Pakistan's Taliban have rejected Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's claim to be the global leader of all Muslims, the movement said in a statement seen by Reuters on Saturday. The Pakistani...More
Tourism in the Biblical city of Bethlehem is down this Christmas season compared to last year and hotels are more than half empty, Mayor Vera Baboun said. "Bethlehem is empty this year," she told...More
Israeli anti-racism activists have called for an investigation after a Jewish extremist leader urged a ban on Christmas celebrations in the country and called Christians "vampires". Benzi Gopstein,...More
Leyla Shakuri shakes multicoloured hundreds-and-thousands over the biscuits, taking care to dsitribute them evenly. "I want to know everything about your Christmas," the 16-year-old Afghan girl with...More
Some of them, if Francis is heeded, should be heading to safety among the roughly 120,000 Catholic parishes in Europe. But in Italy – which with more than 25,000 has the largest number of parishes –...More
On Sunday the Arab League welcomed a UN-backed roadmap to end the Syrian war and vowed to support international efforts to implement a ceasefire. The resolution, approved unanimously by the UN...More
To its foes, Qatar's deal-making with armed groups is reckless grandstanding that helps destabilise the Middle East. To its friends, the network of Islamist contacts Doha has built in the process may...More
Pakistani officials were Wednesday formulating a response over the country's inclusion in a 34-nation list announced by Saudi Arabia which largely comprises Muslim-majority states. "Our response to...More
Raif Badawi, a Saudi blogger jailed and lashed for allegedly insulting Islam on an internet forum he created to boost public debate, was honoured Wednesday by the European Parliament with its top...More
Photographs of thousands of people who reportedly died in government detention centres in Syria present "damning evidence" of crimes against humanity, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday. The rights...More
Saudi Arabia has formed a 34-member alliance "to fight terrorism" which largely comprises Muslim-majority states but excludes regional rival Iran and several countries facing ongoing violence. The...More
A Texas plumber whose truck ended up in the hands of militants in Syria is suing the dealership he sold it to, after a photo of the pickup with a flaming anti-aircraft gun in the bed and his logo on...More
Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation is launching a media offensive against terrorism, with a documentary on the country's "harmonious" Islamic past. Speaking to a traditional Javanese soundtrack...More
Nobel prize winner Malala Yousafzai condemned Donald Trump's views on Muslims on Tuesday at a sombre ceremony to remember the 134 children killed in a Taliban attack on a Pakistani school a year ago...More
From war-torn Syria to a windswept island off the west coast of Scotland, nine newly-arrived refugee families are struggling to adjust to new lives in a very unfamiliar world. "It's hard. We don't...More
A Melbourne teen arrested after police found explosives at his home pleaded guilty on Monday to a terrorism-related charge, highlighting concerns about youth radicalisation following last week's...More
Prominent Palestinian musicians say recruiting minority ethnic and religious Arab groups into the army is part of Israel’s divide-and-conquer tactics, pushing young Palestinians to "side with the...More
Following the massacre of 136 school children one year ago, Pakistani politicians backed a military campaign to hunt down Taliban insurgents after years of confusion over whether the country should...More
Sectarian militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility Sunday for a bomb blast that killed 23 people at a crowded bazaar in a predominantly Shia area of Pakistan's north-western tribal...More
Egypt's best-selling author Alaa Al Aswany said Sunday that authorities have pressurised a cultural centre into cancelling an event where he was scheduled to talk about how the government manipulates...More
A religious school in Pakistan distanced itself from former student Tashfeen Malik, who together with her husband allegedly killed 14 people in southern California last week before they were shot...More
Three months after a heartbreaking photo kickstarted a crowd-funding campaign, life has improved for Abdul Halim Atar, the refugee and single father in Beirut who resorted to selling pens to provide...More
More than 35,000 Britons have signed an online petition to ban U.S. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump from the country following his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United...More
Dubai-based Landmark Group, one of the Middle East's largest retail firms, said it was pulling Donald Trump products off its shelves in response to the Republican presidential front-runner's call for...More
France's mainstream political parties were scrambling for a way to stop the rise of the far-right National Front (FN) on Monday after it emerged with an historic first-round lead in regional...More
The stabbing of a man in the London metro in what police described as a terrorist attack provoked a defiant riposte from a bystander that has struck a chord in Britain: "You ain't no Muslim, bruv"...More
A conference bringing together dozens of figures from Syria's political and armed opposition will be held next week in Riyadh, opposition members told journalists on Friday. According to Samir Nashar...More
