The new figure comes as Turkey radically shifts its policies since the May election that includes an end to more than a two-year era of ultra-low interest rates. Last week, the central bank revised its year-end inflation forecast to 58 percent from 22.3 percent after years of doubts from independent...

The closed-door meeting was one of the highest-level known gatherings of US and Afghan government officials in months, with the Washington team headed by Special Representative Thomas West and Kabul's by Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi. The US statement did not, however, identify the Afghan representatives -- describing them only...

Earlier this month, Kuwait had invited Iran for another round of maritime border talks after Tehran said it was ready to start drilling in the field. On Thursday, Sky News Arabia quoted Kuwait's Oil Minister Saad Al-Barrak as saying his country would begin "drilling and production" at the gas field...

So far this year, violence linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has killed at least 203 Palestinians, 27 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian, according to an AFP tally compiled from official sources on both sides. They include, on the Palestinian side, combatants as well as civilians and, on the Israeli side, three members of the...

A government security official said that "an arms dealer was killed along with his wife and five of his children and another eighth person inside the family's home while dismantling a projectile left over from the war". Another security official confirmed the death toll of the incident, which took place...

Netanyahu's office confirmed the visit, the first by an Israeli prime minister since Ehud Olmert in 2008. Turkey's diplomatic drive comes at a time when the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is at a standstill, against a backdrop of the worst violence in years in the occupied West Bank.

Women drivers in Saudi Arabia is just one example, Jawhara al-Wabili says, of how women's rights have blossomed in recent years, allowing them to become ambassadors, bank directors, university administrators and even astronauts. Saudi scientist Rayyanah Barnawi took part in a mission to the International Space Station just this past...

Compared with 2008 levels, the United Nations' global shipping regulator has agreed to cut total annual emissions of greenhouse gases "by at least 20 percent, striving for 30 percent, by 2030" and "by at least 70 percent, striving for 80 percent, by 2040". The current target was a 50-percent reduction...

The kingdom had already condemned Wednesday's incident in which an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden stomped on the Muslim holy book and set several pages alight. The foreign ministry summoned the ambassador on Sunday to urge Sweden "to stop all actions that directly contradict international efforts seeking to spread the...

Russian forces which back President Bashar al-Assad's regime were responding to rebel drone strikes over the past week that killed four civilians including two children, according to the Observatory. Six civilians died in Jisr al-Shughur and three rebel fighters were killed nearby by Russian air strikes. Another three civilians, including...

Activist Quinndy Akeju said many families "had not yet identified or buried their dead" after some 2,000 migrants -- many from conflict-torn Sudan -- stormed the metres-high fence that seals off Melilla from Morocco on June 24, 2022. She claimed there had been no "independent inquiry" into how Moroccan and...

"Two martyrs and 28 injured as a result of the ongoing (Israeli) aggression on Jenin," a statement from the Palestinian health ministry said, without elaborating on the identity of those killed. Jenin's deputy governor, Kamal Abu al-Rub said, "The army stormed the (Jenin refugee) camp and the city after the dawn...

France says the two-day summit, which begins on Thursday and will bring together some 50 heads of state and government, was more of a platform for ideas sharing ahead of a cluster of major economic and climate meetings in the coming months. With fewer leaders from wealthier countries attending, Friederike...

In Venezuela, Raisi and Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro announced that they signed 25 accords, across sectors ranging from education and health to mining. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said he and Raisi signed a "basic memorandum of these steps that we are going to continue developing" to increase exchange between the...

Recycling, in rebel-controlled Syria, is rather a grim lifeline than environmental impulse for desperate residents searching for work or items they otherwise could not afford.

Since the eruption of violence some 200,000 Sudanese nationals have entered Egypt, most of them through land crossings. Egyptian authorities had so far exempted Sudanese women of all ages, children under 16 and anyone over 50 from having to obtain a visa prior to arrival at a point of entry.

Al-Jaber, who runs the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), defended a COP28 roadmap that includes a "global goal to triple renewable energy, double energy efficiency, and double clean hydrogen, all by 2030." His comments came as numerous participants and observers in the UN climate negotiations have called on al-Jaber...

With Europe off limits, Gazprom has turned toward Asia.

Known to his inner circle as "beyefendi" (sir) and to admirers as "reis" (the chief), Erdogan prides himself on being able to woo doubters through tireless campaigning. This passion has helped him and his party win more than a dozen local and national elections, allowing Erdogan to claim a people's...

The summit in Saudi Arabia comes at a time when the world's biggest oil exporter is flexing its diplomatic muscle across the Middle East and beyond. It follows a frenetic stretch of high-stakes diplomacy triggered by the kingdom's surprise Chinese-brokered rapprochement deal with Iran announced in March.

Erdogan made the announcement one day before it had been due to expire, scoring a diplomatic coup ahead of a May 28 runoff election in which he will try to extend his two-decade rule until 2028. He thanked "my precious friend", Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky and...

Iranians are accustomed to using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to evade restrictions and access prohibited websites or apps, including the US-owned Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The authorities went as far as imposing total internet blackouts during the protests that erupted after the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, following...

Following international pressure, Damascus agreed to let the UN use the Bab al-Salama and Al-Rai crossings, operated by Turkish-backed rebels, to bring in food and medical supplies for three months. The permission had been set to expire May 13, so Syria's decision was welcome news for those affected as well...

Tehran, Iran--Iran will begin to receive the first batch of Russian SU-35 fighter jets next week, according to Mehr News Agency. Tehran and Moscow have embarked on deepening cooperation amid massive Western sanctions. Iran and Russia have signed major deals in recent months to boost economic, trade, energy and military...

Preparations for Raisi's visit have been underway for days in the Damascus district housing Iran's embassy, with concrete barriers in front of the mission removed, an AFP correspondent said. Iran's president leads a senior "economic-political delegation" for his two-day trip at Assad's invitation, Iranian state media reported.

Coastguards of the kingdom's navy operating in the Mediterranean and Atlantic rescued 552 illegal migrants of varying nationalities between April 8 and 18," mostly from sub-Saharan African countries, the military source told official news agency. The source said among them were people attempting the crossing aboard makeshift boats, in canoes,...

Finland and its neighbour Sweden ended decades of military non-alignment and decided to join NATO last May. Their applications were accepted at a June alliance summit but the bids still needed to be ratified by all the members' parliaments -- a process that stalled with Turkey and Hungary.

A more than eight-year-long war between Saudi-backed government forces and pro-Iran Houthi rebels has devastated Yemen, the poorest country on the Arabian Peninsula. The war has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths both directly and indirectly, and pushed the nation to the brink of famine.

Israeli media reported the crowds were again in the tens of thousands, after lawmakers this week took a step towards approving the reforms which are a cornerstone of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest administration, which took office in December. Critics have condemned the reforms as an assault on the independence...

The decision of the Algerian President was announced in a speech read by Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane at the annual African Union summit of leaders in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

Another two weeks of negotiations ended with no agreement in August last year, but advocates and officials have expressed cautious optimism ahead of the coming session. "There are a lot of negotiations and discussions happening between delegations trying to find middle ground on some of the key sticky issues... at...

Brent, the international benchmark, and its US counterpart WTI, which had been down earlier in the day, jumped more than two percent after Russian deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said production would be cut by 500,000 barrels per day, or five percent of output, in March. "Crude prices reacted positively...

Ismail was sworn in as prime minister in 2015 before resigning in 2018 as Sisi began his second presidential term, after a landslide victory against one of his supporters.

The company is world's second-largest memory chip maker

Ankara has been most recently outraged by anti-Islamic protests by a far-right extremist who was allowed to burn the Koran outside the Turkish embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen.