MOSCOW, RUSSIA - Russia said on Thursday it had evidence the perpetrators of last week's massacre at a concert hall outside Moscow were linked to "Ukrainian nationalists", a claim that the United States called nonsense. President Vladimir Putin and his security services continue to allege Kyiv and the West were involved...

Paris, France - The French parliament's lower house on Thursday approved a resolution condemning as "bloody and murderous repression" the killing by Paris police of dozens of Algerians in a crackdown on a 1961 protest to support Algerian independence. In recent years France has made a series of efforts to come...

"The tragic events of the past 36 hours have resulted in a significant loss of life and injuries in south Lebanon. Up to 11 civilians were killed in a single day, including 10 paramedics," said Imran Riza, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon.

Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa, who presented the government and aims to see it play a role in post-war Gaza said the "top national priority" for the new government, whose members are set to take office on Sunday, would be the end of the war in Gaza. The fighting and destruction...

In November, the Houthis launched a campaign of drone and missile strikes against vessels in the Red Sea, an area vital for world trade, in professed solidarity with Palestinians during Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. US and British forces have responded with strikes against the Houthis, who...

Calling Bankman-Fried's seven-count conviction reflective of the defendant's "unmatched greed and hubris," the government's sentencing request argues for significant jail time in light of fraud it estimates at more than $10bn. A lengthy sentence is necessary to "protect the public," argued US Attorney Damian Williams, who characterized him as an...

Speaking at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Amin Nasser said that the current transition strategy is visibly failing on most fronts. adding that this is "hardly the future picture some have been painting." Fossil fuels accounted for 82% of global consumption last year.

Israel's prime minister cancelled the visit after the US abstained on the UNSC vote, allowing it to pass. But Israel backtracked, after the White House said it was "perplexed" by the move. The U-turn came after Israeli defense minister had "constructive discussions" with senior US officials in Washington.

Residents told AFP that Israeli forces entered Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp just after midnight (2200 GMT on Tuesday) and raided several houses. The area in the northern West Bank is a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups and the frequent target of Israeli military incursions.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, said this week there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel was "committing the crime of genocide against the Palestinians as a group in Gaza". She said she had received "nothing that so far I have considered...

Stockholm, Sweden - An Iraqi refugee in Sweden who stoked international outrage by repeatedly desecrating the Quran last year said Wednesday he was leaving the country for neighboring Norway after Sweden revoked his residency permit. Salwan Momika, a Christian Iraqi who burned Qurans at a slew of protests in Sweden over...

Palestinian Territories - The children of Gaza have little to eat, have had to flee their homes and have survived nearly six months of terrifying Israeli bombardment. But for a few precious minutes children in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the Gaza Strip laughed and yelped with...

Gaza has endured almost six months of war and a siege that has cut off most food, water, fuel and other supplies, and the UN has warned that its 2.4 million people are on the brink of a "man-made famine". The flow of aid trucks from Egypt has slowed amid...

Jerusalem--One of the Israeli hostages kidnapped during the October 7 Hamas attack has been killed and his body is being held in Gaza, two groups representing hostage families said Tuesday. Uriel Baruch, 35, a father of two, was taken from the Supernova music festival, where 364 people were killed during...

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards adviser, his two Iranian security escorts, and four Syrian and nine Iraqi fighters with pro-Iran groups were killed in strikes on a villa in Deir Ezzor city and on the town of Albu Kamal on the Iraqi...

Doha, Qatar - Mediator Qatar said on Tuesday that talks between Hamas and Israel on a Gaza truce and hostage release are continuing, despite the warring parties trading blame over the lack of headway. Foreign ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said the talks were "ongoing", adding there had not been "any development...

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant that civilian casualties in Gaza are "too high". A separate Israeli delegation was supposed to visit Washington to discuss US concerns over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to launch an assault Rafah, where much of Gaza's population has sought...

Baltimore, United States -- A major bridge collapsed in Baltimore on Tuesday, blocking one of the busiest US commercial harbors, after a heavily laden cargo ship lost power and smashed into a support column despite desperate attempts to stop in time. Six people -- all members of a nighttime construction crew...

Gaza's health ministry said Israeli troops were shooting and firing "shells and (conducting) violent raids in its surroundings in preparation for its storming".

Haniyeh's visit comes after a resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on Monday called for an "immediate ceasefire" for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan, leading to a "lasting" truce. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani described Monday's resolution as a "positive but insufficient step".

With dollars dominating the country's economy, Baghdad has imposed a series of restrictions on the use of American greenbacks domestically. At the end of 2022 the country's bankings sector also adopted the international financial messaging system known as SWIFT as part of the reforms, to help tackle money laundering and...

The resolution demanding an "immediate ceasefire" was adopted Monday after Israel's closest ally the United States abstained. Washington insisted that its abstention, which followed numerous vetoes, did not mark a shift in policy, although it has taken an increasingly tougher line with Israel in recent weeks.

According to a security source, who did not want to be identified, the target was Mohammad Assaf of Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese anti-Israel resistance group closely linked to Palestinian group Hamas. Assaf was travelling on the road that was struck at the time of the attack, said the source.

Former US president Donald Trump warned Israel in an interview that it was losing support over the war in Gaza. The comments from Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee to take on President Joe Biden in November's US election, came as Washington abstained at a UNSC vote calling for an immediate...

AL-DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA – Aramco President and CEO Amin Nasser outlined the potential for stronger collaboration with Chinese partners in his speech on Monday at the China Development Forum in Beijing. Nasser underscored the possibility of fostering broader economic globalization by strengthening ties with Chinese partners and identified specific areas...

"The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel's assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group," Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, concluded in a report.

