Lebanon's central bank announced on Friday that money changers and transfer companies must comply with stricter rules as the country faces heavy U.S. pressure to regulate its cash economy and cut off Hezbollah funding.

At about 10 o'clock every morning, women in hijabs and loose long dresses wade through Zanzibar's turquoise shallow tides to tend their sponge farms -- a new lifeline after climate change upended their former work.

Hundreds of people in Tunisia's city of Gabes protested on Thursday in front of a court as it examined whether to suspend a nearby factory accused of widespread pollution.

EU finance ministers on Thursday agreed to scrap a bloc-wide duty exemption on low-value orders from the likes of retail giants Temu and Shein to help tackle a flood of cheap Chinese imports.

Switzerland's economy minister Guy Parmelin was back in Washington for talks on Thursday, for the third time since the Alpine country was clobbered with huge tariffs.

A U.S. high-tech arms company is to design and produce AI-powered drones in the United Arab Emirates under a joint venture, the two parties said on Thursday, strengthening close defense ties.

Following Iraq's parliamentary election this week, the complex and often lengthy task of choosing the country's next leader is set to begin.

The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they would hand over the remains of another hostage on Thursday as part of the US-brokered ceasefire deal with Israel in Gaza.

"The Al-Quds Brigades and the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades will hand over the body of one of the occupation's captives, which was found today in the Morag area north of Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip, at 8:00 pm Gaza time (1800 GMT)," a Hamas statement said.

U.S. special envoy Tom Barrack hailed Thursday Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s historic visit to Washington, saying that Syria will play an active role in assisting the United States in fighting armed groups including Iran's Revolutionary Guards, Hamas and Hezbollah.

On Thursday, Barrack wrote on X that "Damascus will now actively assist us in confronting and dismantling the remnants of ISIS, the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), Hamas, Hizballah, and other terrorist networks".

Incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who is vying for a second term, has scored a big win in general elections, sources close to the premier said on Wednesday.