Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has witnessed a near-daily exchange of fire between Israel's army and Lebanon's Shiite movement Hizbollah, an ally of Gaza-based Hamas. On Monday, Hizbollah announced that three of its fighters had been killed "on the road...

The conflict has claimed more than 13,000 lives, according to a conservative estimate by the ACLED analysis group, on which the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) bases its assessment. Millions of people have been displaced. But "according to intelligence sources, between 10,000-15,000 people were killed in El Geneina...

A separate campaign is urging supporters to write Biden's name on the ballot in exactly the same manner that "Vote Ceasefire" is promoting. The outcome will not affect the nomination process in any case, as the Democratic National Committee has declared the New Hampshire primary illegitimate.

The US news site Axios reported, citing unnamed Israeli officials, that the deal would take place in multiple stages, the first of which would see the release of women, men over 60 and those in critical medical condition. Later phases would involve the release of soldiers, younger civilian men, and...

Since the outbreak of war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, the Lebanese-Israeli border has witnessed a near-daily exchange of fire between Israel's army and Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah, an ally of Gaza-based Hamas. On Monday, HIzbollah announced that two of its fighters had been killed "on the road...

Abdelrahman Iyad, wounded in Gaza and now being treated aboard the French helicopter carrier Dixmude, docked in Egypt, said he did not have time to leave his house before it was hit. "I was with my parents, my brother, my sister, my second sister and her husband and their daughter....

Shaken by the Covid-19 pandemic, the WHO's 194 member states decided more than two years ago to start negotiating an international accord aimed at ensuring countries are better equipped to deal with the next health catastrophe, or to prevent it altogether. The plan was to seal the agreement at the...

Davos, Switzerland -- Thdfe potential dangers of AI, particularly its influence on upcoming elections and the escalation of military conflicts, is being seen as one of the major risks for businesses in 2024.This was underscored by a panel of CEOs from leading global companies, including Amazon's Andy Jassy, Intel's Pat...

The bloc's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell risked incurring Israel's wrath by accusing it on Friday of having "created" and "financed" Hamas to undermine the prospect for a possible Palestinian state. Borrell insisted the only way to get an enduring peace in the region was for a two-state solution to...

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 25,105 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The healthcare system has almost entirely collapsed, with hospitals overwhelmed and doctors having to treat a growing number of casualties with dwindling resources.

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - Around 9,000 demonstrators marched through Brussels on Sunday calling for an end of Israel's fierce bombardment and fighting in Gaza, in a pro-Palestinian protest that ended in the EU district. The march came a day before EU foreign ministers will meet their Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian, Saudi and Jordanian...

The group admitted in a 16-page report justifying the attack that "some faults happened... due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza". The document was the group's first public report released in English and Arabic explaining...

"Dozens are still under the rubble," the Hamas government's media office said, adding that the dead and injured "could not be transferred to hospitals due to the continued artillery shelling on... Khan Yunis and the Tal al-Hawa area in Gaza City and the north".

Istanbul served as a base for Hamas political leaders before the October 7 attacks. Turkey asked the Hamas chiefs to leave after some were captured on video celebrating the deadliest attack in Israel's history. But Turkish president has since turned into one of the harshest critics of the scale of...

In a statement posted Friday on X, formerly Twitter, Erkan denounced the reports as "unfounded allegations" designed to undermine confidence in the bank, and threatened legal action. Erkan took up her job last June following the re-election of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, one of a team of market-friendly economists appointed...

Built more than a decade ago at the height of Iraq's civil war which tore apart the multi-faith, multi-ethnic country, authorities say the wall must remain to prevent the threat of jihadist violence, even as security has gradually improved across the country. There are three tightly controlled checkpoints in the...

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi vowed not to let the "cowardly assassination" go unanswered. Israel has been blamed for intensifying strikes targeting senior Iranian and allied figures in Syria and Lebanon -- backers of the Palestinian movement Hamas -- raising fears that fighting in the Gaza Strip could spread further.

