AFP, UNITED NATIONS: Two leading human rights groups urged UN member-states on Wednesday to suspend Saudi Arabia from the UN Human Rights Council over the killing of civilians in Yemen and repression at home. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said they would begin lobbying the UN General…

AFP, KABUL: Who can lay claim to Rumi, the Sufi mystic who is one of the world’s most beloved poets? A bid by Iran and Turkey to do so has exasperated…

AP, West Bank: Palestinian police say five Palestinians, including two police officers, were killed in two overnight shootings. Police spokesman Loaie Izrekat said Thursday that 16 others were injured in the shootings. The incidents underscore a lack of gun control in the West Bank. Irzekat says a Palestinian…

AFP, MANILA: Authoritarian firebrand Rodrigo Duterte was sworn in as the Philippines’ president on Thursday, after promising a ruthless and deeply…

AFP, SEOUL: North Korea has created a new, supreme governing commission with leader Kim Jong-Un as its chairman, underlining the 33-year-old’s absolute control over every aspect of state policy in the isolated, nuclear-armed nation. The country’s legislative body, the Supreme People’s…