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A UN official has said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) was a prime suspect in the case of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018. In an interview with Anadolu Agency, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Execution Agnes Callamard …

Russia and China have for the second time this week blocked a Western-sponsored UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution to extend aid deliveries across the border from Turkey into northwest Syria amid concerns that the move violates the war-torn country’s sovereignty. On Friday, Russia and China vetoed the Belgian-German draft resolution, …

Angela Merkel may not scream down the phone at President Donald Trump — but she knows how to insert a dagger. Trump, as well as Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, must have felt his ears burning when the German Chancellor demolished their approaches to the coronavirus in a …

Nancy Pelosi has been accused of harboring misinformed and constitutionally dubious opinions, after arguing that Donald Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone is proof that presidential pardon powers need to be reined in. Stone, a former aide to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, faced more than three years behind bars for obstruction …

Protests marred by violence continued on Friday in Belgrade, where thousands rallied against Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic and government policies, including its handling of the coronavirus crisis. Police in riot gear and mounted units deployed around the parliament building to prevent Vucic’s opponents from storming it. Protesters, who pelted police …

Police in South Africa says five people are dead and more than 40 have been arrested after an early-morning hostage situation at a church near Johannesburg. A statement says police and military who responded to reports of a shooting at the International Pentecostal Holiness Church in Zuurbekom found four people …

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through the eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk on Saturday in support of a popular local governor arrested this week for allegedly ordering several murders. A court in Moscow on Friday ruled to hold 50-year-old Sergei Furgal for two months pending trial for the murders …

Bosnia is marking the 25th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, the only crime in Europe since World War II that has been declared a genocide, with only a small number of survivors allowed to take part in commemoration events due to the coronavirus pandemic. The brutal execution in July 1995 …

President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone on Friday, sparing him from prison after he was convicted of lying under oath to lawmakers investigating Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Trump’s decision to commute Stone’s sentence days before he was due to …

China’s embassy has warned its citizens of strange pneumonia more deadly than coronavirus spreading in the former Soviet republic. A leading health chief thinks there could be issues around testing for COVID-19. An unexplained pneumonia outbreak in Kazakhstan is likely to be the novel coronavirus, a World Health Organization (WHO) …

From a symbol of Christendom after its establishment by Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the sixth century, to an emblem of the Muslim Ottoman Empire’s sprawling influence, the Hagia Sophia has been at the heart of a centuries-old ideological and political battle. After Fatih Sultan Mehmed II conquered Constantinople in …

Several US House Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to disclose the details of side deals between Saudi Arabia and US arms manufacturers that allow the kingdom to produce weapons with American technology on its own soil, Foreign Policy reported. The legislators argued that the side arrangements undercut the …

A military buildup around the Libyan city of Sirte has raised fears of a major battle for control of the area’s strategic oil reserves, the Arab News website reported. The Libyan National Army (LNA), which has occupied Sirte since May, accused Turkey of targeting the oil-rich city and supplying militias …

India reported a record 26,506 new coronavirus cases on Friday as authorities re-imposed lockdowns in its most populous state and in an industrial hub, home to automakers and drug factories. According to media reports, the new cases pushed India’s tally to nearly 800,000 cases, the world’s third-biggest outbreak, behind only …

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rose for the 14th consecutive month in June, preliminary government data on Friday showed, heaping further pressure on President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under fire for worsening destruction of the rainforest on his watch. Destruction rose 10.7% percent for the month, compared to June 2019, according …

The United States has approved the possible sale of 105 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets to Japan worth approximately $23 billion. The approval by the US State Department came on Thursday after Japan had requested 63 F-35A and 42 F-35B aircraft, 110 Pratt and Whitney F135 engines, as well as …

India has decided to receive a cargo of Venezuelan crude under a swap deal in the face of a US sanctions regime which has put the Latin American country in throes of a fuel crisis. Mumbai-based Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) announced its plan to load its first cargo of Venezuelan …

The United States has approved a request from Taiwan to modernize the self-ruled island’s Patriot surface-to-air missile systems to counter what it claims as “regional threats”, amid escalating tensions between Beijing and Washington. According to reports, the US State Department said on Friday that Taiwan had requested to buy an …

Persistent demonstrations across the US calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality, on the heels of the heartless killing of George Floyd when a chokehold went wrong, are being met with a rising trend for apparent counter-protesters using vehicles to threaten or slam into marchers. Tension is …

Athens police were bombarded with Molotov cocktails and pelted with stones amid major protests against a new government bill limiting public gatherings. Some 10,000 people had assembled to protest across the Greek capital. Shortly after 8.30 pm local time, a group of some 200 protesters was gathered outside the parliament …