Washington, United States -- Since his tumultuous takeover of Twitter, Elon Musk has made an unabashed turn to the right politically, defying the orthodoxy that Silicon Valley is a citadel of well-heeled liberals beholden to Democrats. Long considered non-identifiable ideologically, Musk's politics are now hardline right wing as he uses his...

Hizbollah said it had fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel after Israeli strikes the day before left five dead in southern Lebanon, including three of the group's members. Hamas ally Hizbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out...

With Gaza's humanitarian crisis growing more dire and Biden's left flank in uproar, the US president made contradictory remarks as to the question of a "red line" over Israel's threatened offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza. Netanyahu "has a right to defend Israel, a right to continue to pursue Hamas,"...

Canada and Sweden announced over the weekend they were resuming funding for the cash-strapped UN agency, weeks after having suspended it over Israeli accusations that several UNRWA employees were involved in the Hamas attack that triggered the ongoing war. Israel's foreign ministry called on both governments to cut funding and...

Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said Israel was preparing for "all possible operational scenarios" during Ramadan, and that it plans to allow "freedom of worship under security and safety restrictions". Hagari said it was because of Hamas that a new truce deal had yet to be reached in the Gaza...

Lebanon's official National News Agency said the Israeli strike on a house in the Khirbet Selm area killed a family of four," a couple and their two children, and one other person. Hizbollah and Israel have traded deadly cross-border fire on a near-daily basis since war broke out in October...

London, UK - Thousands of protesters marched in central London on Saturday to call for a ceasefire in Gaza amid ongoing bombardments by Israel after the Hamas attack on its territory on October 7. Regular marches protesting Israel's military response to the attacks have seen dozens arrested for anti-Semitic chanting and...

AMMAN, JORDAN - Amman Chamber of Industry (ACI) exports amounted to US$1.3 billion (JD926 million) during the last two months of 2024, compared to US$1.79 billion (JD1.272 billion) for the same period last year. According to statistical data obtained by Petra, exports of five sectors recorded an increase, while the...

A boat laden with food for Palestinians in war-ravaged Gaza was "ready" to set sail from Cyprus, an NGO said, as fighting raged between Israeli troops and Hamas ahead of Ramadan. The sea route aims to counter aid access restrictions, which humanitarians and foreign governments have blamed on Israel.

Lagos, Nigeria - The holy fasting month of Ramadan begins early next week in Nigeria, with the worst economic crisis in a generation leaving many in Africa's most populous Muslim country struggling to buy food. With food inflation at around 35 percent, worshipers taking part in Friday prayers at the central...

Ankara, Turkey - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday Ankara "firmly backs" Palestinian group Hamas. "No-one can make us qualify Hamas as a terrorist organization," he said in a speech in Istanbul. "Turkey is a country that speaks openly with Hamas leaders and firmly backs them." Erdogan has been...

Geneva, Switzerland - The war in Gaza has "ruptured any sense of a shared humanity," the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Saturday. ICRC head Mirjana Spoljaric called for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza, saying Israel and Hamas must respect international law and protect civilians caught...

Arbil, Iraq - A drone strike in northern Iraq killed a Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) commander, Kurdish authorities said, raising the death toll from strikes blamed on Turkey to three. Turkey often carries out ground and air operations in northern Iraq against positions of the PKK, which has waged a decades-long...

TEHRAN, IRAN – Tehran on Saturday strongly condemned a UN report on the Islamic republic's response to mass protests in 2022, denouncing Western countries' "Iranophobia". The report was built on "baseless claims" and "false and biased information, without a legal basis", foreign affairs ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said in a statement. International experts...

It was the first time that Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003, has spoken about leaving office. The AKP is hoping to regain the mayorship of Istanbul in the elections later this month, having seen it taken by the opposition in 2019.

Canada has reviewed the investigation's interim report and "we were reassured by the contents," Minister of International Development said. He also announced that Ottawa will partner with Jordan and the World Food Program to conduct airdrops in Gaza to deliver desperately needed food and other essentials.

In his annual State of the Union address to Congress, President Joe Biden said the US military would "lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water medicine and temporary shelters."

NATO member Turkey has sought to maintain good relations with Moscow and Kyiv throughout the two-year war, with Erdogan pitching himself as a key go-between and possible peace-maker.

Other parts of the Islamic world may be grappling with their own challenges, from conflicts to high inflation. But many Muslims say their thoughts are with Palestinians this year.

UN rights chief warned Volker Turk said there had been a drastic acceleration in Israeli illegal settlement building in the occupied West Bank as it wages a relentless war in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. He said creating and expanding settlements amounted to the transfer by Israel of its own...

RAMALLAH, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES – "I don't sleep anymore," Latifa Abu Hamid said while looking at pictures of her children hanging on the walls of her living room, two women and 10 men. All have passed through Israeli prisons. Four are still languishing in jail while a fifth died in custody 14...

The UN aid coordinator for the Palestinian territory Sigrid Kaag said her message to UN Security Council was that the international community must "flood the market in Gaza with humanitarian goods" and "re-energize the private sector" so more commercial goods can enter to meet civilians' needs.

Paris, France - An Israeli tank crew who killed one journalist and wounded six others in Lebanon in October then "likely" opened fire on them with a machine gun, an expert report said on Thursday. The strike in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border on October 13 instantly killed Issam Abdallah,...

Rome, Italy - The UN's food agency on Thursday said it was pressing Israel to allow it to use the Ashdod port north of Gaza to make it easier to reach starving Palestinians. "We have several requests with the Israelis," World Food Program (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told AFP in...

