The US has announced it will withdraw from the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), accusing the body of “anti-Israel bias”.Heather Nauert, US State Department spokesperson, said on Thursday the US would establish an “observer mission” to replace its representation at the Paris-based agency, Al Jazeera reported.In a statement announcing its withdrawal, Israel called […]

Turkey announced Friday it had deployed dozens of soldiers in the Syrian province of Idlib as part of its efforts to establish a de-escalation zone to stop fighting in the largely militant-controlled northwestern region.The deployment also appeared to be aimed at preventing the expansion of Syrian Kurdish militia backed by the United States, but considered […]

Rohingya Muslims are not native to Myanmar, the army chief told the US ambassador in a meeting in which he apparently did not address accusations of abuses by his men and said media was complicit in exaggerating the number of refugees fleeing.The UN human rights office said on Wednesday Myanmar forces had brutally driven out […]

Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation deal on Thursday after Hamas agreed to hand over administrative control of Gaza, including the key Rafah border crossing, a decade after seizing the enclave in a civil war.The deal brokered by Egypt bridges a bitter gulf between the western-backed mainstream Fatah party of Palestinian President […]

Catalonia’s leader faced mounting pressure Friday from all sides, with hardliners in the separatist movement demanding he declare independence from Spain once and for all. Spain’s government and the European Union, on the other hand, want him to abandon the secession plans altogether.Spain’s deputy prime minister blamed Catalan president Carles Puigdemont for creating such economic […]

The Kurdish Regional Government has deployed thousands of troops around the disputed oil city of Kirkuk for fear of an attack by Iraqi government army and militia, a senior official said.“Thousands of heavily armed peshmerga units are now completely in their positions around Kirkuk,” a top aide to Kurdistan regional president Masoud Barzani posted on […]

Just 24% of Americans believe the country is heading in the right direction after a tumultuous stretch for President Donald Trump that included the threat of war with North Korea, stormy complaints about hurricane relief and Trump’s equivocating about white supremacists. That’s a 10-point drop since June, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC […]

North Korea is preparing to test a long-range missile which it believes can reach the west coast of the United States, a Russian lawmaker just returned from a visit to Pyongyang was quoted as saying on Friday.Anton Morozov, a member of the Russian lower house of parliament’s international affairs committee, and two other Russian lawmakers […]

he international community has caved in to political pressure again, underplaying the suffering of hundreds of Yemeni children, by watering down criticism of the US-backed Saudi coalition’s grave violations of international law in the UN Secretary General’s annual Children and Armed Conflict report (CAAC), said Amnesty International.“Every time the United Nations makes concessions that allow […]

A top UN official said Saturday Bangladesh’s plan to build the world’s biggest refugee camp for 800,000-plus Rohingya Muslims was dangerous because overcrowding could heighten the risks of deadly diseases spreading quickly.The arrival of more than half a million Rohingya refugees who have fled an army crackdown in Myanmar’s troubled Rakhine State since August 25 […]