Saudi Arabia and Iran-backed Houthi rebels put a positive spin on the inconclusive talks in Riyadh as diplomatic efforts increased to end Yemen's war. The five days of talks were "positive", Saudi officials and a senior Houthi said, after the rebel delegation ended the first public visit to the Saudi...

Sweden has seen a series of burnings of the Islamic holy book, with the government voicing condemnation but saying it cannot stop acts protected under laws on free expression. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- who has put pressure for months on Sweden over its welcome to Kurdish activists Turkey...

The Riyadh trip, five months after the rebels hosted a Saudi team in Sanaa, is the latest hopeful sign for a war that has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The Houthis also met with Saudi defense minister Prince Khalid bin Salman, brother of de facto ruler Crown...

Benjamin Netanyahu announced his meeting with Elon Musk through a post and told that they will discuss artificial intelligence. The tech billionaire launched his own artificial intelligence company, xAI, in July as he seeks to compete with ChatGPT's creator OpenAI.

The UN head said the summit will seek a "global rescue plan" on the targets of Sustainable Development Goals, as he acknowledged that only about 15% were on track to be met and that metrics on some were heading in reverse. He said the goals are "about the hopes, dreams,...

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA – The Kingdom’s Governor of the Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST) Dr. Mohammed Saud Al-Tamimi participated in the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development annual meeting in New York. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly. The...

According to a United Nations report released on Sunday, the toll from Derna alone has risen to 11,300. Citing the Libyan Red Crescent, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs added that another 10,100 people were still missing in the devastated city.

Iran's foreign ministry said that the move to withdraw accreditation from several of the UN's nuclear watchdog inspectors was in retaliation for "political abuses" by the United States, France, Germany and Britain. But IAEA director general Rafael Grossi said that this would seriously hamper the ability of the IAEA to...

New York, US--The UAE has announced the launch of a new digital response platform that will support disaster-affected countries to quickly and efficiently communicate their humanitarian needs to the international community.The UAE made the announcement during a United Nations Security Council open debate titled “Maintenance of international peace and security:...

Houthis headed for Riyadh on an Omani plane, days after Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met Oman's sultan on his way back from the G20 summit in India. Oman has played a role as mediators in the conflict. "Optimism exists regarding the mediation and the Omani...

The Houthis' visit, expected within the coming days, will raise hopes of a breakthrough in the quagmire conflict that has left hundreds of thousands dead through direct and indirect causes such as famine. It comes five months after Saudi officials held talks in Sanaa, and as a UN-brokered ceasefire continues...

Military transport aircraft from Middle Eastern and European nations, along with ships, have been ferrying emergency aid to the North African country already scarred by war. In addition to the missing, tens of thousands of people have been displaced after the huge flash flood slammed into the Mediterranean coastal city...

The Ain al-Helweh refugee camp, on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon, has been rocked by violence since last week. The clashes have pitted members of the Fatah movement, which controls the camp, against hardline Islamist militants, excluding Hamas.

Derna was home to about 100,000 people, and many of its multi-storey buildings on the banks of the riverbed collapsed, with people, their homes and cars vanishing in the raging waters. With global concern about the disaster spreading, several nations offered urgent aid and rescue teams to help the war-scarred...

Around 100 million more people are able to access the internet since last year's census by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN agency for information and communication technologies.

"At least 150 people were killed as a result of flooding and torrential rains left by storm Daniel in Derna, the Jabal al-Akhdar region and the suburbs of Al-Marj," Mohamed Massoud, a spokesman for the Benghazi-based administration in Libya, said. "This is besides the massive material damage that struck public...

"Climate change is pushing millions of people into famine. It is destroying hopes, opportunities, homes and lives. In recent months, urgent warnings have become lethal realities again and again all around the world," Turk said. "We do not need more warnings. The dystopian future is already here. We need urgent...

Led by staples other than rice and sugar, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations revealed that its Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in the international prices of globally-traded food commodities, averaged 121.4 points in August, down 2.1% from July and as much as 24% below...

Paris, France - A world facing catastrophic climate change is perilously off course in meeting goals for slashing carbon pollution and boosting finance for the developing world, according to the UN's first official progress report out Friday. The 2015 Paris treaty has successfully driven climate action, but "much more is needed...

According to Carbon Tracker, the weakest emissions reductions commitments came from US major ExxonMobil and five majority state-owned oil firms: Saudi Aramco, Brazil's Petrobras and Chinese companies Sinopec, PetroChina and CNOOC. Aramco was ranked at the bottom because it was the only company to limit emissions reductions targets to assets...

The UN's education body UNESCO warned that public authorities were not ready to deal with the ethical issues of rolling out "generative" Artificial Intelligence programs in schools. The Paris-based body said relying on such programs rather than human teachers could affect a child's emotional well-being and leave them vulnerable to...

The wildfire smoke recently suffocating cities from Athens to New York may be the most visible sign of air pollution brought on by heat waves. But extreme heat can also induce a whole host of other chemical processes that are hazardous for human health, the United Nations' World Meteorological Organization...

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) was holding separate summits with China, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Canada, providing an arena for big powers to lobby the bloc. US Vice President Kamala Harris is attending in place of President Joe Biden, while Chinese Premier Li Qiang...

Trouble erupted on Saturday when a demonstration against an Eritrean government event turned violent, injuring nearly 140 people, including a dozen Eritrean asylum seekers who were hit by Israeli police gunfire. "Alarmed at high number of injuries during protests involving opposing Eritrean protesters, particularly in Israel," UN human rights chief...

Since pulling out of the deal, which aimed to ensure safe grain exports via the Black Sea, Russia has been keen to ally African concerns about the impact of the deal's collapse on food security. Putin said Russia was ready to return to the deal "as soon" as restrictions on...

