to tap its massive crude reserves.

At least 152 members of the UAE-backed STC forces were wounded and 130 were taken captive, a military official from the Southern Transitional Council (STC) said.

The US president's announcement followed a lightning pre-dawn attack in which commandos grabbed Maduro and his wife while air strikes pounded sites in and around Caracas.

Sydney, Australia -- England and Australia's cricket teams honoured at the fifth Ashes Test in Sydney on Sunday emergency service personnel and members of the public who responded during a mass shooting at Bondi Beach. The on-field guard of honour ahead of the clash was accompanied by loud applause from...

Iran has been rocked this week by protests that started in Tehran and have spread to other cities, with at least six people killed in clashes with security forces.

Yemen's UAE-backed separatists on Friday announced the start of a two-year transitional period towards declaring an independent state after their forces seized large areas of the country's south.

Oslo, Norway -- Norway came close to its objective of selling only zero-emission cars in 2025, with electric vehicles accounting for 95.9 percent of new registrations. Although Norway is Western Europe's largest exporter of petroleum products, it has led the shift to electric vehicles, setting a non-binding target of selling...

Following the strikes, a military spokesman for the STC said it was in a "decisive and existential" war with Saudi-backed Yemeni forces, characterizing it as a fight against radical Islamism -- a longtime preoccupation of the UAE.

The Middle East and North Africa region is expected to outperform the global economy in 2026, with GDP projected to grow by 3.6% year on year compared to global growth of 3.1%

The breakaway region of Somaliland on Thursday denied allegations by the Somali president that it would take resettled Palestinians or host an Israeli military base in exchange for Israel recognising its independence.

Zohran Mamdani, the young upstart of the US left, was sworn in Thursday to take over as New York mayor for a term sure to see him cross swords with President Donald Trump.

It sold 2.26m EVs vs Tesla's 1.22 by Sept end.

A surprise STC offensive seizing resource-rich Hadramawt and Mahra has pushed the UAE and Saudi Arabia, officially allies in Yemen, toward unprecedented escalation.

Washington, United States - Nearly 12 years after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished with 239 people on board, the search for answers to one of aviation's most haunting riddles resumed Tuesday in the remote southern Indian Ocean. Armed with cutting-edge deep-sea robots and smarter data, US investigators are scouring the...

Israel's Mossad spy agency issued a direct call urging Iranians to press on with protests, saying it was supporting them "on the ground" as demonstrations spread in capital Tehran and other Iranian cities.

Tokyo, Japan -- Japanese tech investor SoftBank said Wednesday that its stake in OpenAI is now around 11 percent after completing the second stage of a $41-billion investment in the maker of ChatGPT. Having made colossal profits as well as losses on previous investments, flamboyant founder Masayoshi Son has pivoted...

Taipei, Taiwan -- Taiwanese tech titan TSMC has started mass producing its cutting-edge 2-nanometre semiconductor chips, the company said in a statement seen by AFP on Wednesday. TSMC is the world's largest contract maker of chips, used in everything from smartphones to missiles, and counts Nvidia and Apple among its...

Apart from MSF, some of the 37 NGOs to be hit with the ban are the Norwegian Refugee Council, World Vision International, CARE and Oxfam, according to the list given by Zwick.

Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa unveiled on Monday new banknotes replacing those showing ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad and his family, hoping the Syrian pound can regain some of the value lost to over a decade of war.

US President Donald Trump warned Iran of fresh strikes and said Hamas would have "hell to pay" if it fails to disarm in Gaza, as he presented a united front with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.

Singapore, Singapore -- Facebook owner Meta has agreed to acquire Manus, an artificial intelligence agent created by a company founded in China but now based in Singapore, the two firms said. However, analysts warned the deal could fall foul of regulators at a time of fierce technological rivalry between Washington...

Riyadh also backed a demand from Yemen's presidential council for Emirati forces to withdraw from the country within 24 hours, and urged Abu Dhabi to cut off support for Yemeni groups.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Donald Trump in Florida on Monday, with the US president pushing to move to the next stage of his fragile Gaza truce plan.

Somalia's president is to visit close ally Turkey on Tuesday following Israel's recognition of the breakaway territory of Somaliland, Turkey's presidency said.

Addressing fragility in cities is, therefore, not only a social imperative; it is also a crucial economic consideration. It is the precondition for investment and growth. There is also a collective-security dividend. Fragile cities can turn a regional shock into a prolonged crisis, driving poverty, displacement, disrupting markets and fuelling...

Beijing, China -- China will on January 1 launch an "action plan" for boosting management and operations of its digital currency, a deputy governor of the country's central bank said Monday. "The future digital yuan will be a modern digital payment and circulation means issued and circulated within the financial...

Dakar, Senegal -- Mining company Axis International said Monday it was seeking World Bank arbitration against Guinea for withdrawing its right to operate a major bauxite mine in the West African country. Guinea, which has been run by a junta since a coup in 2021, has cancelled dozens of licences...

Saint-Tropez, France - French film sensation Brigitte Bardot, a symbol of sexual liberation in the 1950s and 1960s who reinvented herself as an animal rights defender and embraced far-right views, died on Sunday aged 91, her foundation said. She passed away in her Saint-Tropez home, La Madrague, on the French Riviera."The...

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 and has for decades pushed for international recognition. A self-proclaimed republic, it enjoys a strategic position on the Gulf of Aden and has its own money, passports and army.

Sofia, Bulgaria -- Ancient rock art, a patron saint and a monk will be emblazoned on euro coins from Thursday, when Bulgaria joins the single currency. The motifs are already on the lev, the currency Bulgaria adopted 1881 and which is named after an archaic word meaning "lion". Rider of...

Samawah, Iraq -- Deep in Iraq’s southern desert, bulldozers and earthmovers spread layers of moist clay over sand dunes as part of a broader effort to fight increasingly frequent sandstorms. Iraq has long suffered from sand and dust storms, but in recent years they have become more frequent and intense...

The statements came a day after reported Saudi airstrikes on separatist positions in Yemen's Hadramawt province — and after Washington called for restraint in the rapidly escalating conflict.