Philippine Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa lost her appeal against a conviction for cyber libel, her news website Rappler said yesterday, in the latest blow for the veteran journalist.

Huge crowds of robed Muslim pilgrims prayed on Saudi Arabia’s Mount Arafat yesterday, the climax of the biggest hajj pilgrimage since the pandemic forced drastic cuts in numbers two years in a row.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a network of Hong Kong, Emirati and other companies that it accused of helping to deliver and sell Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products to East Asia, applying pressure on Tehran as Washington seeks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The biggest hajj pilgrimage since the Covid pandemic began yesterday, with hundreds of thousands of worshippers at Islam’s holiest site in Saudi Arabia’s Makkah.

Israeli forces shot dead a wanted Palestinian suspect and arrested two dozen in the occupied West Bank yesterday, the military said, as

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday as he was attempting to flee an army raid, officials on both sides said.

US officials said the bullet that killed veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was likely fired from an Israeli position.

Israel said yesterday it would test a bullet that killed a Palestinian-American journalist to determine whether one of its soldiers shot her and said a US observer would be present.

A Palestinian teenager died on Sunday after being shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank a day earlier, Palestinian medical sources said.

A series of strong earthquakes rocked southern Iran yesterday, killing at least five people, injuring over 80 others and flattening dozens of buildings. 

Israeli lawmakers dissolved parliament yesterday, forcing the country’s fifth election in less than four years, with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid set to take over as

Israel’s parliament is expected to dissolve yesterday, ending PM Naftali Bennett’s year-long tenure and triggering a fifth election in less than four

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian early yesterday during clashes in the hotspot town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. 

Iran, which holds the world’s second largest gas reserves, has applied to join the BRICS group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday said he would meet US President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Madrid for talks on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that 306,887 civilians had been killed in Syria during the conflict since March 2011 in what it said was the highest estimate yet.

The United States, Israel and four Arab countries agreed to closer cooperation and annual foreign ministers’ meetings yesterday, two weeks

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi arrived in Iran yesterday, Iranian state TV reported, a day after he travelled to Saudi Arabia in a bid to revive talks between the regional rivals to ease years of hostility.

A Palestinian teenager was killed by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank after they opened fire on a group of Palestinians throwing rocks

Talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal will resume in the coming days, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said yesterday