Confusion surrounded the fate of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who was shot in a firefight during an argument with commanders of the divided movement, after an Afghan government spokesman...More
In a small studio in central Beirut, more than a dozen refugee women from Syria dash about barefoot as they rehearse a play about their experiences as war migrants. "We get to a new country .....More
On Saturday an official demonstration by Alternative Für Deutschland, a populist right-wing group which in recent weeks has fomented prejudice and suspicion against the refugees pouring into Germany...More
A German court Tuesday sentenced a Pakistan-born couple to life in jail for the "honour killing" of their 19-year-old daughter, who had had sex before marriage. The 52-year-old father was found...More
The Statue of Liberty, a symbol of democracy and freedom that has greeted countless immigrants to US shores, was inspired by a project representing an Arab woman guarding the Suez Canal, researchers...More
An Egyptian journalist and researcher on the turbulent Sinai Peninsula was ordered to remain in detention for 15 days by prosecutors on Tuesday, two days after he was arrested upon his return from...More
Thousands of protesters gathered in central London on Tuesday in an effort to stop Britain joining air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria, a day before a parliamentary vote on the move. A...More
Israel will for the first time ever open an official – and visible – presence in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in the coming weeks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon...More
The Moroccan writer and sociologist Fatima Mernissi, known for her pioneering work in the field of Islamic feminism, has died. Her work also touched on broader issues of human rights and democracy in...More
Pope Francis said Monday that fundamentalism is "a disease of all religions", including the Roman Catholic Church, as he returned from a three-nation tour of Africa in which he preached...More
The leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to work together to revive stalled peace talks with Taliban insurgents after meeting on the sidelines of a climate change conference in Paris, officials...More
Saudi Arabia has issued invitations to 65 Syrian opposition figures to attend a conference in Riyadh to try unify their positions ahead of proposed Syrian peace talks, Saudi newspapers reported on...More
Germany's defence minister ruled out on Tuesday any cooperation between German forces due to take part in the military campaign against Islamic State in Syria and President Bashar al-Assad or his...More
Norway has begun publishing adverts in Afghanistan's newspapers to dissuade Afghans from seeking asylum in the Scandinavian country, the Norwegian government said on Thursday. "The goal is to...More
Myanmar's new cabinet will include members of other political parties and representatives of ethnic minorities, the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) Aung San Suu Kyi said on Thursday...More
Sixteen asylum seekers have come ashore in Indonesia after their boat was turned back from Australia, police said Friday, prompting fresh concern from Jakarta over Canberra's tough immigration...More
A Pakistani court ordered a prominent opposition politician close to former president Asif Ali Zardari into police custody on Thursday on charges of aiding terrorists in a case his party has called...More
In Yemen's third largest city, residents are battling back against a months-long siege by Shia rebels, armed by airdrops of weapons by planes from the Saudi-led coalition, with hundreds killed and...More
The editor-in-chief of a Turkish newspaper and its Ankara correspondent were arrested on Thursday after publishing a report about the delivery of weapons from Turkey to extremists in Syria, the DHA...More
Anti-Muslim hate crimes rose 300 percent in Britain in the week following the coordinated attacks in Paris, according to figures published on Monday. A "vast and overwhelming majority" of the 115...More
Australia is sticking to its plan to take 12,000 Syrian refugees, the government said on Monday, despite pressure to abandon it from the ruling party's own right wing. Justice Minister Michael Keenan...More
A court in Iran has sentenced Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian to an unspecified prison term, the state news agency IRNA said on Sunday, quoting the judiciary spokesman. "Serving a jail term is...More
British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn was Monday under increasing pressure to allow his Labour Party's lawmakers a free vote in parliament on British air strikes against the Islamic State group in...More
Azza El Hennawy, a presenter on the public channel Al Qahera Al Youm (Cairo Today), has been suspended by the management. Hani Jaafar, chairman of ERTU’s regional channels (Egyptian public television...More
More armed police are to be deployed in London after the Paris attacks, but the move is unlikely to herald a shift toward providing weapons to most officers in the largely unarmed British force,...More
Braving the bitter cold, Lebanese villagers have been patrolling a mountainside in the country's north, trying to protect trees from loggers who roll in under the cover of darkness, while refugees in the Bekaa valley have joined a seed bomb reforestation project
