Saudi Arabian corruption inquiry widens

No foreign pilgrims will be able to attend this year's hajj. Saudi Arabia's leading religious council has decided that protecting the population is the most important goal.

The pace of reforms is picking up in the Gulf state. A pattern is emerging that seemingly sidelines religion but consolidates political power with Saudi royals.

It looks like good news for Germany's economy, but some experts are cautioning against too much optimism. German breweries are also struggling to share the excitement.

The human rights group has used a new report to warn that Riyadh is cracking down on dissidents now that it is no longer chairing the G20 group of leading world economies.

Iran's newly-inaugurated ultraconservative President Ebrahim Raisi vows that his government will endeavour to get US sanctions lifted but will not wait for foreign help to rescue the battered economy.

Despite security threats and growing local resentment, China continues to pump billions of dollars into Pakistan and invest in a wide range of sectors.

Saudi Arabia will begin receiving requests for umrah pilgrimage from abroad for vaccinated worshipers starting August 9. The move comes 18 months after a border closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

For more than six decades, the cocoa that Richard Ambassa Mbassiga harvested from his plantation in central Cameroon faithfully paid for everything his family needed. Irregular rainfall and prolonged dry seasons have since sucked the moisture from the soil, killed cocoa trees, and cut the yield from his farm.

A growing number of entrepreneurs in Cameroon are using the label 'Made in Cameroon' for nationally-made products to encourage consumers to buy local and boost the import-dependent economy.

Once allies, Saudi Arabia and the Taliban have been divided by war, betrayal, and 9/11. As Afghanistan changes and Middle East relations shift, the two won't rekindle ties, but another nation is looking closely at Kabul.

In the mountains and jungles of southwestern Colombia, rural workers toil doggedly in the coca fields despite the dangers posed by guerrillas and drug traffickers -- and despite the government's anti-drug campaign.

More than 90 percent of fishers and seafood processors from the world's deepest lake Tanganyika, lack refrigerators for storing fish stocks. With the FISH4ACP project, the UN food agency FAO, the EU, and the German government want to help unlock the economy of fishing communities in Tanzania and other countries.