US-backed fighters inched forwards in Raqqa's Old City against fierce resistance Wednesday, after penetrating the heart of the Daesh's (ISIS) Syrian bastion, a spokesman and a monitor said. The Syrian Democratic Forces -- an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters -- entered the historical...

Oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Wednesday, ending their longest bull-run in more than five years, as climbing OPEC exports and a stronger dollar turned sentiment more bearish. Benchmark Brent crude futures were down 57 cents, or 1.2 percent, at $49.04 a barrel by 1020 GMT. Prices had...

France's new president, Emmanuel Macron, sought to reassure opponents of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday after provoking concern among rebel groups by saying that he saw no legitimate successor to Assad. Former president Francois Hollande had backed the Syrian opposition,...

The Kremlin said on Wednesday it hoped a planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump this week would help establish an effective working dialogue between them. Such a dialogue was needed between Washington and Moscow to help resolve...

At least 10 people were detained in Barcelona Wednesday as part of a Europe-wide operation against members of Italy's Camorra crime syndicate, a Spanish police spokesman said. "For now there are a dozen detained although this figure may rise," said a spokesman for police in Catalonia where...

( The Guardian )- Years of living under Islamic State has left the children of Mosul with such dangerous levels of psychological damage they are unable to show emotion or play and are haunted by waking nightmares. Experts report that the children are so affected by witnessing extreme...

It's lonely at the top for British Prime Minister Theresa May but she's holding on -- for now. May faced calls to quit from inside and outside her ruling Conservative Party after losing its parliamentary majority in an ill-judged election that she did not need to call, plunging Britain into...

Grinning broadly, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delighted in the global furor created by his nation's first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, vowing Wednesday to never abandon nuclear weapons and to keep sending Washington more "gift packages" of missile and atomic tests....

An Iraqi commander Wednesday said he believes some 300 Daesh (ISIS) fighters remain in the small patch of territory still controlled by the group in Mosul's Old City. Lt. Gen. Sami al-Aridi of Iraq's special forces said that the extremists are confined to a 500 square meter area. Read...

East Libyan forces battled to advance into a final area of Benghazi controlled by their opponents on Tuesday, clearing mines and roadblocks and targeting snipers with cover from tank rounds. Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) says it is close to concluding a three-year...

Samsung Electronics will invest nearly $18 billion in its chip business, the South Korean firm said Tuesday, as it seeks to expand its lead in the global memory chip and smartphone markets. The world’s top maker of smartphones and memory chips will invest 20.4 trillion won ($17.7 billion) by...

A bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators visiting Afghanistan on Tuesday called for a new strategy from the Trump administration to turn the tide against an increasingly strong Taliban insurgency and end the longest war in U.S. history. The delegation led by Senator John McCain was in Kabul...

The United States Tuesday requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council after North Korea declared that it had successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, the U.S. mission said. The meeting is expected to take place on Wednesday around 3 pm (1900 GMT)....

Western-backed forces edged into the final redoubts of the two capitals of Islamic State's self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria on Tuesday, hampered by fierce resistance from the militants and the presence of human shields. Iraqi commanders have predicted final victory in Mosul this...

Turkey appeared to toughen its stance in talks to reunify Cyprus by insisting Tuesday that it won't sign up to any deal involving the withdrawal of all its troops from the ethnically divided Mediterranean island nation. At talks to end Cyprus' 43-year ethnic divide at the Swiss ski resort of...

The international community must work harder on North Korea, British foreign minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday, describing Pyongyang's latest missile test as an example of the grave danger it poses to neighbouring countries. North Korea said it successfully test-launched an...

Egypt's parliament on Tuesday approved President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's decision to extend a nationwide state of emergency for an additional three months, said Speaker of the House of Representatives Ali Abdelaal. "The reasons for which the state of emergency was declared are still in place...

Russia and China have agreed a joint position on North Korea designed to defuse tensions around its missile program and both want Washington to halt deployment of a missile shield in South Korea, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. Moscow and Beijing had agreed on the need for a...

An Israeli drone has crashed inside the Hamas-run Gaza Strip for unknown reasons, Israeli Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday. According to a report on the newspaper’s website, the Israeli army is now investigating the incident, which reportedly occurred on Monday...

Germany expects Russia to seek to influence its general election on Sept. 24, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Tuesday, adding that data stolen in a 2015 hack of the lower house of parliament could surface in the coming weeks. Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of Germany's domestic...