Italy's coastguard said the boat in distress was in Libya's search-and-rescue zone, and that the deadly episode laid bare "the inactivity" of other countries in the Mediterranean. The latest disaster in the Mediterranean comes exactly two weeks after a shipwreck off Italy's southern coast of Calabria that killed at least...

Wars and conflicts have made it more difficult for millions of people to live in dignity and have in turn hampered efforts to bring about global peace, adds Abdelsalam during a session titled “Migration as a Manifestation of Global Poverty, Inequality, climate change and conflict”.

The university ban is one of several restrictions imposed on women since the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021 and has sparked global outrage -- including across the Muslim world. The international community has made the right to education for women a sticking point in negotiations over aid...

Egypt regularly uses accusations of support or financing of "terrorism" to hold activists and opposition figures as long as possible in pre-trial detention. The two-year time limit on such detention is regularly exceeded, say rights groups who count around 60,000 political prisoners in the country.

The latest rally in Tel Aviv came after a similar demonstration on Wednesday when police employed stun grenades and water cannon in a rare use of force that led to about 39 arrests and 11 injuries in the coastal city. Judicial reform is a cornerstone of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's...

Demonstrators in Tel Aviv blocked some streets, and police employed stun grenades, water cannon and officers on horseback in a rare use of force in the coastal city. Some 39 people were arrested for "allegedly rioting and not obeying instructions by police officials", police said in a statement

The Security Council has an obligation to find ways to "provide protection" for Palestinian civilians, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations pleaded Tuesday after Israeli settlers attacked a town in the occupied West Bank. "We believe that the Security Council has a responsibility to shoulder, especially with regard to...

PARIS, FRANCE - A French court on Tuesday dismissed a landmark case against TotalEnergies for a massive oil project in Uganda and Tanzania after several NGOs filed a suit to suspend the controversial project. The six NGOs argued the development of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) failed to adhere...

Dozens of Israeli settlers set homes and cars ablaze in the northern town of Huwara overnight Sunday, after a day of Israeli-Palestinian talks in neighbouring Jordan aimed at quelling escalating unrest in the Palestinian territory. More than 350 Palestinians were injured, most suffering from tear gas inhalation, the Palestinian Red...

A steady flow of taxis has rolled up outside the Ivorian embassy in Tunis in recent days, depositing dozens of migrants who say they no longer feel safe amid an officially sanctioned climate of fear.

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...

Rabat, Morocco--The Moroccan parliament decried Wednesday an "unjust campaign" against it at the European Parliament ahead of a hearing in Brussels over the North African country's alleged use of Pegasus spyware. The European Parliament is set to hear from experts, human rights defenders and journalists on Thursday on claims that Morocco...

Israeli government announced that the home of a 13-year-old boy who shot two Israelis would be sealed off even though his attack caused severe injury and not deaths.

The children returned to France on Tuesday were at the Roj camp in northeast Syria under Kurdish administration, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Iraqi and Turkish borders. They were placed with social services and the mothers will be brought before judicial authorities, the foreign ministry said, thanking "the...

"By making it harder for people to spend time in the West Bank, Israel is taking yet another step toward turning the West Bank into another Gaza, where two million Palestinians have lived virtually sealed off from the outside world for over 15 years," HRW's Eric Goldstein said.

"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...

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...

The 60-year-old former lawmaker and women's rights activist was charged with "collusion against national security, propaganda against the Islamic republic and disturbing public order by participating in illegal gatherings", the lawyer said.

Iran has sentenced to death three people accused of killing three members of the security forces during the protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini, the judiciary said Monday. Iran has been rocked by civil unrest since the September 16 death of Kurdish Iranian Amini, 22, following her arrest...

Those reinstated include far-right activists, anti-Muslim extremists as well as others peddling election conspiracies and Covid-19 misinformation, according to an analysis by the non-profit Media Matters of dozens of restored accounts with millions of combined followers.

No reason was given for the arrest of Ebrahimi, who had some 2.7 million followers on Instagram enjoying his slickly produced videos showing how to produce classic Persian dishes without pain. But social media users said the arrest coincided with him posting a recipe to make Persian cutlets on the...

Paris-born activist and philanthropist Osman Kavala was sentenced to life in jail without the possibility of parole in April on the charge of trying to topple the government by financing street protests in 2013. Seven others were jailed for 18 years each for aiding the attempt to overthrow the government...

The "riots", as Tehran generally refers to them, were triggered by the September 16 death in custody of Iranian-Kurdish Amini, 22, after her arrest for an alleged breach of the strict dress code for women.

Morocco and Spain governments have insisted the migrants were to blame for the June 24 tragedy, with Rabat saying some died after falling while trying to scramble over the fence, while others suffocated as people panicked and a stampede started.

The MENA region remains largely uneven, and the democracy and human rights situation looks bleak with little prospect of improvement in 2023, say experts at International IDEA.

Hamouri, 37, had been held under a controversial practice known as administrative detention, which allows suspects to be detained for renewable periods of up to six months.

TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran has arrested the lawyer of two female journalists jailed after covering the death in custody of a young woman that sparked three months of protests, a newspaper said Saturday. The Islamic republic has been rocked by protests since Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin,...

Slimane Bouhafs "has been sentenced to three years in prison without parole" and a fine of 100,000 dinars ($727), said the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD). Bouhafs, in his 50s, was accused of having contacts with Farhat Mehenni, the exiled head of the Movement for the Autonomy...

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands arrested in the street violence over Mahsa Amini's d, leading to international condemnation and Iran's removal Wednesday from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW).

The November 1 election put former premier Netanyahu in a position to form a stable, right-wing government, ending an unprecedented period of political deadlock that forced five elections in less than four years. Netanyahu's 28-day mandate expires at midnight (2200 GMT) Sunday, but late Thursday he asked Herzog for more...

The social media giant is facing a growing number of cases over the terms of terminating employees -- and even a complaint to the city of San Francisco that Musk has illegally converted office space into bedrooms so that workers can sleep on site. "It's very concerning that the richest...

Appealing to the international community to help the country as it faces 'one of its hardest moments', UNHCR chief said that Lebanon hosts 'one of the largest refugee populations per capita in the world' and that it needs support. He spoke at the end of a three-day visit to Beirut.

With 32 members of Netanyahu's Likud party and seven Religious Zionism lawmakers in Israel's 120-seat parliament, the former premier still needs to bring two ultra-Orthodox parties into his future government to secure a majority. The deal with Religious Zionism will see the faction receiving the finance ministry in a rotation...

More than 300 people have been killed in Iran since protests erupted over the death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini on September 16, Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh, head of the Guards' aerospace division, said in a video published by the Mehr news agency.

Moradkhani is the daughter of Khamenei's sister Badri who fell out with her family in the 1980s and fled to Iraq at the peak of the war with Iran's neighbor.  

Qamishli, Syria -- Thousands of Kurds protested on Sunday in the Syrian city of Qamishli against Turkish cross-border strikes targeting Kurdish groups in the country's northeast, an AFP photojournalist said. One week ago Turkey began a barrage of air strikes against the semi-autonomous Kurdish zones in north and northeastern Syria,...

National Geographic's "Retrograde" follows an Afghan general who tried in vain to hold back the Taliban advance in summer 2021, while Netflix's "In Her Hands" tells the story of the country's youngest female mayor, who had to flee as the Talib took over.

The United Nations had previously handled the repatriation of refugees from Libya, but the deal between authorities in the west, east and south has enabled the Interior Ministry's agency tackling illegal migration to work in a unified way across the country.

Earlier Tuesday, three Syrian government soldiers were killed and others wounded in Turkish bombardments of an air base several kilometres south of Azaz, said the Observatory, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

Russia has for months ... done everything possible to prevent any large-scale ground operation, Alexander Lavrentyev, Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy on Syria, said in the Kazakh capital, which is hosting a tripartite meeting between Russia, Turkey and Iran on Syria. The three countries are major players in the...

Overnight, Turkey hit dozens of targets in northern Syria as well as northern Iraq, a week after a bomb attack in Istanbul killed six people and left 81 wounded, which Ankara blamed on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Washington, US— US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is going to arrive in Doha on Monday to support Team USA in its first 2022 FIFA World Cup match and to attend the US-Qatar joint Strategic Dialogue, a State Department statement said. Blinken will recognize Doha’s important contribution to international sports...

A week after the deadly Istanbul bombing, which Ankara blamed on the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Turkey carried out air strikes hitting several towns across northern Syria. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Turkish military had carried out more than 20 air strikes across the two provinces.

Doha, Qatar— FIFA president Gianni Infantino hit back at criticism of Qatar's human rights record on Saturday, blasting the "hypocrisy" of Western critics on the eve of the World Cup kick-off. Infantino was speaking at his opening press conference of the tournament in Doha. "This moral lesson-giving -- one-sided --...

"I think we must not politicize sport," said Macron, whose national team is defending the title they won in Russia in 2018. "These questions must be addressed when hosting the event is decided," he told reporters in Bangkok, where he is attending a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

The backlash against Eli Lilly showcased the real-life potential of online disinformation to trigger chaos and financial loss. The company's stock price has marginally recovered since last week's drop.

The countdown to the World Cup in Qatar has begun as the first such tournament held on the Arab soil will kick off on Sunday when the host country face Ecuador. The event marks the culmination of Qatar's campaign first to host the tournament and then to build infrastructure worth...

Even as serious rights violations -- including corruption, human trafficking, racism and discrimination -- persist across Europe and US, Western world opts to focus on Qatar.

Demonstrations at COP27 must be approved by organizing authorities and should take place only in a special zone, activists behind Saturday's rally said they got UN permission for their action outside the designated area.

Musk has been searching for ways for the social media platform to make money after the buyout, including an idea to charge users $8 a month for verified accounts. The move would help overcome a potential loss of advertisers, Twitter's main source of revenue, after many top brands put their...