DONETSK: Heavy fighting erupted around the rebel stronghold of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, piling further pressure on a precarious nine-day-old truce between the government and separatist fighters. Large clouds of thick black smoke billowed over the industrial city as the boom of sustai

CAIRO: Qatar has asked seven senior figures from Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to leave the country, the movement said on Saturday, following months of pressure on the Gulf Arab state from its neighbors to stop backing the Islamists. Ibrahim Munir, a senior Brotherhood official based in Lon

KHAN YUNIS: Fifty Palestinian families made homeless by Israeli bombing during the summer’s fierce offensive on the Gaza Strip were rehoused Saturday in mobile homes in the southern town of Khan Yunis. During the 50-day conflict, 9,800 homes were totally destroyed and another 8,000 left uninhabitab

BEIRUT: Syrian government air raids on a rebel-held area near Damascus killed 42 people, including seven children, a monitoring group said Friday. Thursday’s strikes were carried out in Douma, a satellite suburb northeast of the capital that has been under siege for more than a year. “The toll

DAMASCUS: Any foreign intervention in Syria would be an act of aggression unless it is approved by Damascus, a Syrian government minister said on Thursday, after the United States said it was prepared to strike against Islamic State fighters in the country. “Any action of any type without the app

A strong earthquake hit off the coast of eastern Indonesia's Sulawesi island on Wednesday, causing panic among residents, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Authorities said there was no threat of a tsunami. The magnitude-6.5 quake struck at a depth of 22.5 kilometers (13 mi

A Palestinian was shot dead early on Wednesday by the Israeli army during clashes near the West Bank town of Ramallah, Palestinian and Israeli sources have confirmed. Palestinian medics and security sources said Eissa al-Qotri was killed by live ammunition to the heart during stone-throwing clash

BAGHDAD: Eight universities across northern Iraq have been shuttered and appear unlikely to open soon after the sweep of fighters through the region. After students and faculty members fled the advance of fighters with the Islamic State, the fighters have settled into dormitories on at least one cam

Beirut: Syrian government warplanes killed at least 60 civilians including a dozen children in two days of air strikes on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil)-held territory at the weekend, activists said on Monday. President Bashar Al Assad’s military has stepped up an aerial campaign o

RIYADH: King of Saudi Arabia Shah Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz has invited 1000  martyred families of Palestinians for performing Hajj and the Saudi government will bear all expenses. According to Al-Arabia.net the Saudi King has instructed Hajj department to make government arrangements for Hajj of 1

MANAGUA:  A mysterious explosion that rocked Nicaragua's crowded capital Managua, creating a large crater, appears to have been caused by a meteorite, officials said on Sunday. Amazingly, in a sprawling city of 1.2 million people, the impact near the international airport did not cause any known

CAIRO: Egypt charged ousted president Mohamed Mursi and several other people on Saturday with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar, dealing a further blow to his outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Relations between Qatar and Egypt have been icy since Jul

United Nations: About one in 10 girls around the world experiences serious sexual violence, the UN children’s agency has said in a major report detailing the “staggering extent” of sexual, physical and emotional abuse faced by young people. The Unicef report found that 120 million girls and fem

Lahore, Pakistan: More than 35 people have been killed as a result of heavy monsoon rains in Pakistan, officials said on Thursday, as authorities warned more intense rainfall and flash floods could be imminent. Most of the deaths were caused by roof collapses in buildings in Punjab, Pakistan’s

RAMALLAH: Rebuilding Gaza will cost $7.8 billion, the Palestinian Authority said on Thursday, in the most comprehensive assessment yet of damage from a seven-week war with Israel during which whole neighborhoods and vital infrastructure were flattened. The cost of rebuilding 17,000 Gazan homes ra

Beirut: A Syrian government airstrike hit a bus carrying civilians in eastern Syria on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, most of them children, opposition activists said. But the government in the capital, Damascus, blamed Isil for the incident, describing it as “yet another massacre” comm

LONDON:  A Mexican woman who is celebrating her 127th birthday today is believed to be the oldest human to have ever lived - and the secret to her long life may be chocolate and lots of sleep. Leandra Becerra Lumbreras, from the western Mexican city of Zapopan, was born on August 31, 1887 and has

Turkey's new prime minister said on Monday he would pursue strong economic growth and EU ambitions, while in the Middle East he saw no hope of "normalizing" ties with Israel unless it ended a blockade of the Gaza strip. Ahmet Davutoglu offered no suggestion of any change of emphasize in policies