Al-Asad airbase was targeted by 15 rockets" fired from Anbar province, which is home to the military base, an Iraqi police official from the region told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said 13 of the projectiles were shot down by anti-air defenses but that "two fell on the...

A senior Hamas official dismissed comments by US President Joe Biden about the possibility of Israel agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Biden said it was still possible that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could agree to some form of Palestinian state after the two leaders spoke by...

Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched a research satellite, a minister said, putting it into a higher orbit in a milestone for its aerospace program that has faced Western criticism. The United States has warned Iran against such launches, saying the technology can be used for ballistic missiles, including ones designed to...

Washington is seeking to reduce the Iran-backed Houthis' capabilities, but the Yemeni rebels are still able to attack despite a week of strikes, and they have vowed that they will keep targeting merchant vessels. The Houthis began striking Red Sea shipping in November, saying they were hitting Israeli-linked vessels in support...

The mid-morning strike, which caused a large plume of smoke to billow into the sky, was also reported by Syrian state media. An AFP correspondent at the scene said the destroyed building was cordoned off with ambulances, firefighters and Syrian Arab Red Crescent rescue teams all present at the site.

US and allied forces in Iraq and Syria have been hit by some 140 attacks since mid-October, according to the Pentagon -- many of which have been claimed by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. On January 4, a US strike in central Baghdad killed a pro-Iran commander who Washington said...

Hamas was created in December 1987 shortly after the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories by a group of fighters claiming to be from the Muslim Brotherhood, including the influential Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Twenty years later, in June 2007, Hamas took control of...

Thousands of Gazan men may have been detained by Israeli forces since war erupted on October 7, often facing conditions that could amount to torture, the UN's human rights representative in the Palestinian territories said. Some of those released have reported being blindfolded, beaten and ultimately freed wearing only diapers,...

Palestinians held funerals and assessed the damage of a days-long Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank, where violence has surged since war erupted in Gaza. Israeli forces withdrew on Friday after raiding the Tulkarem area for almost two days, during which the military said troops killed "at least eight...

Internet services in the Gaza Strip have been constantly disrupted throughout the war, with telecom firms blaming Israel's bombardment of the besieged territory for the outages. The "near-total telecoms blackout" has now lasted for 168 hours, NetBlocks posted on X.

A recent IMF report said AI would affect nearly 40 percent of jobs around the world, and some 60 percent in the advanced world -- replacing some jobs while complementing others.

BEIRUT, LEBANON - "Good morning, madame. This is the bank calling. Are you at home?"   Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out more than three months ago, residents of southern Lebanon have been receiving strange phone calls from Lebanese numbers and from people speaking in Lebanese accents. The voices on the...

Beijing, China--China called for an end to "harassment" of civilian vessels in the Red Sea on Friday after attacks on ships by Houthi rebels in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Houthi aggression against vessels in and around the Red Sea has led to retaliatory strikes in Yemen by US and British forces....

Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer who is the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, told a Madrid news conference that Israel had done a "number of things that are highly illegal, highly unlawful." Her comments came as Israel confronts a case brought by South Africa to the UN's ICJ...

Dubai, UAE - Against the backdrop of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Whiteshield announces the release of the Global Labor Resilience Index (GLRI) 2024. As the world confronts the profound challenges of global warming and the urgency of transitioning to a sustainable future, the impact on labor markets looms large,...

ISTANBUL, TURKEY -  Turkish first division club Basaksekir on Thursday sent Israeli midfielder Eden Karzev on loan to Maccabi Tel Aviv following a probe into his repost of a social media message calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas. The Istanbul side launched disciplinary proceedings against Karzev earlier this week...

In the occupied West Bank, where violence has soared alongside the war in Gaza, an Israeli raid continued into a second day around Tulkarem, an official said. Palestinian health officials reported a sixth person had been killed in the operation. Tensions flared further in the wider region, following Pakistani strikes...

