The UN Security Council is set to push for more intensive negotiations to settle the decades-old dispute over Western Sahara, at the centre of tensions between Morocco and African countries. A draft resolution under discussion this week extends the mandate of the MINURSO peace mission for a year and calls …

A Saudi-led coalition declared an end April 21 to four weeks of air strikes in Yemen, saying it had eliminated the threat posed by Iran-backed rebels, as Washington welcomed the move and urged talks to end the crisis. Despite the claims of success in a campaign launched by Sunni Arab …

French Minister of Defense Jean-Yves Le Drian stressed Monday the interrelation between the security and stability of Europe, on one hand, and that of the Middle East and the Arab region on the other. The situations in the Arab region impact not only on the French nationals in the region …

India and France aim to finalise the deal for 36 Dassault Rafale fighters for the Indian Air Force (IAF) by the end of May, according to defence industry sources. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is believed to have insisted on this deadline with his French counterpart Francois Hollande in Paris, …

At least seven people were killed in an attack on a UN vehicle in Garowe, the capital of Puntland in northeastern Somalia, on Monday. Four UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) staff members were among the dead and four other staff members were in serious condition, the agency said in a statement.

US paratroopers on Monday began training Ukrainian government forces who will fight pro-Russian separatists in the east, angering Moscow as the deadly conflict rumbles on in the ex-Soviet country. Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko welcomed troops from the US 173rd Airborne Brigade in a rain-soaked ceremony at a military base in …

Egypt’s armed forces killed 57 suspected militants in raids it conducted in North Sinai during the past 10 days, the army spokesman announced on Monday. Spokesman Mohamed Samir said in a statement that the armed forces conducted raids on the North Sinai cities of al-Arish, Sheikh Zuweid and Rafah from …

Egypt’s ex-president Mohammed Morsi faces being sentenced to death on Tuesday on charges of inciting the killing of protestors in the first verdict against him nearly two years after his fall from power. He also faces the death penalty in two other trials, including one in which he is accused …

The international community has condemned the slaughter of at least 28 Ethiopian Christians in an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) video, with Ethiopia confirming that the victims were its citizens. “This not a clash of civilizations, this not a fight between Islam and the West,” an EU …

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday returned to India after concluding a successful three-nation, nine day tour of France, Germany and Canada, landing at the Palam Air Force Station in the national capital. Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including the party’s Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay and Vijay Goel, were present …