The United States and Russia renewed high-level contacts between their militaries on Friday to discuss how to deal with the war in Syria. US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu spoke by telephone, spokesmen from their ministries said.

A Saudi diplomat accused of raping two Nepali women hired to work as domestic help has left India under diplomatic immunity, the foreign ministry says.

About 1,000 Asian pilgrims were evacuated early yesterday from their hotel in the Saudi city of Mecca, hit by a fire that injured two people, the civil defence agency said.

US President Barack Obama will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on November 9 -- their first meeting after a deep row over

Bombings in the Iraqi capital claimed by the Islamic State group killed at least 14 people and wounded 55 yesterday, security and medical officials said. The

A Tehran court has fined two women $260 for violating the Islamic dress code by not wearing their mandatory hijabs (headscarves) properly in the street, a

Saudi King Salman has ordered one million Riyals (($267,000) compensation for those who were injured with permanent disability and half a million for other

Australian warplanes have carried out their first air strike against Islamic State group in Syria, destroying an armoured personnel carrier, Defence Minister Kevin Andrews said yesterday.

At least 26 people including two children were killed yesterday in twin suicide car bomb attacks in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh, a monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 13 civilians were killed in the two blasts, along with six members of the Kurdish security services and seven fighters from a pro-regime militia.

Five Saudi soldiers have died on the border with Yemen, the Saudi-led coalition said late on Sunday as forces inside Yemen began a major offensive against

Pakistan militants who have pledged allegiance to Islamic State yesterday said they had attacked a paramilitary checkpoint along the Afghan border, in the first

Iran has discovered an unexpectedly high reserve of uranium and will soon begin extracting the radioactive element at a new mine, the head of Iran's Atomic

Yemen's exiled government backed out of UN-brokered peace talks as loyalist forces supported by a Saudi-led coalition launched a major offensive yesterday against Shia Huthi rebels.

The al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri has called on young Muslim men in Western countries to carry out lone-wolf attacks – and urged greater unity between militants.

Clashes have broken out at the al-Aqsa mosque complex in East Jerusalem after Israeli police entered the compound, reports say.

Saudi Arabia on Friday banned the slaughter of camels during this year's hajj pilgrimage, after a surge in deaths from the MERS virus linked to the animals.

Eleven people were killed in rebel rocket fire on the Syrian capital Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday. The Britain-based

Egypt's prime minister and his cabinet resigned yesterday following a corruption scandal and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi tasked the

This year's hajj pilgrimage will go ahead despite a crane collapse which killed more than 100 people at the Grand Mosque of Mecca, a Saudi official tells AFP.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas yesterday praised the countries which sided with "justice" by voting for the Palestinians to be allowed to raise their flag at United Nations headquarters.