All 14 other members voted in favor of the resolution which "demands an immediate ceasefire" for Ramadan. The resolution calls for the truce to lead to a "lasting, sustainable ceasefire" and demands that Hamas and other groups free hostages.

Among six firms named as market "gatekeepers" under the EU's landmark Digital Markets Act -- along with Amazon, TikTok owner ByteDance and Microsoft -- the companies have been obliged to comply with the new law since March 7.

Singapore, Singapore--Singapore made the Israeli embassy in the city-state take down an "insensitive" social media post about the Palestinians over the weekend after warning it could inflame tensions, the interior minister said Monday. Israel's war on Gaza and deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza since the fighters of Hamas launched unprecedented attacks...

In a telephone call between the two leaders, Macron also "strongly condemned" Israel's announcement Friday of the seizure of 800 hectares of land in the occupied West Bank for new settlements. Activists say Israel's declaration that the land in the northern Jordan Valley was now "state land" was the single...

Christian families from Gaza have found refuge inside the church with the memory of two women killed in December by Israeli fire there still fresh in their minds.

PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Sunday that Israeli forces were besieging two hospitals in southern Gaza, days after the army began targeting Hamas in and around the territory's biggest medical center. Israel has mounted several raids at and near hospitals in Gaza since the war began...

Guterres urged an end to the "non-stop nightmare" endured by Gaza's 2.4 million people in a visit to the Egyptian border. He said "horror and starvation stalk the people of Gaza. Any further onslaught will make everything worse. Worse for Palestinian civilians, for the hostages, for all people of the...

BEIJING, CHINA – The head of the International Monetary Fund on Sunday called on China to implement "a comprehensive package of pro-market reforms" to boost a sluggish economy beset by a housing market crisis, low domestic demand and persistently high youth unemployment. Chinese policymakers have so far resisted calls to juice...

Sameh Makki's soup kitchen is barely 100 meters from the market, but it can take two hours to make the journey through Sudan's war-torn streets, often through hails of bullets. The 43-year-old, his family and local volunteers have risked everything to get supplies to feed around 150 families caught in...

Israel has been launching air strikes deeper into Lebanese territory for several weeks against Hizbollah positions, heightening the threat of open warfare and an expansion of the conflict in Gaza. However, the strike at al-Osseira, some 100 kms from the Israeli-Lebanese border, ended a period of relative calm that had...

Erdogan has entrusted his former environment minister Murat Kurum to run for mayor of Istanbul in the March 31 polls as he looks to avenge the worst political defeat of his two-decade rule when CHP arch rival Ekrem Imamoglu took the town hall. The president bounced back last year to...

Jerusalem--A top Israeli commander has said troops will continue their operation at Gaza's largest hospital Al-Shifa until the last Hamas fighter is "in their hands". Israeli forces launched the operation in and around Al-Shifa hospital on Monday, saying senior Hamas operatives were based at the sprawling compound. Days of heavy...

An official from the Palestinian resistance group with knowledge of the talks said that there is a deep divergence in positions in the negotiations between Hamas and Israel. The official said that Israel wanted to reach a temporary ceasefire "so that it can resume its aggression against our people."

Rafah, Egypt - UN chief Antonio Guterres, on a visit to the doorstep of Gaza, on Saturday said the world has seen enough of the war's horrors and appealed for a ceasefire to allow in more aid. "Palestinians in Gaza -- children, women, men -- remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare,"...

Palestinian Territories - The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Israeli fire on Saturday killed nine people and wounded dozens more as they were waiting at an aid distribution point in the territory's north. "At least nine martyrs and dozens injured by Israeli occupation army tank fire and shells. They...

JERUSALEM - Israel's foreign minister said on Saturday the United Nations had become an "anti-Israeli body" under Antonio Guterres, after the UN chief called for a ceasefire on a visit to Gaza's border. International outrage over the heavy civilian toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Israel battles Hamas fighters,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to punish those behind a "barbaric terrorist attack" on a Moscow concert hall that killed at least 133, saying Russia had arrested four gunmen who were trying to flee to Ukraine. Kyiv has denied any connection, and Putin made no reference to the Islamic State...

The Houthis began attacking ships in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea in November, a campaign they say is intended to signal solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. They have vowed to target Israeli, British and American ships, as well as vessels heading to Israeli ports, disrupting traffic through...

Eight of the council's 10 non-permanent members have been working on the draft, which also calls for the "immediate and unconditional" release of hostages seized by Hamas and the lifting of "all barriers" to humanitarian aid flowing into the besieged Gaza Strip.

On Saturday, UN chief Guterres plans to meet with aid workers on the Egyptian side of Rafah, just across the border from the Gazan city where 1.5 million Palestinians have taken refuge. International efforts to pause the almost six months of fighting have grown increasingly desperate, with the Hamas-run health...

Beirut, Lebanon - A UN official on Friday appealed for about $4 billion in humanitarian assistance for Syria, warning funding was almost non-existent and that lack of support would push more Syrians to emigrate. Syria's war, which began 13 years ago with the repression of anti-government protests, has killed more than...

Washington, US – President Joe Biden will welcome Iraq's prime minister on April 15 for talks on the US troop presence, the White House announced on Friday, as tensions subside following US clashes with pro-Iran militias. It will mark the first trip to Washington by Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani, who...

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – The EU will put more pressure on the most popular online platforms, like X and TikTok, to tackle the risk of election disinformation or face fines, an EU official said on Friday. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, is expected to adopt new guidelines, likely on Tuesday,...

MOSCOW, RUSSIA – Russia's central bank held interest rates unchanged on Friday as Moscow's military offensive on Ukraine has led to stubbornly high inflation and labor shortages. The central bank raised rates to 16 percent in a series of hikes last year to cool the pace of price rises. Analysts are...