For months, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been asking Western allies for heavy weapons, vowing that his forces could turn the tide of the war with more firepower. The calls appear to be resonating now, with a host of NATO countries pledging to provide a range of heavy weapons and...

Iran said Monday that the latest round of talks with Saudi Arabia was "positive and serious" and voiced hope for further progress soon. Tehran and Riyadh, which severed diplomatic ties in 2016, held four rounds of talks in Iraq between April and September last year, with a fifth meeting last...

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated French President Emmanuel Macron on his re-election and defeat of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, the Kremlin said Monday, as tensions remain over the Ukraine conflict. Macron was one of the few Western leaders to contact Putin since Moscow moved troops into Ukraine.

World leaders rushed to congratulate France's centrist President Emmanuel Macron on his re-election and defeat of far-right leader Marine Le Pen in elections Sunday.

The three leaders discussed the developments taking place in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, stressing the need to stop any practices that violate the sanctity of the holy mosque.

The United States' top diplomat and defence chief were in Ukraine's capital Sunday, Kyiv said, making the first high-level visit by US officials since Russia invaded two months ago as hundreds remain trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol. The trip by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary...

Macron is the first French president to win a second term for two decades, but Le Pen's result also marks the closest the far-right has ever come to taking power in France and has revealed a deeply divided nation.

Israeli forces on Sunday said they had arrested 12 people across the occupied West Bank over the weekend in connection with a spate of deadly attacks inside the Jewish state. The army and the Shin Bet domestic security agency said they had conducted "joint counterterrorism activities" in several location in...

United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) is facing a financial implosion for the last 10 years, which could cause an interruption or end of services to five million refugees.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards seized a foreign vessel smuggling fuel in the Gulf and arrested its crew members, state media said Sunday, in the third such incident reported this month. The Guards "seized a foreign vessel carrying 200,000 liters of smuggled fuel in the Persian Gulf and directed it to Bushehr...

Macron was set to win 57.0-58.5 percent of the vote compared with Le Pen on 41.5-43.0 percent, according to projections by polling firms for French television channels based on a sample of the vote count.

At least six people died, including a little girl, and almost 50 others were rescued after a migrant boat capsized off Lebanon, state media said, in the latest tragedy at sea off the crisis-hit country. The boat capsized on Saturday night near the northern port city of Tripoli, the departure...

Emmanuel Macron, who had never held elected office before becoming president in 2017, has weathered several crises throughout his presidential tenure.

The question of whether Canadian corporate leaders should be bilingual received a lot of attention last fall, after the president of Air Canada, Michael Rousseau, said he did not have the time to learn French. He had to publicly apologize for those remarks a few days later.

Turkey has been trying to negotiate an end to the conflict between the two countries, hosting meetings between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in its capital Istanbul, as well as a summit between the two countries' foreign ministers in Antalya.

Europe can get by without Russian gas for six months, but beyond that, the economic impact would be severe, a senior IMF official told AFP. The region relies on Russia for the vast majority of its energy needs, especially natural gas, and IMF economists looked at the economic cost of...

Regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia have resumed key talks in the Iraqi capital Baghdad after negotiations were suspended last month, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. "Talks resumed last Thursday in Baghdad," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, and without giving further details.

Gunmen killed the bodyguard of a general from Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Saturday in an attack on a checkpoint in the country's restive southeast, state media said. The slain bodyguard was identified as Mahmoud Absalan, the son of General Parviz Absalan, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in...

Russian forces, which withdrew from around Kyiv and the north of Ukraine earlier this month after being frustrated in their attempts to take over the capital, already occupy much of the eastern Donbas region and the south.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine next week after a stop in Moscow to confer with President Vladimir Putin about the war, the UN said Friday. Guterres will see Zelensky and Ukraine's foreign minister on Thursday, two days after visiting Moscow, the United...

The Old City of Jerusalem, with its Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Armenian quarters, swarms with tourists and pilgrims, security forces, merchants and its residents who live in a constant state of tension.

Spanish authorities said Thursday they had arrested and then granted conditional release to a Portuguese man wanted by Interpol over the 2020 Beirut port blast that killed over 200 people. Jorge Moreira, 43, was arrested at Madrid airport on Wednesday after he arrived on a flight from Chile's capital Santiago,...

Libya's rival government selected by parliament in the east met for the first time Thursday, challenging a cabinet brokered by the UN and based in the capital Tripoli in the west. The troubled North African nation has had two opposing executives since February, when parliament named ex-interior minister Fathi Bashagha...

Oil-rich Iraq, despite its mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is classified as one of the world's five countries most vulnerable to climate change and desertification.

