ACCRA, GHANA - A United Arab Emirates delegation led by Dr. Rashed Ali Al Kaabi, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Security and Military Affairs, participated in the United Nations’ Peacekeeping Ministerial Meeting here.The ministerial meeting was the first to be held in Africa with previous sessions taking place in...

The World Bank raised its target for climate-related projects from 35% of its annual financing to 45%. Given that the Bank's lending commitments in the most recent financial year were less than $130bn, the only way to get close to this target is by encouraging far greater private sector participation,...

The Essex County prosecutor, Ted Stephens, confirmed Hassan Sharif was shot more than once, and that "it does not appear the imam was the victim of a bias crime or that this is related to terrorism." Images published by the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) showed...

The two explosions -- labelled a "terrorist attack" by state media and regional authorities -- came amid high Middle East tensions over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the killing of a Hamas senior leader in Lebanon on Tuesday. The unclaimed attacks, which sparked fears of a widening conflict in...

Antony Blinken will leave Washington on Thursday evening on a trip that will include Israel, marking his fourth trip to the region and fifth to Israel since Hamas fighters carried out the deadliest-ever attack inside Israel on October 7. No details have been offered about which Arab country he will...

Hong Kong, China - Asian markets fell Wednesday in line with a sell-off across most of the world as traders took their cash off the table after a blockbuster end to 2023, with eyes now on the release this week of Federal Reserve minutes and US jobs data.Equities surged in the...

Washington has called out both Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who have called for Israeli settlers to return to Gaza and for the territory's Palestinian inhabitants to leave. "Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land," the State Department said. Expelling civilians during a conflict or creating unlivable...

Tesla's stock slipped after the news was announced.

Following record highs in 2023 for the likes of Paris, Frankfurt and Tokyo, investors are predicting more gains as central banks prepare a series of interest-rate cuts as inflation cools. Oil prices rallied 2.5 percent on supply concerns after Iran dispatched a warship to the Red Sea in response to...

According to the Navy, the carrier will redeploy to its home port "as scheduled to prepare for future deployments." The Navy said it is"collaborating with Allies and partners" to shore up maritime security in the region, adding the Defense Department will continue to rely on the presence of its forces...

TEHRAN, IRAN - Iran's Alborz warship has entered the Red Sea through the strategic Bab al-Mandeb strait, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday, at a time of heightened tensions over the globally important waterway.The agency did not give specific reasons for its deployment, but noted that Iranian military vessels had operated...

The takeover was finalized for an undisclosed amount.

Yunus, 83, is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but has earned the enmity of longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of "sucking blood" from the poor.

NEW YORK, US – The Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) of the UN Security Council adopted the "Abu Dhabi Guiding Principles" and published them as an official document of the Council during the United Arab Emirates’ presidency of the CTC.This important achievement establishes a set of guidelines that address the challenges posed...

Youssef Salama, the 68-year-old former minister of religious affairs in the Palestinian Authority, was killed in a strike on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, Wafa news agency and the ministry reported. Considered close to Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, Salama served as...

"The task of launching three additional reconnaissance satellites in 2024 was declared" as one of the key policy decisions for next year at a year-end party meeting, the official KCNA news agency said. Pyongyang successfully put a military spy satellite into orbit last month and has since claimed it was...

The US Central Command said the missiles were fired from the area controlled by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, describing it as the "23rd illegal attack by the Houthis on international shipping" since November 19. The Houthis have repeatedly targeted vessels in the Red Sea with strikes they say are in...

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories - The Strip's Hamas rulers on Saturday condemned the US approval of a $147.5 million sale of high-explosive artillery munitions and related equipment to Israel.The United States announced the sale of the 155mm artillery munitions on Friday under an emergency provision that waives the normal requirement for...

Air strikes in eastern Syria "likely" launched by Israel killed at least 19 pro-Iran fighters, a war monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "19 pro-Iranian fighters, including four Syrians, and six Iraqis, were killed and more than 18 were wounded" in at least nine air strikes overnight...

The Pentagon has released little information about the space drone and its mission, which was initially scheduled for December 7, and SpaceX only cited the Pentagon's mission code name -- USSF-52 -- in its statement on the launch. Earlier, the Pentagon had said the X-37B's seventh mission would entail "multiple...

Holding banners demanding an immediate ceasefire, the activists gathered in Manhattan's Bryant Park while some briefly stood in the middle of the busy Sixth Avenue in the heart of New York's Midtown district. Several women shrouded in black held baby dolls swaddled in white cloths to represent the toll the...

Through their AI chatbots, the companies "seek to free-ride on The Times' massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment," the lawsuit said. With the suit, The New York Times chose a more confrontational approach to the sudden rise of AI chatbots,...

The Tuesday meeting additionally provided a chance for Israel and the United States to talk about the eventual "governance and security in Gaza, a political horizon for the Palestinian people, and continued work on normalization and integration," the White House official said.

The Pentagon said in a social media post that there was no damage to ships. Some 12 drones, three anti-ship ballistic missiles and two land-attack missiles were fired by Houthis. Earlier, the rebels claimed responsibility for a missile strike on a vessel in the Red Sea and a drone attack...

A US import ban on certain Apple smartwatch models came into effect, after the Biden administration opted not to veto a ruling on patent infringements. The United States International Trade Commission (ITC) decided in October to ban Apple Watch models over a patented technology for detecting blood-oxygen levels.