“Those developments had a significant impact on the digital world, freedom of speech, privacy, and security, leading to a deterioration in the digital rights situation of Palestinians and their supporters, especially after the escalation of Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which led to widespread impacts on digital freedoms in...

Davos, Switzerland -- The Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Cabinet's member, and Climate Affairs Envoy, Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir has called for diversification of energy sources to meet the increasing global demand for energy. The minister made these remarks Wednesday at a session titled “Bold Steps for a...

Emergency medical team coordinator Sean Casey said that during some five weeks he spent in Gaza, he saw hospital patients "every day with severe burns, with open fractures waiting hours or days" for treatment. "They would often ask me for food or water -- that demonstrates the level of desperation...

"The Chinese side sincerely hopes that the two sides can exercise calm and restraint and avoid an escalation of tension," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular press conference. "We are also willing to play a constructive role in de-escalating the situation if both sides so wish," she said.

Iran and Pakistan routinely blame each other for allowing militants to operate from the other's territory to launch attacks, but it is rare that official forces on either side engage. China, close partner of both countries, urged restraint, with foreign ministry spokeswoman saying both should "avoid actions that would lead...

A Houthi military official told the rebels's Al-Masirah TV that fighters will continue to target Israeli ships heading to "the ports of occupied Palestine, no matter how the American-British aggression tries to prevent us from doing so." US media quoted US officials as saying another round of strikes had been...

Abdullah al-Yahya, a former ambassador to Argentina, was named in the coveted role as part of a hand-picked cabinet of 13 led by Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Sabah al-Salem Al-Sabah. It is the first government under emir Sheikh Meshal al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, who came to power last month after the death...

At least 24,448 Palestinians, more than 70 percent of them women, young children and adolescents, have been killed in Israeli bombardments and ground assaults, according to the Gaza health ministry's latest figures. "When we talk about rebuilding Gaza, it's not anymore like before, where we had to rehabilitate some shelter and...

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on October 7, the West Bank has experienced a level of violence not seen since the second Palestinian uprising or intifada between 2000 and 2005. Israeli army raids and attacks by settlers have killed at least 353 people in the territory,...

Scenes of Dahdouh mourning his family and fleeing on foot from Gaza City have been broadcast globally over the weeks since war erupted between Hamas fighters and Israel on October 7. Speaking to an AFP journalist in southern Gaza, the 53-year-old said he had crossed the Rafah border post with...

Once flush with humanitarian aid following the US-led invasion of the country, funding to Afghanistan has plummeted since the Taliban returned to power in mid-2021, in part over the many restrictions imposed on women. The poorest are left with distressing choices: fall into debt, take their kids out of school...

Dubai, UAE - A missile hit a Greek-owned cargo ship off Yemen, a maritime risk management company said on Tuesday, following a string of attacks in the Red Sea by the Houthi rebels. "A Malta-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier was reportedly targeted and impacted with a missile while transiting the southern Red...

Davos, Switzerland - The United States wants a "de-escalation" in the Middle East despite its strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday. "We seek to stop the spread of conflict and to create the conditions for de-escalation," Sullivan said at the World Economic Forum...

WASHINGTON, US - British oil giant Shell has paused transit through the key Red Sea shipping route indefinitely, over fears of escalating tensions involving Yemen's Houthi rebels, according to a media report on Tuesday. The worries of escalation grew after United States and United Kingdom strikes on scores of sites in...

Li's remarks came as the World Economic Forum's (WEF's) 54th annual conference is preoccupied with a slew of global risks, including wars in Ukraine and Gaza, climate change and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence. He said "new discriminatory trade and investment measures" had appeared every year, adding: "Any obstacles...

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had destroyed the "Zionist regime's spy headquarters in the Kurdistan region of Iraq." The strike came "in response to the recent vicious actions of the Zionist regime which martyred the commanders of the Revolutionary Guards and the resistance front," a Guards statement carried by Iran's...