Eight people have been sentenced to death in Iraq, half of them over a 2020 car bombing in the city of Ramadi, the judiciary said on Thursday. The men who carried out the September 2020 attack that wounded six people had been "working with the terrorist gangs" of the Islamic...

President Vladimir Putin said the ‘liberation’ of Mariupol was a ‘success’ for Russian forces, but also ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to call off the planned storming of the Azovstal industrial area, dismissing it as "impractical". Around 2,000 Ukrainian forces are still in the plant.

The National Oil Company (NOC) has this week declared a halt to operations at two major oil export terminals and several oilfields, halving output to about 600,000 barrels per day in a country that sits on Africa's biggest oil reserves.

Iraq was hit Wednesday by its third heavy dust storm in two weeks, temporarily grounding flights at Baghdad and Najaf airports, as the weather phenomenon grows increasingly frequent. The air in Baghdad was thick with a heavy sheet of grey and orange dust, while the state news agency INA cited...

Ukraine on Sunday vowed to fight to the end in Mariupol after a Russian ultimatum expired for remaining forces to surrender in the Black Sea port city where Moscow is pushing for a major strategic victory. "The city still has not fallen," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said hours after Moscow's...

Iraq on Tuesday summoned Turkey's ambassador to Baghdad in protest against the new Turkish offensive targeting rebels in the north's autonomous Kurdistan region.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday barred far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir from entering Muslim areas of Jerusalem's Old City and holding a rally, in a bid to stem further violence. The ban is intended to prevent further violence in the Old City, including in the Al-Aqsa mosque.

Environmental assessment and permitting operations carried out by the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) in 2021 reveal that 60 square kilometers of marine critical habitats and 850,000 meters square of terrestrial critical habitats have been protected. This is in addition to a reduction of more than 2800 cubic meters...

A UK court on Wednesday issued a formal order to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face trial over the publication of secret files relating to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The decision now rests with interior minister Priti Patel, although Assange can still appeal.

Meanwhile, Italy is also looking into buying or renting two floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) to allow it to import more LNG. Diversification will not be cheap, warn experts, who foresee extra taxes passed on to businesses and families.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on Israel and Palestinians to “end the cycle of violence”, amid rising tensions between the two sides. Mr Blinken called Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid separately on Tuesday.

The newly formed, eight-man leadership council performed a largely symbolic swearing-in in Aden in front of members of a parliament elected in 2003.

The report said that the climate state is rapidly aggravating poverty and instability, and is likely to amplify the economic burden on governments struggling to manage COVID-19

The suspension of operations at Brega terminal, which has an export capacity of 60,000 barrels per day, follows a force majeur and closure on Monday of Zueitina port and several other major sites in the "Oil Crescent" region of eastern Libya.

A string of European leaders have made the trip to Kyiv and met with Zelensky.

Envisioned as a lush fortress against worsening desertification and sand storms, the "green belt" of Iraq's Karbala stands as a wilted failure. Sixteen years after its inception, only a fraction of the 76-kilometre (47-mile) crescent-shaped strip of greenery has materialized, though the years proved a deep need for protection against...

US officials warned that Iran's advances could eventually make a return to the JCPOA pointless.

Russian officials are expected to participate remotely in this year's G20 meeting led by Indonesia.

Algeria, which backs the Polisario independence movement in the former Spanish colony, had in March recalled its envoy to Madrid.

King Abdullah stressed that maintaining calm requires Israel to respect the historical and legal status quo in Al Aqsa Mosque.

United Nations human rights experts have asked the Australian government to repatriate 46 of its citizens from detention camps in Syria, raising "deepest disquiet" that women and children are living in squalor. In a joint letter made public Sunday, 10 UN special rapporteurs said bringing this group -- which includes 30...

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi warned on Monday that the armed forces would not let arch-foe Israel rest if it took action targeting the Islamic republic. His comments come days after he warned neighboring Iraq against using its territory for activities that disrupt Iran's security.

Iran on Monday said an agreement with world powers to revive the 2015 nuclear deal was still not in sight, blaming the United States for the delay. "More than one issue is still pending between Iran and the United States," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said.

Turkey on Monday said it has launched a new air and ground offensive against outlawed Kurdish militants in northern Iraq involving special forces and combat drones. The defense ministry said the operation was meant to thwart a large-scale attack against Turkey by the PKK.

Saudi Arabia pushed Yemen's president to step down earlier this month, and officials have confined him to his home and restricted his communications, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi announced his resignation on April 7, handing his powers to a new leadership council.

Israeli-organized twin dance festivals in the Sinai have sparked outrage in Egypt as they come just days before the anniversary of the end of the Jewish state's occupation of the peninsula.