Arab world

    At least 27 people have been killed after al Qaeda militants attacked a top hotel and restaurant. Security forces freed 126 hostages around 12 hours after the extremists launched the assaults on the Splendid Hotel and the Cappuccino Cafe across the road in Ouagadougou. French ambassador Gilles Thibault said 27 people had been killed. Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Kabore earlier said the "partial death toll" in the "cowardly and vile" attacks was 23. The victims came from 18 different countries, security minister Simon Compaore said. Four militants were killed. Two of the attackers were women, the president said on national radio. The attack came as two Austrians, a doctor and his wife, were kidnapped in northern Burkina Faso, the security ministry said. It was not immed...

    A photograph of Ruqia Hassan posted on Twitter In July 2015, Ruqia Hassan posted a message on her Facebook page: “Greetings to every girl celebrating Eid in her pyjamas!” It was the kind of dig her followers loved; a sarcastic acknowledgment that small pleasures – such as wearing new clothes on Eid – had become impossible since Raqqa, a small city on the north bank of the Euphrates river, had turned into the dark heart of the Islamic State. It was also the sort of comment that made Hassan’s family fear that she was attracting the wrong kind of attention. They were right: weeks later, she was arrested and imprisoned; two months later, she was dead. Family members say that, in person, the 30-year-old was shy and quiet. Yet on social media she showed no fear, documenting wit...

    Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister has urged Britons to respect his country's death penalty, as the brutal Saudi justice system strains relations between the two countries. Adel Al-Jubeir faced tough questioning from Channel 4 News Jonathan Rugman, who told the ambassador his country has a terrible image problem" and asked: You don't have to execute as many people as you do, do you? The minister responded: We have a fundamental difference, in your country, you do not execute people, we respect it. In our country, the death penalty is part of our laws and you have to respect this as it is the law. The questioning comes after an international outcry over a number of high-profile executions in the state, including that of prominent Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. Some 47 prisoners were exe...

    Iranian naval authorities have released 10 US sailors who unwittingly strayed into the Islamic Republic's territorial waters in the Persian Gulf . Officials in both the US and Iran have worked speedily to head off a serious international incident over the loss of the two patrol boats, which has been blamed on a navigational error. The US and its allies are on the cusp of lifting sanctions on Iran following an agreement on the country's nuclear programme in July. Iran's Republic Guard's broadcast a statement on Iranian State Television saying it had freed the the US sailors and explaining they had been released into international waters. Iranian naval authorities had promised the swift release of the sailors on state television, Admiral Ali Fadavi, the naval commander of Ir...

    - Deputy crown prince says crisis will not lead to war - New Saudi leadership seen as more willing to take risks - Saudis see Iranian response to execution as proof of meddling The diplomatic rupture with Iran triggered by the execution of a Shia cleric was probably a side effect of a deci-sion taken by Saudi Arabia for domestic reasons, rather than the outcome of a deliberate ploy to enrage its regional opponent. But whether or not they intended to raise the heat in a tense rivalry that already underpins wars across the Middle East, Saudi Arabia's new rulers have shown no sign of regret. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also defence minister, reassured the world on Thursday the crisis would stop short of an all-out war between the Gulf region's main powers....

    Brent crude resumes sell-off as Iranians says oversupply, rather than a new Middle East war, is the biggest threat to prices. Brent crude has slumped to a fresh 11-year low as the world's record oil supply glut weighs on traders. The price of a barrel of the world's benchmark fell by more than 2pc to $35.66 in early trading on Wednesday, extending a third consecutive day of losses and hitting lows not seen since 2004. The sell-off resumed after escalating tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia - two of the world's biggest rival producers - saw Brent spike briefly in Monday trading. But traders shrugged off the prospect of a new bout of geopolitical risk in the Middle East. West Texas Intermediate - the US benchmark - also declined 1.5pc to $35.44. An Iranian official from ...

    At first, the images didn't look very different from the raft of other ISIS propaganda on the internet, but within minutes, it occurred to me that this was definitely no ISIS propaganda video. The trademark flag-waving masked gunmen I'd expected to see were replaced with clean-shaven, technically adept and highly trained weapons specialists giving expert tuition in how to turn obsolete munitions and ammunition into state of the art weapon systems. Without doubt, the most chilling aspect of watching this training video was the unprecedented levels of technical expertise and ingenuity of those weapons engineers. During my career I have pitted my wits against some of the world's most prolific bomb-makers. I personally began fighting against the IRA's bombmakers in 1999 - duri...

    Futures rose as much as 3.5 percent in New York, extending Thursday’s 1.2 percent advance. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned of repercussions and protesters armed with rocks and firebombs attacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran on Saturday and set parts of the building on fire. Saudi Arabia and Iran, respectively OPEC’s first- and fifth-ranked producers, are on opposite sides of Middle East conflicts from Syria to Yemen. Prices last week capped the biggest two-year loss on record amid speculation a global glut will be prolonged as U.S. crude stockpiles expanded and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries abandoned output limits. “It may be seen by the market as an incremental step in a possible longer-term escalation of problems in the core oil- pr...

    Iran's supreme leader has said Saudi politicians will face "divine vengeance" over the execution of a prominent Shia cleric. Nimr Al-Nimr was put to death in Saudi Arabia along with 46 other prisoners on Saturday. It has threatened to further damage relations between the Sunni-ruled kingdom and its enemy Iran, which is a predominantly Shia nation. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: "The unjustly spilled blood of this oppressed martyr will no doubt soon show its effect and divine vengeance will befall Saudi politicians." US officials have urged the Saudi government and other Middle Eastern leaders to "redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating tensions". Protesters in Iran's capital, Tehran, attacked the Saudi embassy with petrol bombs in the wake of the execut...

    Iraq War veterans may face prosecution for crimes including murder following a probe into allegations of torture and unlawful killing, the head of the unit investigating the claims has said. Mark Warwick said there were lots of significant cases and discussions would be held further down the line over whether they met the war-crimes threshold. UK forces withdrew from Iraq in 2009 although lawyers are continuing to refer cases to the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat), the Government-established criminal investigation into murder, abuse and torture claims linked to the six-year military mission. Mr Warwick, the former police detective in charge of Ihat, told the Independent newspaper: "There are serious allegations that we are investigating across the whole range of Ihat...