Libyan politicians yesterday signed a deal on a unity government despite opposition on both sides, in what the United Nations described as a "first step" towards ending the crisis.

Gunmen have kidnapped at least 27 Qatari hunters in a desert area of Iraq near the Saudi border, officials say.

Egypt said yesterday it still has no evidence that a "terrorist action" had downed a Russian plane at the end of October in the Sinai Peninsula, as stated by

Air pollution in Iran's capital hit its worst level -- for a day without a sandstorm -- in at least nine months yesterday, prompting warnings that all citizens

Saudi voters have elected 20 women for local government seats, according to results, a day after women voted and ran in elections for the first time in the

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday that the Islamic State group was spreading from its stronghold on the Libyan coast to the interior of the country with the aim of getting access to oil wells.

Nato has ruled out sending ground troops to fight against Islamic State militants in Syria, Nato General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg told a

An air strike believed to have been carried out by the US-led coalition killed four Syrian military personnel in Deir al Zor province, which is mostly held by Islamic State, a monitoring group says, in what would be the first time coalition warplanes had hit Syrian government forces.

Air strikes on the Syrian city of Raqqa have killed at least 32 Islamic State (IS) militants and wounded 40 more, an activist group says.

Baghdad yesterday demanded the immediate withdrawal of forces it said Turkey illegally sent into Iraq, which is struggling to assert its

The US Air Force has fired off more than 20,000 missiles and bombs since the US bombing campaign against IS began 15 months ago, according to the Air Force, leading to depleted munitions stockpiles and calls to ramp up funding and weapons production.

The departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is no longer necessary before any political transition in the war-torn country, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in an interview published yesterday.

Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was seriously injured in a firefight following a heated argument at a gathering of militant commanders, officials said yesterday, exposing deepening divisions within the fractious militant movement.

Egyptian Ambassador in Dhaka Mahmoud Ezzat has taken charge as the dean of the Diplomatic Corp, says a press release.

The United States warned its citizens in Kabul yesterday of an "imminent attack" in the city within the next two days, amid renewed official efforts to revive

Saudi women began their first-ever campaigns for public office yesterday, in a step forward for women's rights in the conservative kingdom's slow reform process.

Israel is to open its first diplomatic mission in the UAE, Israel says, despite the absence of diplomatic relations between the two

Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinians after they rammed their cars into soldiers in separate attacks in the West Bank yesterday as the country's defense minister urged Israelis to brace themselves for more violence, saying he cannot see an end to the near-daily Palestinian attacks.

Saudi authorities appear set in the next few days to carry out a series of beheadings across the country of more than 50 men convicted of terrorism offences. Among those facing execution are three young men who were juveniles when they were arrested.

Nato member Turkey shot down a Russian war plane on the Syrian border yesterday, an act President Vladimir Putin denounced as a "stab in the back" by "accomplices of terrorists" as tensions spiralled between two rival players in the Syria war.