Firing the U.S. election security chief and pressuring local officials to throw out valid votes, President Donald Trump and his Republicans are making desperate -- though likely futile -- attempts to invalidate Democrat Joe Biden's election win.

Mike Pompeo is expected to become the first U.S. secretary of state ever to visit land used by settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Thursday.

Eyeing Washington's withdrawal of 500 more troops from Iraq, pro-Iran factions have boldly resumed attacks on the U.S. embassy there despite suspicions outgoing President Donald Trump could strike back.

Fighting has come to an end in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region a week after Armenia agreed to sign a Russian-brokered peace accord sealing its defeat to longtime rival Azerbaijan. 

With little more than two months left in office, President Donald Trump appears to be pushing ahead with plans to pull out of Afghanistan as he stacks the Pentagon with loyalists.

Trump, who refuses to acknowledge defeat to President-elect Joe Biden, in his campaign declared that he was winding down "endless wars" and his new picks are enthusiastic supporters of his position.

On Nov. 13, 1970, a young air force officer from the coastal hills of Syria launched a bloodless coup. It was the latest in a succession of military takeovers since independence from France in 1946, and there was no reason to think it would be the last.

Yet 50 years later, Hafez Assad's family still rules Syria.

Home to Europe's largest Muslim population, France is often accused of being "against" Islam because of its ban on the burqa and religious symbols such as headscarves in schools.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over its human rights failings, but observers say the oil-rich Arab powerhouse still holds enough leverage to deflect a major rupture in relations.

With Joe Biden, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will probably be unable to influence US policy with a simple phone call, as he had occasionally done with Donald Trump.

Iraq's pro-Tehran factions have welcomed Joe Biden's election as US president, alarming officials and activists in Baghdad who fear a US-Iran deescalation could empower hardliners in their own country.

Baghdad has long been caught in a tug-of-war for influence between its two main allies Washington and Tehran, made even more tense by outgoing US President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran since 2018.