Israeli strikes on Damascus airport killed seven fighters, a war monitor said Friday, the latest in a string of attacks targeting Iran’s military presence in Syria. Syrian state media said only that its air defences intercepted missiles over the capital overnight while Israel did not immediately comment on the strikes. Israel routinely fires missiles at […]

The United States (US) Senate voted Thursday to restrain President Donald Trump from attacking Iran, with eight members of his Republican Party bucking their leadership to agree. The resolution, which requires Trump to seek explicit authorization from Congress before further hostilities with Iran, passed in similar form in the Democratic-led House of Representatives. ALSO READ: Rocket […]

Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan has been charged with raping two women besides two others he was already facing accusations over, his lawyer told AFP Thursday. The 57-year-old Ramadan, a Swiss national, was already charged in France with raping a disabled woman in 2009 and a feminist activist in 2012. He denies the charges. On Thursday, […]

A rocket slammed into an Iraqi base where American troops are stationed in the remote province of Kirkuk, Iraqi and US security sources told AFP on Thursday night. There were no immediate reports of casualties. According to three separate Iraqi security sources, the Katyusha rocket hit the K1 base at around 8:45 pm local time […]

A letter bomb on Thursday exploded at a bank in Amsterdam, police said, the latest in a spate of such attacks. “The letter containing explosives blew up in a bank in the south-eastern part of the city. No one was hurt,’’ the police said. Also, a letter containing explosives was also identified in Utrecht; however, […]

Ethiopia on Thursday passed a law punishing “hate speech” and “disinformation” with hefty fines and long jail terms, despite fears by rights groups it undermines gains in free speech. Nearly 300 lawmakers voted in favour of the bill, with 23 votes against and two abstentions. The new law defines hate speech as rhetoric that fuels discrimination […]

Turkmenistan’s leader Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has fired the head of the powerful national security ministry, state media reported Thursday. Berdymukhamedov dismissed Yalim Berdiyev, who had held the post since 2018, and replaced him with deputy national security minister Gurbanmyrat Annayev, the state-run Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper said. Berdiyev had moved on to another job, it said, without giving […]

France on Thursday said it would not bow to American pressure to exclude Huawei from supplying equipment for its 5G networks, though the Chinese telecommunications firm could be subject to restrictions. Taking a stance echoing those of Britain and the European Union, Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Paris could prioritise European operators […]

Britain’s finance minister, Sajid Javid, resigned on Thursday, just weeks after Brexit and a month before he was due to deliver the government’s annual budget. Javid’s spokesman confirmed he would be leaving just as Prime Minister Boris Johnson carried out the first reshuffle of his cabinet since winning a parliamentary majority in December’s election. The […]

China has demoted the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the State Council said Thursday, following months of pro-democracy protests in the semi-autonomous city. The shuffling of officials at China’s top policy body on the financial hub’s affairs comes after months of political unrest — the starkest challenge to Beijing since the […]