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.
A 24-year-old Franco-Moroccan man suspected of masterminding a series of kidnappings targeting cryptocurrency entrepreneurs in France has been arrested in Morocco, France said.
Badiss Mohamed Amide Bajjou was wanted by the French authorities and was the subject of an Interpol red notice for "arrest, kidnapping, false imprisonment or arbitrary detention of a hostage."
The suspect was arrested in the northern Moroccan city of Tangier, according to a statement from the country's General Directorate for National Security carried by Moroccan state news agency MAP.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday a US proposal for a nuclear agreement was against the national interest, amid sharp differences over whether Tehran can continue to enrich uranium.
The longtime foes have held five rounds of talks since April to thrash out a new accord to replace the deal with major powers that US President Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
On Saturday, Iran said it had received "elements" of the US proposal through Omani mediators, the details of which have not been publicly disclosed.
Nestled in the Sinai mountains, the ancient St Catherine's Monastery has been the centre of recent tensions after an Egyptian court ruled last week that it sat on state-owned land.
Dating back to the sixth century BC, the UNESCO World Heritage Site is the world's oldest continuously inhabited monastery, attracting hundreds of pilgrims and tourists every year.
Following warnings from the authorities and Orthodox Church in Greece that the ruling threatens the monastery's status, a government delegation is travelling from Athens to Cairo on Wednesday to discuss the situation.
