"Joonam," a documentary about a three-generation family of Iranian women now living in Vermont, and "The Persian Version," a colorful but candid dramedy which hops between Iran and New York over several decades, received world premieres on Saturday. "Shayda," a drama directed by Noora Niasari about a Persian woman who...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and several ministers arrived in Algeria on Sunday, state media reported, ahead of meetings with top officials in the gas-exporting giant.

The Egyptian Bar Association has called off a days-long strike held in protest against the jailing of six colleagues, according a statement released by the bar association. Last Thursday the association had announced an open-ended strike to denounce their colleagues' sentencing to two years in jail over a court brawl...

ALEPPO, SYRIA - A building collapsed Sunday in Syria's war-damaged second city of Aleppo, killing 16 people including children, authorities and media reported. Much of Aleppo was destroyed during Syria's conflict that began nearly 12 years ago and left many of the remaining structures in a decrepit state. "The number of...

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu removed a top minister from office Sunday following a Supreme Court ruling against Aryeh Deri's appointment which has shaken the nascent cabinet. "It is with a heavy heart, with great sorrow and with an extremely difficult feeling that I am forced to transfer...

The snub underlines Arab divisions over the Tripoli-based government, whose legitimacy is contested by a rival administration in the war-torn country's east. Regional heavyweights Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were not represented at all at the gathering -- a preparatory session ahead of a foreign ministers' meeting in...

PARIS, FRANCE - Thirty women political prisoners in Iran, including a Franco-Iranian academic and the daughter of a former president, on Sunday demanded an end to the executions of protesters in the country. "We, the political and ideological prisoners in the women's ward of Evin Prison, demand an end to the...

ABU DHABI, UAE - The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) and the Egyptian Banking Institute (EBI) which is under the Central Bank of Egypt, discussed ways to promote cooperation in the field of training and building human capital capabilities relevant to the financial sector. This came during a meeting...

Secretary-General of the GCC Dr. Naif Falah Mubarak Al-Hajraf has warned that the act would inflame and provoke Muslims around the world. He said the GCC stood for the importance of spreading the values of tolerance and rejecting extremism.

Members of the European Parliament voted on Wednesday to include the Guards on the 27-nation bloc's terror list in "light of its terrorist activity, the repression of protesters and its supplying of drones to Russia". The vote is non-binding but comes with EU foreign ministers already due to discuss tightening...

The demonstration was the largest so far since Lapid's successor Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power last month at the head of the most right-wing government in the country's history. Some 100,000 protesters turned out in central Tel Aviv, filling the streets with blue and white national flags.

Authorities in Egypt released two noted businessmaen after some two years in pretrial detention on terrorism-related charges, according to the family. "My father Safwan Thabet and my brother Seif al-Din Thabet are with us", Safwan's daughter Mariam wrote on social media, without telling when the pair were released.

An Israeli civilian shot dead a Palestinian at a settler farm in the occupied West Bank after an attempted stabbing, the army said, the latest incident as violence surges in the territory. A "terrorist was neutralized" during the "attempted stabbing attack" at Sde Efraim farm northwest of Ramallah, the Israeli...

Istanbul, Turkey--Turkey said on Saturday that it had called off a visit by Sweden's defense minister over a planned anti-Turkey protest in Stockholm. "At this point, Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson's visit to Turkey on January 27 has lost its significance and meaning, so we cancelled the visit," Turkish Defense...

Despite recent health problems, Ghali, who has held the position since 2016, had been widely expected to get re-elected as he retained the support of the Polisario's main foreign backer Algeria. Ghali developed a serious case of Covid in April 2021, for which he received treatment in Spain, triggering a...

The comments by Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed normalization with Saudi Arabia in talks with White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan in Jerusalem on Thursday.

"We slept here, and we hope that today will bring new hope to Lebanon," said lawmaker Najat Saliba in a video posted on social media on Friday. Fellow MP Melhem Khalaf said it was urgent to elect a president "who can save Lebanon", in an online message posted the night before.

San Francisco, United States--Meta was reviewing a call by its oversight board to make its policies on adult nudity more inclusive, a spokesperson said Thursday, after the tech giant removed two Instagram posts showing transgender and non-binary people with their chests bared. Neither post violated Meta's policies on adult nudity, and...

DUBAI, UAE - MD and CEO of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer received a high-level delegation from the EDF Group (Électricité de France) headed by Luc Remont, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Al Tayer also received a delegation from Cuba headed by...

Netanyahu, who returned to office last month with the formation of a new government, was at the helm in 2020 when Israel established ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco as part of the Abraham Accords. He has repeatedly expressed his desire to see Saudi join the list.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian "strongly criticized the emotional approach of the European parliament and labelled the move inappropriate and incorrect" in a telephone call with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, the ministry said.

The ministry announced the "martyrdom of Jawad Farid Bawaqna, 57, killed by a bullet in the chest, and Adham Mohammed Bassem Jabareen 28, after he was shot in the upper abdomen by the Israeli occupation army during its aggression on Jenin".

Analysts believe that Erdogan's office is looking for a perfect moment at which his own voters are more likely to turn out than those backing his opponents. On Wednesday Erdogan delivered a speech to his ruling party in which he recalled the day contemporary Turkey held its first free election...

Davos-Klosters, Switzerland – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a wide-ranging address that touched on the most critical issues facing the world, urged leaders gathered for the Annual Meeting to take urgent action.Taking note of a range of critical threats facing the world, from the economic crisis to war and pandemic,...

Despite its goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2060, the country remains hugely dependent on crude oil exports that have powered its growth for decades, raising doubts about its potential for an economic makeover any time soon. Riyadh has dispatched eight top-ranking officials to the gathering of business...

Investigators from France, Germany and Luxembourg began hearing witnesses Monday as part of the case of suspected financial misconduct including possible money laundering and embezzlement.

It followed the United States' recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region, in a quid pro quo for re-establishing ties with Israel. That sparked concern in neighbouring Algeria, long-time backers of the Polisario movement, which seeks an independence referendum for Western Sahara.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen slammed what she described as "aggressive attempts" to convince Europe's clean technology operations to relocate to China through cheap labour and more lenient regulations.

ABU DHABI, UAE - Statistics Center – Abu Dhabi (SCAD) and the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy (DoE) have signed a service-level agreement that allows collaboration between the two parties in the field of statistical integration. This is a part of a strategy to develop an advanced statistical ecosystem which...

DUBAI, UAE - UAE Ministry of Finance (MoF) Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Dubai Free Zones Council (DFZC) on the exchange of information for tax purposes. This comes in line with the ministry’s continuous efforts to ensure that  commitment of various government entities in the UAE...

Mohammed Al-Jadaan also warned of risks if the central bank digital currency was introduced as it will require citizens to provide large amounts of data.

PARIS, FRANCE - Iran has released a prominent chef and Instagram influencer who was detained earlier this month in its crackdown on nationwide protests, a human rights groups and supporters said. Navab Ebrahimi, known for his videos promoting Persian cooking, was arrested in Tehran on January 4 and taken to the...

Abu Dhabi, UAE-- The UAE and Morocco have agreed to deepen parliamentary cooperation between the two countries in order to benefit their respective peoples. In this connection, Mohammed Issa Al Kashf, Chairman of the Technical, Energy and Mineral Resources Affairs Committee at the Federal National Council (FNC), met with Tarik...

Pressure is growing among opposition exiles and activists for the European Union and United Kingdom to follow the United States and blacklist the Guards over the crackdown on the four months of protests since the death of Mahsa Amini in September.

Violence broke out in an illegal camp in Casablanca when police sought to remove migrants, injuring an officer and leaving many police vehicles damaged. Images on social media showed migrants throwing stones. According to local media, police questioned six migrants from sub-Saharan Africa suspected of involvement in the violence towards...

Geneva, Switzerland: A project powered by Artificial Intelligence piloted in Turkey last year has improved wildfire prediction by combining static and meteorological datasets and reduced both response time and risk to firefighters, the World Economic Forum said. The FireAId initiative, launched by the WEF in Jan 2022, which was successfully...

DAVOS, SWITZERLAND – A  report launched Monday at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 shows how countries can accelerate the food systems transformation. The report Food Nature and Health Transitions - Repeatable Country Models reveals how actions and investments can accelerate a country’s transition towards food systems that deliver...

European investigators began questioning high-profile witnesses in Lebanon as part of a probe into central bank governor Riad Salameh's wealth, a judicial official said. The long-serving central bank chief is among top officials widely blamed for Lebanon's unprecedented economic crisis, dubbed one of the worst globally in recent modern history...

The court sentenced Ali to life in prison together with 37 co-accused, while several dozen others were handed prison terms of between five and 15 years, state media reported. Such courts often deal with "terrorism" offences, and their sentences cannot be appealed. Local media said Ali, 48, was placed on...

The ILO said deficits in decent work had been worsened by multiple, overlapping crises, including Russia's war in Ukraine, emerging geopolitical tensions, an uneven recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and continuing supply chain bottlenecks.

Cairo, Egypt--The Confederation of African Football (CAF) said Sunday it will investigate comments made at the African Nations Championship in Algeria to "free" the disputed Western Sahara, that have sparked Moroccan fury. Neighboring Morocco and Algeria are locked in a bitter rivalry partly over Western Sahara, where the Algiers-backed Polisario movement...

The parliament has been the focus of intense scrutiny since the scandal broke open a month ago with the arrest of one of Metsola's 14 vice-presidents after Belgian police raided homes and offices of several MEPs, former MEPs, parliamentary aides and heads of NGOs that dealt with lawmakers.

The two sides discussed various paths of cooperation and development in the investment, economic, scientific, cultural and advanced technology fields.

DAVOS-KLOSTERS, SWITZERLAND  – As part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023, this year’s Open Forum Davos from January 16-20 will focus on the environment and climate change. The theme at the Open Forum is Our Environment: Lessons, Challenges and Opportunities. This would be the Open Forum’s 20th year...

BAGHDAD, IRAQ  - Iraqi Parliamentary Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi said that an oil pipeline from Basra port to the Jordanian port of Aqaba will soon be operational pointing to many areas of cooperation between the two countries. Al-Halbousi, who spoke at a joint press conference at Baghdad airport with Jordan's Lower...

The man's son, Qusai Kahla, told AFP he was in the car with his father when they were stopped at the checkpoint. "Soldiers came and they sprayed pepper spray on my face and pulled me out of the car," the 18-year-old said. "I don't know what happened after that," he...

While the official exchange rate has been fixed at 1,470 Iraqi dinars against the dollar, the currency was trading at up to 1,600 to the greenback on local markets from mid-November, before settling at about 1,570 dinars, according to state media.

Braving rain, tens of thousands of people protested in Tel Aviv against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new right-wing government, which critics fear could threaten Israeli democracy. Chanting "bring down the dictator" protestors brandished signs with slogan decrying a "government of shame".

Despite a Russian intervention to cool down tensions between Damascus and Ankara, a new Turkish ground offensive in Syria is "possible any time", according to a top aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Russia has been trying to end more than a decade of hostility between the neighbors.

The rivalry between the North African neighbors deepened further when Morocco denounced "provocative" acts and "transgressions" at the opening of a regional football tournament in Algeria. The two countries are engaged in a bitter dispute over the disputed territory of Western Sahara, where the Algerian-backed Polisario movement seeks an independence...