The Trump administration has decided to halt the CIA's covert program to equip and train certain rebel groups fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, two U.S. officials said, a move sought by Assad ally Russia. The U.S. decision, said one of the officials, is part of an...

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Thursday warned Cyprus its moves to explore for energy around the eastern Mediterranean were "untimely and dangerous," adding that Ankara would continue to protect the rights and interests of Turkish Cypriots. Yildirim was speaking at an event in...

The United States and China failed on Wednesday to agree on major new steps to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with China, casting doubt over President Donald Trump's economic and security relations with Beijing. The annual economic dialogue session in Washington ended with canceled news...

For one Iraqi lieutenant, the fight against Daesh (ISIS) in Mosul has been a slow, methodical quest for revenge. For three years, he has hunted for two Daesh militants from his village who he believes killed his father.  Along the way, he has shot to death detained militants after...

A Tunisian court has banned the US film "Wonder Woman" which stars an Israeli actress, more than a month after it had been scheduled to open at cinemas in the Arab state, a legal source said Wednesday. Lebanon has also banned Wonder Woman, on the grounds of a long-standing boycott of Israel....

The United Nations on Wednesday demanded media access to report on the "man-made catastrophe" in Yemen after a Saudi Arabia-led coalition blocked three foreign journalists from traveling on a U.N. aid flight to the Houthi rebel-controlled capital Sanaa. "Steps like this do not help," U.N....

The Pentagon has voiced concerns to Turkey after the NATO ally's state news agency disclosed the locations of 10 US military posts in northern Syria, an official said Wednesday. The Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday published a report detailing the military facilities' whereabouts and in some...

Iran's president said Wednesday that it will stand up to the United States and reciprocate for any new sanctions that Washington imposes on the Islamic republic.Hassan Rouhani's remarks came a day after the Trump administration announced new, non-nuclear sanctions while at the same time warning...

A Moroccan court on Wednesday sentenced 23 Sahrawis to prison terms ranging from two years to life over the killing of 11 members of the Moroccan security forces in contested Western Sahara. The verdict in the case, which has been closely followed by human rights campaigners, was delivered at...

The Trump administration says in a new report that Iran continues to be the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. The report also notes a drop in the number of terrorist attacks between 2015 and 2016. In its annual "Country Reports on Terrorism" released Wednesday, the State Department...

 The battle for Mosul is all but over after nine months of devastating urban warfare between government forces and Islamic State militants, but Iraqi civilians are suffering in a humanitarian crisis of monumental scale. More than one million people fled their homes in Mosul and nearby...

 France wants major powers involved in the Syrian crisis to join a contact group that would make proposals to warring parties, in an effort to break a deadlock in political negotiations, the French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said. Emmanuel Macron's election victory has given...

( The Daily Beast) - In the latest display of Turkish anger at U.S. policy in Syria, the state news agency has divulged the locations of 10 U.S. military bases and outposts in northern Syria where the U.S. is leading an operation to destroy the so-called Islamic State in its self-styled capital...

Britain will probably set up fewer than 10 new regulators after leaving the European Union, a government source said on Wednesday, offering the first assessment of how officials will tackle one of the most business-sensitive Brexit issues. Untangling decades of complex legal ties between...

President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that new U.S. economic sanctions imposed against Iran contravened the country's nuclear accord with world powers and he vowed that Tehran would "resist" them, state television reported. The Trump administration slapped the new sanctions on Iran on...

At least 20 Yemeni civilians were killed and many others were wounded when a coalition air strike hit a village in the south, officials from the armed Houthi movement and the government said on Wednesday. The U.N. said the victims of Tuesday's bombing, which hit al-Atera village in Taiz...

Iraq's prime minister has acknowledged that human rights violations were committed during the battle to retake the city of Mosul from Daesh (ISIS), but says they were "individual acts." Haider al-Abadi told reporters during a press conference Tuesday that those behind such acts were either...

U.S. President Donald Trump will nominate Jon Huntsman, an envoy to China under former Democratic President Barack Obama, as U.S. ambassador to Russia, the White House said on Tuesday. The job, all the more high-profile because of allegations that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential...

France's head of the armed forces Pierre de Villiers has resigned, a statement from his office said, days after a public dispute with President Emmanuel Macron over proposed defense budget cuts. In the statement, de Villiers said he had sought to maintain a French defense force able to do an...

A German newspaper publisher says it has filed an appeal to Turkey's highest court against the incarceration for the past five months of a German-Turkish reporter. Deniz Yucel, who works for the daily Die Welt, was arrested Feb. 14 in Istanbul. Turkish authorities accuse him of disseminating...