Men in make-up and wigs twirl on stage in colourful robes to applause in Morocco , resurrecting the musical art of "Aita" and challenging gender stereotypes in the conservative Muslim-majority...More
A noisy backhoe digs up earth to uncover yet another mass grave in Iraq, human remains are exhumed and the forensics experts get to work on their grim task. A skull is freed from a layer of clay, a...More
UK cinema chain Cineworld has pulled all screenings of a film about the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad after Muslim groups protested outside theatres, calling the movie " blasphemous ". Cineworld,...More
About three weeks after Russian troops invaded Ukraine , Indonesian housewife Liesye Setiana was forced to close her banana chip business as cooking oil supplies dried up across the country. Millions...More
Before the three sisters and their children were found dead in a well, they left a message blaming the family they had married into. Kalu, Kamlesh and Mamta Meena were victims of a dispute over...More
The legal expert charged with re-writing Tunisia's constitution said on Monday he would present President Kais Saied with a draft stripped of any reference to Islam, in order to confront Islamist...More
Sudan's civilian bloc on Monday rejected UN-facilitated talks with the army to resolve a crisis sparked by last year's military coup, saying the meetings did not tackle the problem. The push for...More
Three non-governmental organisations (NGOs) said on Thursday they had filed a lawsuit at a Paris court against three top French arms' producers for alleged war crimes complicity in Yemen after...More
The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday condemned Turkey over the arrest in 2017 of the head of the Turkish branch of rights group Amnesty International, ruling his detention was unlawful. The...More
A Pakistani movie featuring a daring portrait of a transgender dancer in the Muslim country on Friday won the Cannes "Queer Palm" prize for best LGBT, "queer" or feminist-themed movie, the jury head...More
An Irish court will rule on Monday in the trial of a former soldier accused of being a member of the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria who had expressed a desire to live under Sharia law and die...More
The German company said it has sealed the biggest order in its history to build the world's sixth-largest rail network. Tracks will connect cities along the Nile with the Red and Mediterranean seas...More
Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Sunday lifted a state of emergency imposed since last year's military coup, the ruling sovereign council said. Burhan "issued a decree lifting the state...More
Indian security forces have killed six militants in Kashmir in the past 24 hours while militants shot dead a female TV performer and a police officer, officials said on Thursday, following the...More
An Israeli appeal court on 25 May overruled a magistrate who had stirred Palestinian anger by questioning the legality of barring Jewish prayer at a contested Jerusalem shrine, as the United States...More
Tunisian President Kais Saied issued on Wednesday a decree to call voters to a referendum on a new constitution on 25 July, the official gazette said, ignoring the opposition's calls to reverse the...More
Karmila Purba revs her motorbike under the lights of an Indonesian night carnival and rides up horizontally inside a wooden cylinder called Satan's Barrel, drawing gasps from spectators looking down...More
The UK's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan last year showed "systemic failures of leadership, planning and preparation", according to a scathing inquiry by MPs published on Tuesday. The House of...More
Lebanese law student Charbel Chaaya spent the election campaign distributing flyers in Beirut and trying to convince his parents to vote for independents to shake the grip of established parties. The...More
Egypt , host of the next United Nations summit on climate change, will push countries to make good on their pledges to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions, facilitate "non-adversarial'' talks on...More
Samira hears the same message from Turkish politicians on the television day and night: Syrian refugees like her must return home. But her home near Damascus is still not safe, she says. The 44-year-...More
Pakistan's defiant former Prime Minister Imran Khan called on Sunday for his supporters to march peacefully on Islamabad on 25 May, to press for fresh elections. Khan, who served as prime minister...More
Turkey is ready for energy cooperation with Israel after years of enmity, reviving a project to pipe Israeli gas to Europe as Ankara seeks to reduce its dependence on Russia . But the plan faces...More
Women presenters on Afghanistan's leading news channels went on air on Sunday with their faces covered, a day after defying a Taliban order to conceal their appearance on television. Since seizing...More
Fearing visa hassles could cost him his job in Dubai while an economic collapse had dashed any homecoming options, Lebanese executive Jad splurged around $135,000 on a new citizenship for himself and...More
The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have issued an official order that female journalists must cover their faces on television. The move comes days after authorities ordered women to cover their...More
A U.S. military investigation found that American troops did not violate the law of war or deliberately cause civilian casualties in a 2019 airstrike in Syria that killed dozens of people, including...More
The first commercial flight in six years took off from Yemen’s rebel-held capital on Monday, officials said, part of a fragile truce in the county’s grinding civil war. The Yemen Airways flight, with...More
Iran's two-time Oscar winner, director Asghar Farhadi , gave a lengthy rebuke of claims that he plagiarised his last movie "A Hero" on Tuesday in Cannes. The 50-year-old director is part of the jury...More
A sandstorm engulfed Saudi Arabia 's capital and other regions of the desert kingdom on Tuesday, hampering visibility and slowing road traffic. A thick grey haze made iconic Riyadh buildings such as...More
Clashes erupted in Libya's capital on Tuesday as the parliament-appointed prime minister, Fathi Bashagha, tried to take control of government from a rival administration that has refused to cede...More
Shia group Hezbollah and its allies lost their majority in Lebanon's parliament, official results showed on Tuesday, while independents achieved a surprise breakthrough. Full results announced by the...More
Mali said Sunday it was withdrawing from a west African force fighting jihadists to protest its being rejected as head of the G5 regional group, which also includes Mauritania, Chad, Burkina and...More
Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group and its allies appear to have suffered some losses in this weekend's parliamentary elections, with their opponents gaining more seats and some of their traditional...More
The results of Lebanon 's first elections since multiple crises ravaged the country were expected on Monday, with opposition groups hoping for modest, but unprecedented gains. According to...More
The Alpine city of Grenoble is set to reignite one of France 's recurring summer debates on Monday when it votes to authorise the " burkini " in state-run swimming pools. The all-in-one swimsuit,...More
An international donor conference raised $6.7 billion for Syria and its neighbours on Tuesday despite what the European Union 's foreign policy chief said was "a certain fatigue" with the conflict...More
The threat of losing his West Bank land has loomed over Ali Mohammed Jabbareen for more than two decades, but he now fears an Israeli court decision may finally force him to go. Jabbareen, 60, lives...More
Veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh was shot dead by Israeli troops on Wednesday as she covered a raid on Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the network said. Al Jazeera said...More
The United Nations warned on Monday that it would cost $20 billion to clean up an oil spill in the event of the "imminent" break-up of an oil tanker abandoned off Yemen. "Our recent visit to (the FSO...More
The head of the Red Cross on Monday said he discussed in Iran the plight of Afghan migrants who fled their country after the Taliban took power last year. "Afghanistan was very much present in the...More
With tears pouring down her cheeks, Syrian mother Shawafa Khodr mourns her daughter, missing since the crowded migrant boat she boarded hoping to join her fiance in Germany sank in the Mediterranean...More
Syrian President Bashar al Assad made a visit to his closest regional ally Iran and met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Sunday, Iranian state media reported. Assad , who was making...More
At least 44 migrants drowned on Sunday when their boat capsized off the coast of the Western Sahara, migrant aid agency Caminando Fronteras said. Twelve others survived the tragedy, which happened...More
Hundreds of Tunisians demonstrated on Sunday in a show of support for President Kais Saied and a series of extraordinary measures he took since last July that critics have slammed as a "coup". The...More
The hard-line Islamist group has told Afghan women to cover their faces in public – the latest backslide on promises to retain women's rights after the Taliban seized power last August. Afghanistan '...More
The COVID-19 pandemic killed 13.3 to 16.6 million people in 2020 and 2021, the WHO estimated on Thursday – up to triple the number of deaths officially attributed to the disease. The World Health...More
Sri Lanka's bus and train networks ground to a halt while offices and factories were empty on Friday in a nationwide strike demanding the government's resignation over the island's worsening economic...More
A series of dust storms across central and southern Iraq have led to thousands of Iraqis attending hospitals and clinics to seek treatment for breathing problems, medical officials said on Thursday...More
Overloaded trucks and cars packed with families ply narrow, bumpy mountain roads surrounding this Yemeni city long-besieged by Houthi rebels – evidence that the terms of a truce have yet to be met...More
Al-Shabab jihadists armed with guns and explosives stormed an African Union base in Somalia on Tuesday, triggering a fierce firefight that killed an unknown number of Burundian peacekeepers. The...More
"Gota Go Home" – graffiti calling for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to quit has appeared on the roads of Hambantota, the traditional stronghold of the family that dominates Sri Lankan politics. That...More
On August 15, 1947, India – which until then had been a British protectorate – became independent. Sophie Dissemond marks the 75th anniversary with a tour of the country.