A senior Hamas official confirmed that the group's delegation in talks seeking a Gaza truce left Cairo for consultations in Doha, while voicing dissatisfaction with Israel's responses. "We are awaiting the final official response from the enemy (Israel)," said the official, who was involved in negotiations in Cairo but declined...

Palestinian Territories - Gaza's Hamas-run government media office said on Thursday that Israel had returned dozens of bodies that had been exhumed from graves in the besieged territory in recent weeks. Israeli forces have on several occasions taken bodies from Gaza to Israel for examinations as they look for hostages seized...

New Delhi, India - India's embassy in Moscow has confirmed the death of a citizen recruited by the Russian army, days after a relative told AFP he had been sent to fight in Ukraine. Two years after Russia's invasion began, tens of thousands of its soldiers have been killed in Ukraine...

The administrative step forward comes after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich last month vowed to expand settlements, in response to Palestinian gunmen killing an Israeli civilian and wounding several others in the West Bank.

Beirut, Lebanon - Gunmen thought to be linked to the Islamic State group in Syria killed 18 people searching for truffles in the desert Wednesday, a war monitor said. More than 50 people remained missing after the attack that saw heavy clashes with pro-government forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights...

"The 2023 death toll represents a tragic increase of 20 percent compared to 2022, highlighting the urgent need for action to prevent further loss of life," the IOM said in a statement. Last year's total surpassed the previous record reached in 2016, when 8,084 people died during migration.

Southeast Asia is home to about 40 percent of the world's Muslim population, and ASEAN heavyweights Indonesia and Malaysia are staunch supporters of the Palestinian cause. But other influential ASEAN nations such as Singapore have closer ties with Israel -- and are less eager to stoke controversy.

The fighting began with an attack by Hamas on southern Israel on October 7, resulting in about 1,160 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory offensive in the Gaza Strip has killed 30,534 people, mostly women and children, according to...

The former president, bidding for a sensational White House comeback after being unseated by Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, hopes to take home an almost-decisive haul of delegates on Tuesday in his march to the Republican Party nomination. Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas...

The US military command said that its forces shot down one anti-ship ballistic missile and three one-way attack unmanned aerial systems launched from Houthi controlled areas of Yemen toward USS Carney in the Red Sea. Houthis have been attacking shipping in the Red Sea for months over Israel's war on...

PARIS, FRANCE – Heatwaves and floods inflict greater economic pain on rural women than men because climate change intensifies existing inequalities, the United Nations' food and farming agency said on Tuesday. Scientists say the effects of rising temperatures are already being felt most acutely by the poorest and most vulnerable people...

Michael Stuebgen, interior minister for Brandenburg state, said that "if initial findings are confirmed, this is a perfidious attack on our electricity infrastructure".

More than half a million users across the globe reported issues earlier in the day, with many saying they were booted out of the social media platforms and unable to log back in. The most frequently reported problems by users were with logging into the Facebook app and issues with...

Yemen's Houthi rebels, who since November have fired drones and missiles at numerous ships in the Red Sea area vital for world trade, claimed responsibility for the latest incident. They say their campaign is in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip where Israel is battling Hamas fighters.

UNRWA chief's comments capped a tumultuous day during which Israel and UNRWA have traded accusations, with Israel accusing the agency of having employed more than 450 "terrorists." Israel also recalled its ambassador to the UN for consultations after the country accused the organization of failing to adequately address claims of...

According to the Hizbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, three volunteer paramedics died "due to a direct Zionist attack on an emergency centre" in south Lebanon's Adaysseh. The armed group later said its fighters targeted Gesher Haziv "with batches of Katyusha rockets" in retaliation.

Tehran, Iran - Iran on Monday announced a turnout of 41 percent in last week's elections for parliament and a key clerical body -- a record low since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, according to voting records. Conservatives were reported to have secured the bulk of seats in Friday's elections for the...

Western powers will not censure Iran over its lack of cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog at its Board of Governors meeting for fear of aggravating geopolitical tensions, diplomats said. Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in confidential quarterly reports that Tehran's cooperation with the agency remained poor...

The head of the UNRWA is set to defend his organization's work at the General Assembly, after crippling backlash over accusations that some employees were involved in Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel. Philippe Lazzarini warned in a letter to the General Assembly's president that his agency is at a...

"A diplomatic solution is the only way to end the current hostilities" and achieve "a lasting fair security arrangement between Lebanon and Israel", Washington's envoy Amos Hochstein told reporters in Beirut, adding that "a temporary ceasefire is not enough". "A limited war is not containable," he said after meeting with parliamentary...

Israel routinely demolishes the homes of Palestinians accused of carrying out attacks, arguing that such measures act as a deterrent, while critics say it amounts to collective punishment.

Geneva, Switzerland - The pernicious "'great replacement' conspiracy theories" spreading in many countries are "delusional" and racist and are directly spurring violence, the United Nations rights chief warned on Monday. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk also took aim at the "war on woke", which he stressed was...

Proceedings kick off Monday at 3:00 pm with the opening ceremony of China's People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which will last until next Sunday. At a press conference, CPPCC spokesperson Liu Jieyi said that "economic topics are of great concern" to the body's over two thousand members.

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – The Directorate of Public Security stressed that anyone who facilitates the entry, transfer or employment of violators of border security into the Kingdom or provides them with shelter or any service or help of any type will face imprisonment up to 15 years and a fine...

Iraqi Kurds announced that polls to elect a new parliament in the autonomous region would be held in June, after they were postponed from February. The elections have been delayed several times because of differences between the two main parties in northern Iraq, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic...

An energy ministry source said Riyadh "will extend its voluntary cut of one million barrels per day, which was implemented in July 2023, until the end of the second quarter of 2024," the official Saudi Press Agency reported. "Afterwards, in order to support market stability, these additional cut volumes will...