By AFP/Laure AL KHOURYFor two days, Rihab Kamel and her family hid terrified in their bathroom in the city of Baniyas as armed men stormed the neighbourhood, pursuing members of Syria's Alawite minority.The coastal city is part of Syria's Alawite hea...

By AFPQatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani has warned that an attack on Iran's Gulf coast nuclear facilities would leave countries across the region without water.In an interview with right-wing United States med...

By AFP/Bruno KALOUAZWomen in Tajikistan are being advised by the government to dress more "Tajik-style" and not wear either revealing Western clothes or Islamic head coverings -- supposedly to reinforce national identity.Some in the secular Muslim co...

By AFPVietnam is planning to merge provinces and eliminate district-level authorities, the government said Thursday, as a streamlining drive aiming to slash billions of dollars from state budgets gathers pace.The cost-cutting measures have already se...

By AFP/Holmes CHANHong Kong's top court quashed the prison terms of three Tiananmen vigil activists on Thursday, saying it was a "miscarriage of justice" to jail them for refusing to submit information to national security police.The judgment is a st...

By AFP/Marvin Recinos with Oscar BatresEl Salvador's San Sebastian river has no fish. The runoff from a gold mine upstream, already shuttered two decades ago, has long killed them all.Now, residents fear the same fate for other rivers -- and the crea...

By AFP/Oluseyi AWOJULUGBEAmaka Okoli became a bus driver three years ago after losing her job as a banker in Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital.The 38-year-old now begins her day at 5:30 am to take advantage of the early morning rush hour and finishes...

By AFPMore than 300,000 refugees have returned to Syria since president Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, while nearly a million more people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes, the United Nations said on Friday.Since Assad was to...

By AFP/Alex PIGMANDonald Trump on Friday doubled down on his embrace of cryptocurrencies as he hosted top industry players at the White House, while making investments in the field.US crypto investors were major supporters of Trump's presidential cam...

By AFPThe EU said Friday it would send reinforcements for its peacekeeping mission in deeply divided Bosnia after the nation's top court suspended separatist laws adopted by its Serb statelet.Bosnia's Constitutional Court on Friday suspended legislat...

By AFPGreenpeace condemned BP on Thursday for a gas leak that has been ongoing for several weeks at a new field the British oil giant operates off Senegal and Mauritania.The Mauritanian government said last week the leak had been discovered on Februa...

By AFPEcuador's president announced on Friday an amnesty for security forces fighting drug cartels in the port city of Guayaquil, where 22 people were killed in fierce gunfights between rival gangs.As teams of heavily armed police launched raids and...