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Rafael Grossi "requests Iran to work with the agency in earnest and in a sustained way towards the fulfilment of the commitments," the agency said in a confidential report seen by AFP. Tehran in March vowed to reactivate surveillance devices which were disconnected...

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - Russian President Vladimir Putin will host his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, the Kremlin said, amid hopes the two can restore a deal ensuring safe passage for grain shipments. Russia pulled out from the UN-backed grain agreement that Turkey helped broker in July, effectively revoking safe...

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has criticized UNIFIL's inability to fully access certain areas, including sites belonging to a Lebanese environmental NGO which the United States has claimed is a front for Hezbollah activities. The head of the powerful armed Shiite group, Hassan Nasrallah, earlier this week warned against renewing the...

Moscow, Russia - Turkey's foreign minister said on a visit to Moscow on Thursday that reviving a deal to ship Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea was "critical" for food security. "We underlined its critical role for global food security and stability in the Black Sea," Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan...

The mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, which expires Thursday, was extended last year with a slight modification that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah criticised at the time as "a violation of Lebanese sovereignty." The Security Council on Wednesday is to meet on extending UNIFIL's mandate.

The BRICS summit, which held in Johannesburg from Aug 22-24 agreed to admit Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates as new members from Jan 1, 2024.

The foreign minister said that his country does not see any alternative to the original initiative because in his words they carry risks. He completely dismissed an alternate route reportedly being considered by the US. Last month, Russia pulled out of a landmark deal that enabled Ukraine to export more...

The conflict between the army under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo broke out on April 15. "The war in Sudan is fuelling a humanitarian emergency of epic proportions," said Martin Griffiths, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator.

The fund's capitalization follows a global "peace pact" signed by more than 190 nations at the Montreal COP 15 summit in December 2022 to protect nature and reverse decades of environmental destruction threatening the world's species and ecosystems. That deal pledged to secure 30 percent of the planet as a...

The latest tit-for-tat exchange saw Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and the chief of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, vow to send the other's country "back to the Stone Age" if the other escalates violence. On the sleepy streets of Ghajar, home to manicured flower beds and ice cream...

"Reports that a meeting between Iranian and American officials will be held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting are not true. Iran is not holding direct talks with the United States and is not planning to do so either on the margins of the General Assembly or...

According to the UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, since the workers were arrested on November 5 and 7 in the rebel-held capital, it has been impossible for their families and offices to communicate with them. One works for UNESCO and the other for the UN human rights department.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Turkey's ruling party spokesman on Saturday criticized UN peacekeepers for blocking the construction of a controversial road in the buffer zone dividing Cyprus, calling their attitude "unacceptable" and "extremely wrong". A confrontation occurred on Friday between Turkish Cypriot forces and UN peacekeepers in Pyla, an ethnically mixed village...

The confrontation occurred in Pyla, an ethnically mixed village in the UN-patrolled area between the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus in the south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot statelet in the north. Video widely shared on social media showed bulldozers pushing away UN-marked SUVs, cement barriers and razor wire as...

The Sukru Okan vessel was flying the flag of Palau when it was fired on by the Russian navy last Sunday. Russian military personnel then boarded the ship to conduct an inspection, before letting it sail on toward the Ukrainian port of Izmail -- the main export route for Ukrainian...

"WHO is working to build the evidence and data to inform policies, standards and regulations for the safe, cost-effective and equitable use of traditional medicine", WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said as he opened the summit.

The death sentence for Bishoy Sharif Naji Naseef was carried out in the Riyadh region, the official Saudi Press Agency said. The Gulf kingdom is frequently criticised for its prolific use of capital punishment, which human rights groups say undermines its bid to soften its image through a sweeping "Vision...

Fighting raged from Monday night between the influential 444 Brigade and the Al-Radaa, two of the myriad of militias that have vied for power since the 2011 overthrow of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi. In August last year, 32 people were killed in Tripoli in battles between divided Libya's two rival...

Twelve years after conflict broke out when President Bashar al-Assad repressed peaceful pro-democracy protests, Syrians are still trying to escape a war that has killed more than 500,000 people. At least 141 Syrians were among up to 750 migrants thought to have been on a trawler that set off from...

Some 234 families were evacuated from front line areas in the capital's southern suburbs, along with dozens of doctors and nurses who had got trapped by the fighting while caring for the wounded, the center said. Three field hospitals and 60 ambulances had been dispatched to the area when the...

Geneva, Switzerland--Four months into Sudan's conflict, the situation is spiraling out of control, with mass displacement and millions on the verge of famine, humanitarian organizations warned on Tuesday, urging immediate international action. Since Sudan's conflict erupted on April 15, the country has been plunged into a humanitarian crisis, with more than six...

Abu Dhabi, UAE--The UAE has applauded the UN for the successful unloading of oil from the deteriorating tanker, FSO Safer, situated off Yemen's coast in the Red Sea. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) lauded the collective efforts of the United Nations, its Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Coalition to Restore...

Until April 15, when the conflict erupted between the army headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Seif had worked at a Khartoum university. Now the engineering lecturer and his family live in Wad Madani, In order to survive, he has started selling...

Hodeida, Yemen -- The United Nations said Friday it had successfully transferred more than one million barrels of oil from a dilapidated Yemeni tanker, removing the imminent risk of a spill. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres "welcomes the news that the ship-to-ship transfer of oil from the FSO Safer to the...

Based on the agreement, five Iranian prisoners in the US and five American prisoners in Iran will be exchanged," the official IRNA news agency reported, quoting an informed source. It reported that the deal with the US includes releasing an amount of $6 billion of Iranian money frozen in South...