A Turkish court yesterday acquitted renowned novelist Asli Erdogan on charges of membership of an armed terror organisation.

Indonesia wasn’t feeling the love for Valentine’s Day on Friday as authorities arrested couples in one city, scolded stores over condom displays and warned students they would be reprimanded for amorous activities.

Afghan government forces and Taliban insurgents waged war against each other in the past 24 hours despite US officials saying there had been a breakthrough in recent days in peace talks to end the 18-year-old conflict.

Global spending on defence rose by four percent in 2019, the largest growth in 10 years, led by big increases in the US and China, a study said yesterday.

Tensions escalated yesterday between Syria’s regime and rebel-backer Turkey as a Syrian military helicopter was shot down and Ankara warned of a “heavy price” for any attacks on its forces.

US President Donald Trump’s peace plan to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, dubbed the “Deal of the Century”, will die before Trump dies, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says in a tweet from his official account.

Four Bangladeshis are killed when a bus rams into their bicycles on a road in Oman.

Saudi Arabia has barred an Iranian delegation from an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Jeddah where US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan will be discussed, the Iranian foreign ministry says.

Israeli police forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, leaving at least 10 worshippers injured and detaining three, a Palestinian official is quoted as saying by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.

Syria government forces recaptured a strategic highway town in the northwest from jihadist and allied rebels yesterday, in the latest blow to the country’s last major opposition bastion.

A Dutch court yesterday said it was not able to hear a war crimes case about a deadly 2014 Israeli air strike in which politician Benny Gantz was a named defendant.

The Taliban claimed a US forces aircraft crashed in eastern Afghanistan yesterday hours after the plane went down into an area controlled largely by the insurgents.

Turkish prosecutors are investigating dozens of people for “provocative” social media messages about the deadly earthquake in eastern Turkey, reports said yesterday.

Iranians should not allow US President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” approach to harm national unity ahead of parliamentary elections, President Hassan Rouhani said in a speech, lashing out at hardliners over mass disqualification of candidates.

Iraqi security forces fired teargas and live bullets in renewed clashes with protesters in Baghdad and other cities, a Reuters witness and security sources say, following a push to clear a sit-in camp in the heart of the capital.

Iraqi police fought running street battles with anti-government demonstrators yesterday, firing tear and rubber bullets to try to disperse stone-throwing youths pressing for an overhaul of a political system they see as deeply corrupt.

Iran has confirmed two Tor-M1 missiles were fired at a Ukrainian airliner brought down this month, in a catastrophic error that killed all 176 people on board and sparked angry protests.

An Iranian lawmaker offered a $3 million reward to anyone who killed US President Donald Trump and said Iran could avoid threats if it had nuclear arms, ISNA news agency reported yesterday amid Tehran’s latest standoff with Washington.

Three Katyusha rockets fall inside Baghdad's Green Zone which houses government buildings and foreign missions, Iraqi police sources told Reuters.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says he wants to avoid war after Tehran and Washington appeared on the brink of direct military confrontation in early January for the second time in less than a year.