Europeans grappling with mass migration from Libya were seeking information about Australia’s controversial success in stopping asylum seeker boats reaching its shores, the Australian prime minister said Monday. Refugee advocates and human rights groups have criticized Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s conservative government over drastic tactics it has used under its Operation Sovereign Borders policy to stop the flow of people-smuggling ...

Eight prisoners, including Bali nine organisers Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, have been executed in Indonesia. The ninth condemned prisoner, Filipina maid Mary Jane Fiesta Veloso, was given a last-minute reprieve from the firing squad. The executions were carried out at 12.35am local time (3.35am AEST) on Nusakambangan prison island. But it took up to 27 minutes for all the prisoners to die, ...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was closer to forming a new coalition Sunday after the head of the far-right Jewish Home party relinquished his demand for the foreign ministry, political sources said. Netanyahu, whose Likud party won a surprise victory in a March 17 election, has until May 6 to piece together a new government, after receiving a 14-day extension ...

In a rare talk, Egypt’s ousted president Hosni Mubarak said on Sunday that there are “fateful decisions” that need to be taken by current president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and that Egyptians should stand behind him. Mubarak, who was ousted on 11 Feburary 2011 following an 18-day uprising, spoke briefly on the phone with TV host Ahmed Moussa on Sada El-Balad private ...

An underground train came off the rails on Sunday and crashed into a wall, seriously injuring the driver. The metro line, which links El-Ataba square near downtown Cairo to the upscale district of Heliopolis, had no passengers at the time of the crash, the company running the metro said. The train was coming out of maintenance on a branch line ...

Yemeni Foreign Minister Riyadh Yaseen Sunday rejected a call for peace talks issued by former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and said a Saudi-led military campaign against Iran-allied Houthi fighters opposed to his government had not ended. Yaseen was speaking after air raids, naval shelling and ground fighting shook Yemen in some of the most widespread combat the country has seen ...

Although it has become common knowledge by now that neither of Lebanon’s two main candidates to the presidential election – Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea – is, at this point, capable of garnering an absolute majority of votes in Parliament to be elected as the new head of state, Aoun looks to be ...

Airstrikes on a marketplace in Idlib province Sunday killed at least 40 civilians, including women and children, as Syrian forces stepped up attacks on rebels a day after losing a key town. There were fears the death toll would mount from the bombing raids on Darkoush, a rebel-held town near the Turkish border, which also wounded dozens of people, a ...

Saudi-led airstrikes targeted Iran-backed rebels and their allies in Yemen Wednesday, hours after Riyadh declared an end to a nearly monthlong air campaign. The Shiite forces later said they would welcome United Nations-led peace talks to end a conflict that’s killed hundreds without dislodging them from the capital. The rebels, known as Houthis, say they call for a resumption of ...

The United States is concerned a group of Iranian cargo ships may be carrying advanced weapons to Yemen, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday, as he called on Iran to avoid “fanning the flames” of the conflict with arms deliveries. Asked whether he thought weapons were on board the Iranian ships, Carter said: “We’re certainly concerned about that.” “And ...