"It runs counter to the pursuit of enduring mutual interests in establishing security and stability, and it opposes the declared intention of the American side to enhance relations with Iraq," Baghdad said.

Rows of victims' bodies, shrouded in white bags, lined the ground at Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, ahead of a mass funeral. WHO has warned that only nine of Gaza's original 36 hospitals remain even partially functional. It has termed the situation as unacceptable, demanding a ceasefire.

Sweden and Finland bids earned approval from all NATO members except Turkey and Hungary. They remain the only NATO members left to ratify Sweden's bid 19 months after it applied for membership. Sweden and Finland dropped decades of military non-alignment and sought to join the organisation after Russia invaded Ukraine...

NEW YORK, US - The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) approved a US$3.59 billion budget for 2024, including establishing a private account related to funding by the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (UNPBF).In a statement late on Sunday, UNGA approved around US$50 million as an additional funding for UN Human Rights...

The Houthis welcomed Spain's stance, with deputy foreign minister Hussein al-Ezzi saying "we highly appreciate Spain's refusal to be drawn into American and British lies on the issue of maritime navigation". The Iran-backed Houthis have carried out several strikes on Red Sea shipping in what they say is in support...

NEW YORK, US - Artists under siege by artificial intelligence (AI) that studies their work, then replicates their styles, have teamed with university researchers to stymy such copycat activity.US illustrator Paloma McClain went into defense mode after learning that several AI models had been "trained" using her art, with no credit...

NEW YORK, US - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday that 136 United Nations employees in Gaza Strip had died in 75 days, something the global organization had "never seen" in its history."Most of our staff have been forced from their homes," the UN chief added in a post...

The conversation came a day after the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding "safe and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale," though it stopped short of calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas militants. "The President emphasized the critical need to protect the civilian population including those...

In one step back from the newfound isolation, the Un on Friday, after painstaking negotiations, let through a UN Security Council resolution on humanitarian aid for the beleaguered Gaza Strip, after vetoing two earlier calls to halt the fighting. But the United States still remained apart from some of its...

The high civilian toll in the latest Israeli strikes on the besieged territory comes in spite of growing calls for restraint and for more aid to reach war-stricken Palestinians. But Israel showed little sign of modulating its "Operation Swords of Iron", which aims to rout Hamas as the US urged...

It was the first time the Pentagon has accused Iran of directly targeting ships since the start of Israel's war on the fighters group Hamas. The attack came amid a flurry of new drone and missile attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on the vital Red Sea shipping lane since the...

SAN FRANCISCO, US - A US federal court ruled that social media company Twitter, now branded X, violated contracts by failing to pay annual performance bonuses it orally promised its workers.The breach-of-contract lawsuit was brought by former employer Mark Schobinger in June.The lawsuit said Twitter had promised workers a 2022 performance...

The Israel-Hamas war is pushing Gaza towards famine, the United Nations warned ahead of an expected Security Council vote on a resolution to boost aid to the Palestinian territory but not call for a ceasefire. Separate diplomatic efforts were also underway for a fresh pause in the worst-ever Gaza war.

The Iran-backed Houthis have repeatedly targeted vessels in the vital shipping lane with strikes they say are in support of Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is battling Hamas. The deaths of 20.000 people in Gaza have provoked widespread anger in the Middle East and provided an impetus for attacks by...

The task force announced by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Monday initially included Britain, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain. The Iran-backed Houthis say their missile and drone strikes on passing container ships are in support of Palestinians in the Gaza war raging between Israel...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia’s holdings of US Treasuries reached $117.5 billion in October 2023, up $399 million month-on-month and the highest level since December 2022, new data released by the US Treasury showed.The Kingdom kept the 17th place among the largest holders of US Treasuries for the month,...

It is an antitrust settlement made public recently.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the first private trucks entered Saturday and more came through on Monday. Miller, without confirming the meeting, said that the United States supported a new deal that would include the release of remaining hostages held in Gaza.

A report by Washington's Director of National Intelligence, quoted by US media, said that nearly half of munitions dropped by Israeli aircraft on Gaza were "dumb" bombs -- unguided munitions with limited accuracy. Israel insists Hamas is to blame for mass civilian casualties, accusing the group of using innocent Palestinians...

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement that countries seeking to defend "the foundational principle of freedom of navigation must come together to tackle the challenge posed by this non-state actor." Yemen's Houthi rebels have ramped up attacks on tankers, cargo ships and other vessels in the Red...

Wilmington, United States--A car crashed into a Secret Service vehicle attached to Joe Biden's motorcade on Sunday, with the security scare startling the US president as he left his campaign headquarters in Delaware.After a loud bang caused by a sedan slamming into an SUV positioned in a nearby intersection about 130...

As per UN figures, nearly half a million displaced people have sought refuge in Sudan's Al-Jazirah state, more than 86,000 of them in its capital. However, fighting between Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) overran the city on Friday, leading the UN humanitarian agency to suspend...

Seoul, South Korea - Microsoft has seized the websites of a Vietnam-based group it alleges sold millions of fake accounts to cybercriminals who used them for ransomware attacks, identity theft and other scams around the world.The group, identified by Microsoft as Storm-1152, developed sophisticated tools to defeat the US tech giant's security...

There have been near-daily cross-border exchanges between Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Hamas ally in Lebanon, and Israel since the Palestinian group's unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

The US has suggested the internationally-recognized PA could play a role in governing Gaza after the war, though the Ramallah-based administration is deeply unpopular among Palestinians