( The Wall Street Journal )- Southern Syria, once the quietest corner of the country’s multisided conflict, has unexpectedly become the most volatile flashpoint between America and Iran as the two countries vie for control. The U.S. military has moved mobile artillery-rocket launchers...

 New French President Emmanuel Macron's government reaffirmed on Friday its plan for electoral reform as the scale of the likely parliamentary majority it is set to win grew and predicted voter turnout shrank. Two opinion polls ahead of Sunday's second round of parliamentary elections...

Moscow said on Friday its forces may have killed Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an air strike near the Syrian city of Raqqa last month. There was no initial independent confirmation that Baghdadi had been killed. The U.S.-led military coalition fighting against Islamic State...

The Sun newspaper on Friday listed 65 people who it said were still missing or feared dead in a London tower block fire which police said has left 17 people dead with the death toll expected to rise. When asked on Thursday whether the death toll could exceed 100, London police commander...

Reporting by Shams el-Din Matoun (Eqtsad)- Many of the rich people of the city of Idlib managed to preserve their capital and trade under the conditions prevailing in the province. Their biggest concern remained is how to save money especially since the banks stopped working like other vital...

Russia on Thursday accused the US-led coalition of deploying missiles against Syrian troops at a garrison in the east of the country, where rebels battling the Islamic State group are being trained. In a statement, the defence ministry said the "United States has moved two HIMARS multiple...

An American university student, who was detained for 17 months in North Korea and had fallen into a coma during that time, has a "severe" neurological injury, a hospital official said on Thursday. Otto Warmbier, 22, is stable and receiving treatment at the University of Cincinnati Medical...

The U.S. State Department sanctioned on Thursday three ISIS members, including whom it said was a leading coordinator of the Nov. 2015 Paris attacks and the March 2016 attacks in Brussels. Mohammed Al Binali, who the State Department said left Bahrain in 2014 to join ISIS and has appeared in...

Iraqi forces said they were about to complete the encirclement of ISIS's stronghold in the Old City of Mosul, after taking control of a neighboring district on Thursday. Iraq's military said it had captured Bab Sinjar, north of the historic, densely-populated district where the militants...

The United Nations urged Russia, Iran and Turkey on Thursday to open up areas of Syria to the delivery of humanitarian aid in "de-escalation" zones whose parameters the three are meant to finalize. The three countries brokered a deal in the Kazakh capital, Astana, in May to create four...

Cristiano Ronaldo reacted to accusations that he evaded paying taxes of 14.7 million euros ($16.4 million) by saying that remaining silent was the "best answer". "Sometimes the best answer it's to be quiet," the Real Madrid star forward said on Instagram with a photo of himself in a Portugal...

 A senior constitutional panel in Egypt has concluded that two courts, which ruled to annul an agreement to transfer control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, had acted within their jurisdiction. The panel's report - published on Thursday in Egyptian media - defies Egypt's...

The United Nations said it will not be "engaged in any way or form" in the process surrounding the independence referendum in Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdish region planned for September. The statement by the U.N. special mission to Iraq, or UNAMI, released late Wednesday could cast...

Several thousand Turkish protesters marched in the capital Ankara on Thursday to demonstrate against the 25-year prison sentence handed down to an opposition lawmaker on spying charges. A court on Wednesday sentenced Enis Berberoglu, a lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People's...

On his maiden trip to Kabul, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the need for a peaceful solution to the Afghan conflict while urging Pakistan and Afghanistan to resolve their differences via dialogue. Guterres concluded his one-day trip to the Afghan capital on Thursday. Upon his...

In defiance of a court ruling, Egypt’s Parliament voted Wednesday to ratify a disputed 2016 agreement that would transfer two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. The vote, in which lawmakers in favor were asked to stand up, came shortly after the 596-seat chamber opened a debate on the...

The death toll in a fire disaster that destroyed a 24-storey block of flats in London was expected to rise on Thursday, with many people still missing and firefighters facing hazardous conditions as they searched the charred body. Smoke was still wafting out of the shell of the Grenfell...

Desperately trying to avoid the flames, residents stuck in a burning London apartment tower threw one baby and other small children from high windows to people down on the sidewalk, witnesses said. The inferno lit up the night sky and spewed black smoke from the windows of the 24-story Grenfell...

A UPS employee opened fire at a San Francisco package delivery facility on Wednesday, injuring four and prompting a massive police response in a neighborhood near downtown, officials said. UPS spokesman Steve Gaut told The Associated Press that an employee fired inside the facility before...

The U.S. military has moved a new truck-mounted, long-range rocket launcher from Jordan to a U.S. base in Tanf, Syria near the Iraqi and Jordanian borders, stepping up its presence in the area, two regional intelligence sources said on Wednesday. They said the HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery...