PARIS: France’s lower house of Parliament has voted to urge the government to recognize a Palestinian state, in the hope that speeds up peace efforts after decades of conflict. Tuesday’s French vote, approved with 339 votes to 151, is non-binding. But it is a symbolic boost for the Palestinians,

SHANGHAI: Fifteen people were killed when a group threw explosives into a crowded street where vendors were selling food in China’s restive region of Xinjiang, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. Eleven were attackers who were killed by the police, the agency said, and 14 people wer

Arab League foreign ministers agreed on Saturday to formally present a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council that will set a timeframe for the creation of a Palestinian state. The ministers set up a committee comprised of Kuwait, Mauritania, Jordan and Arab League chief Nabil al

A court in Egypt has dropped charges against former President Hosni Mubarak over the killing of 239 protesters during the 2011 uprising against him. The Cairo court erupted in cheers when the judge said Mubarak should not have been a defendant in the case as the charges against him were added late.

CAIRO: Three people including an army general were killed and at least 20 were wounded in a drive-by shooting and clashes that erupted during protests around Egypt, officials said. Police were out in force in anticipation of the protests. In Matariya, focal point for early afternoon protests in C

CAIRO: An Egyptian court Wednesday sentenced 78 minors to between two and five years in prison for taking part in demonstrations calling for the return of Muhammad Mursi, judicial sources said. On Wednesday, a court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria sentenced 78 teenage boys aged from 13 to

MOSCOW: Siberian air passengers had to get out and push their plane in temperatures of minus 52 degrees Celsius after its chassis froze, Russian prosecutors said Wednesday. The extraordinary story emerged after a passenger posted a video on YouTube showing a group of cheery travelers pushing the

BEIRUT: A wave of Syrian regime air strikes on the Islamic State group's self-proclaimed capital of Raqa, in the country's east, killed at least 63 civilians on Tuesday, a monitor said. "The death toll has risen to at least 36 in air raids on Raqa," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, u

JERUSALEM: Human rights groups have accused Israel of encouraging a shoot-to-kill policy after a wave of incidents in which police shot dead Palestinians involved in, or accused of, attacking Israelis. The alleged practice of killing suspects without trying to arrest them has caused concern after

An Israeli artillery fires a 155mm shell towards targets in the Gaza Strip from their position near Israel's border with the Strip, in this July 12, 2014 photo. (AFP) JERUSALEM: Human Rights Watch called on Israel Saturday to stop razing the homes of Palestinians accused of attacking Israelis, sa

WASHINGTON: Satellite images show China is building an island on a reef in the disputed Spratly Islands large enough to accommodate what could be its first offshore airstrip in the South China Sea, a leading defense publication said on Friday. The construction has stoked concern that China may be

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian police on Thursday detained Mohamed Ali Bishr, one of the few Muslim Brotherhood leaders to escape jail after last year's overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Mursi, extending a sweeping crackdown on political dissent. Bishr, a veteran politician who served as a cabi

JERUSALEM: Israel on Wednesday approved the construction of 78 new homes in two settlements on West Bank land annexed to Jerusalem, likely to aggravate Palestinian anger at a time when violence has flared, including a deadly attack on a synagogue. Jerusalem’s municipal planning committee authorized

JERUSALEM: Tuesday’s deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue marked a new level in the violence plaguing the city but a tough Israeli response could trigger further escalation, experts say. After two Palestinians burst into the synagogue armed with a gun and meat cleavers, killing four and woundin

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian bus driver was found hanged inside his vehicle on Monday, an incident Israeli police described as a suicide but which the driver’s family said they believed was an attack. The incident quickly touched off Palestinian stone-throwing protests and a general strike in some la

JERUSALEM: Israel will never agree to limit its construction activity in annexed east Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday. “One thing should be clear: we will never accept the definition of building in Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem as settlement activity,” he said at

Authorities in Makkah have thwarted plans for a beauty pageant in the holy city, citing the Shariah law that prohibits such a show as reason for the decision. The pageant, which was planned to take place in one of Makkah’s banquet hall palaces over a period of four consecutive days, starting next

JERUSALEM: Israel eased restrictions at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday after US Secretary of State John Kerry announced agreement on steps to reduce tensions at the flashpoint compound. The site, which is holy to Jews as well as Muslims, has been the focus of months of unrest in annexed Ara