Amnesty International says Iran arrested 7,000 people last year in a “shameless campaign of repression”. Those swept up by the crackdown included protesters, students, lawyers, journalists, environmental and women’s rights activists, and trade unionists. Hundreds were sentenced to prison or flogging. At least 26 protesters were killed and nine others died in custody. The crackdown […]

The United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions told Reuters on Thursday she will travel to Turkey next week to head an “independent international inquiry” into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Mr. Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post and a critic of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was killed […]

BAGHDAD (AFP) – From the halls of parliament to the lightning-fast rumour mills of social media, pro-Iran factions are demanding US troops withdraw from Iraq in a challenge to the country’s fragile government. The political wrangling is another indication of Iraq’s precarious position as it tries to balance ties between two key allies – the […]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At first, the police described a weekend shooting in central Pakistan as a successful operation against a group of terrorists: four dead, including a middle-aged couple, their daughter and another man. Then the couple’s children — a boy and two girls who survived the firefight with minor injuries — told a story […]

ISTANBUL — A new book written by three Turkish reporters and drawing on audio recordings of the killing of a Saudi expatriate, Jamal Khashoggi, offers new details about an encounter that began with a demand that he return home and ended in murder and dismemberment. “First we will tell him ‘We are taking you to […]

Four American servicemen were killed in an Isil suicide bombing in Syria yesterday, calling into question Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops before the Islamist group had been defeated. A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest outside a restaurant in the flashpoint northern city of Manbij, where US coalition forces were on patrol, killing 16 […]

Seven years on after Bouazizi set himself on fire, economic stagnation and widespread discontent persist in Sidi Bouzid. Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia – Akram Hamdi says he has sent out nearly three dozen resumes. But the 25-year-old is still unemployed, nearly two years after he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business economics from the University […]

Turkish president is welcomed by his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Ankara is “tired” of its sluggish European Union membership process, noting that it cannot indefinitely be requesting to join the bloc. His comments on Friday came during a visit to Paris, where he held talks with […]

Palestinian leaders are unwilling to meet Pence and the Palestinian public appears mistrustful of the US vice president’s visit to Israel as well. Palestinian leaders are boycotting US Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Israel, refusing to meet with him in protest of US President Donald Trump’s decision last month to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s […]

UN panel found that a night market and five residential buildings were among the targets of the Saudi-led coalition. A UN report on human rights abuses related to foreign intervention in Yemen details the extensive civilian casualties inflicted by the Saudi-led coalition’s air attacks.  The United Nations panel examined 10 air attacks in 2017 that […]