Agreements to de-escalate the fighting in Syria could simplify the conflict and help to stabilise the country, but such accords must be an interim measure and avoid partition, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura told a news conference on Monday. Speaking at the start of five days of peace talks in...

British Columbia Monday evacuated thousands more residents from the path of wildfires spreading across the Western Canadian province amid expectations the blazes will grow as forecasters predict more hot, dry weather the week. British Columbia's chief fire spokesman Kevin Skrepnek told CBC...

Israel's Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz proposed Monday to annex five settlements into the Jerusalem municipality, while also removing around 100,000 Palestinians from the city's census. Katz said residents of the settlements in the occupied West Bank would be able to vote in Jerusalem...

Egyptian security forces killed six suspected militants sympathetic to Daesh (ISIS) in a shooutout in the southern province of Assiut, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. A ministry statement said security forces were carrying out a raid on the group's apartment in Assiut when a firefight...

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg pledged the alliance's support for Ukraine in a visit to Kiev on Monday, as the ex-Soviet republic faces a bloody insurgency by pro-Russian separatists in its eastern regions. More than 10,000 people have been killed since a Russian-backed rebellion against the...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday it was increasingly important that neighboring Iraq remain a unified country and said a planned Kurdish referendum on independence should not go ahead. Authorities in Kurdish northern Iraq have announced an independence referendum on Sept. 25,...

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi was poised to declare victory over Daesh (ISIS) in Mosul on Monday as only a few dozen militants put up resistance in the city where their leader declared a "caliphate" three years ago. Gunfire and explosions could be heard as the U.S.-led coalition...

A 10-week cholera epidemic has now infected more than 300,000 people in Yemen, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday, a health disaster on top of war, economic collapse and near-famine in the impoverished country. "Disturbing. We're at 300k+ suspected cases with...

A partial ceasefire in southwestern Syria agreed between the United States and Russia should be expanded to all of Syria, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday. The United States, Russia and Jordan announced a ceasefire and "de-escalation agreement" for southwestern Syria on...

France will press ahead with tax cuts promised by new President Emmanuel Macron, a finance ministry source said on Monday, despite warnings from the official state audit body about an 8 billion euro ($9.1 billion) hole in the budget. Macron insisted at a meeting on Sunday that plans to rein...

More than 70 firefighters have brought a fire under control at London's Camden market after a blaze broke out at a building at the popular tourist attraction overnight, firefighters said. The cause of the fire was unknown and there were no immediate reports of any injuries or casualties....

Two senior Republican U.S. senators criticized Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday for saying that Russia may have the "right approach" on Syria and for what they called his lack of focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan. "His statements about Syria really disturb me. No, (Russian...

 Congress is still trying to send President Donald Trump his first unqualified legislative triumph, nearly six months after Republicans grabbed full control of Washington. Now, lawmakers are returning from their July 4 recess with an added objective - averting some full-blown political...

 Prominent Palestinian activist Issa Amro went on trial in an Israeli military court Sunday on accusations of inciting violence, charges rights groups call a bid to silence him. The trial began at the Ofer military court in the occupied West Bank, but was adjourned until Oct. 22 after...

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Sunday praised the courage of the Turkish people in defending democracy from an attempted coup almost exactly a year ago, although he made no mention of the widespread crackdown that has followed. Speaking at the opening ceremony of an oil conference...

Hundreds of thousands of people rallied in Istanbul on Sunday at the culmination of 25-day march that has grown into the biggest protest against a government crackdown following last July's failed military coup. Waving Turkish flags and banners emblazoned with the word "Justice" in red and...

Around 30 Muslim leaders from across Europe gathered Sunday for a rally against terror in Berlin at the site of a deadly truck attack in December, claimed by Daesh. The event, which attracted a few hundred participants, was part of a "March of Muslims Against Terrorism" by imams, who set off...

Egyptian and Palestinian leaders have met amid signs of a rapprochement between Cairo and the Islamic militant Hamas group that could shake up Gaza's political landscape and sideline the Palestinian president. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egypt's Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi met Sunday....

President Donald Trump said Sunday that “it is time to move forward in working constructively with Russia” after his lengthy meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Germany. But he is still avoiding the question of whether he accepts Putin’s denial that Russia was responsible for...

( The Guardian )- One in 40. This is the dreadful death rate facing refugees attempting the perilous crossing from Libya to Italy in overloaded rubber dinghies. It has trebled since late 2015, when European search and rescue efforts in the central Mediterranean were much more concerted and...