Rights groups, lawyers and some governments are describing the Gaza war as "genocide" and calling for a ceasefire but Israel, created in the aftermath of the Nazi Holocaust of Jews, vehemently rejects the explosive term.
Israel says it is seeking to wipe out Gaza's Islamist rulers and free its hostages still held in the occupied Palestinian coastal strip since the Hamas militant attack in Israel on October 7, 2023.
A year out from kick-off, Iranian football fans are watching their World Cup dream slip away after a US travel ban barred them from entering the land of "Great Satan" to cheer on their team.
The 2026 tournament will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, but most matches, including the final, are scheduled to be played on American soil.
Many in Iran had clung to hopes of cheering from the stands until Wednesday when US President Donald Trump rolled out a new travel ban on 12 countries including Iran, which will take effect from Monday.
Former Inter boss Simone Inzaghi was revealed as the new coach of Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal on Thursday, days before they take part in the new-look Club World Cup.
The Italian, who led Inter to a heavy defeat in Saturday's Champions League final, had earlier played down rumours of a two-year deal worth 50 million euros.
"I am Simone Inzaghi and today begins my story with Al Hilal," he said in a slickly produced video posted on X, in which he sips Arabian coffee and pins an Al Hilal lapel badge on his suit.
Syrian fighter pilot Ragheed Tatari was 26 when he was arrested. Now 70, the country's longest-serving political prisoner is finally free after Bashar al-Assad's fall, seeking justice and accountability.
Tatari, arrested in 1981 and sentenced to life behind bars, was among scores of prisoners who walked free when longtime ruler Assad was overthrown on December 8 in an Islamist-led offensive.
Muslim worshippers prayed on Mount Arafat during the high point of the hajj pilgrimage Thursday, as authorities urged them to avoid the hottest hours of the day after tragedy struck last year.
Thousands of white-robed pilgrims recited Koranic verses from dawn on the 70-metre (230 feet) rocky rise near Mecca, where the Prophet Mohammed is believed to have given his last sermon.
But numbers thinned by midday following official warnings for pilgrims to stay inside between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm.
US President Donald Trump has signed a travel ban on 12 mostly Middle Eastern and African countries, reviving a controversial measure from his first term expected to trigger a fresh wave of legal challenges.
Trump said on Wednesday the measure was spurred by a makeshift flamethrower attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that US authorities blamed on an Egyptian man they said was in the country illegally.
US President Donald Trump said he spoke to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Wednesday about Ukraine and Iran, warning that the Kremlin leader had "very strongly" pledged to respond to Kyiv's stunning drone attack on Russian bombers.
Trump said that there was no "immediate peace" on the horizon in Ukraine -- which Russia invaded in 2022 -- following what he described as a one hour and 15 minute call with the Russian president.
Ireland's prestigious Trinity College Dublin said on Wednesday that it would cut all links with Israel in protest at "ongoing violations of international and humanitarian law".
The university's board informed students by email that it had accepted the recommendations of a taskforce to sever "institutional links with the State of Israel, Israeli universities and companies headquartered in Israel".
Working day and night in front of maps, screens and seemingly endless data, Saudi officials have harnessed artificial intelligence to help manage the million-strong sea of pilgrims during the hajj.
The technology has proven pivotal to track the overwhelming amount of footage from more than 15,000 cameras in and around the holy city of Mecca.
The systems are tuned to spot abnormal crowd movements or predict bottlenecks in foot traffic -- a potential life-saver at a packed event with a history of deadly stampedes.
The murder of a Tunisian man by his French neighbour in southern France, which is being investigated as a terror crime, has horrified the local community and raised alarm over rising racism in the country.
Tributes poured in from shocked neighbours and friends mourning the murder of Hichem Miraoui, with more than a dozen bouquets placed outside the barbershop where he worked in the quiet town of Puget-sur-Argens.
"I don't understand why he was killed. Why all this hatred?" said Sylvia Elvasorre, a 65-year-old pensioner who lives next to the hair salon, tears in her eyes.
