( AFP )- Influential Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Saturday called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, also calling on Washington and Moscow to stop intervening in the conflict. The young Najaf-based Shiite cleric condemned the killing of 87 people, including 31 children, in a...

( Reuters )- North Korea said on Saturday U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian airfield on Friday were "an unforgivable act of aggression" that showed its decision to develop nuclear weapons was "the right choice a million times over". The response by North Korea's foreign ministry, carried...

( Reuters )- The Turkish Red Crescent does not expect a fresh wave of Syrian refugees to head for Turkey after the chemical attack in the northwestern province of Idlib earlier this week, the humanitarian organization's head said on Saturday. Kerem Kinik also told Reuters that a new refugee...

( AFP )- The U.S. airstrikes this week were aimed at a Syrian air base, but almost certainly got the attention of another adversary — North Korea. Heading into the first talks between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, North Korea was the front-and-center...

( AFP )- Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has cancelled a scheduled visit to Moscow next week, his office announced Saturday, saying "developments in Syria have changed the situation fundamentally". "My priority is now to continue contact with the U.S. and others in the run up to...

( Associated Press )- The future of hundreds of asylum seekers languishing at an Australian-run detention center in Papua New Guinea remained in doubt Saturday, with the leaders of both countries declining to provide details about what will happen to the men if a deal to resettle them in the...

( Reuters )- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday assured Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of continued U.S. support to defeat Islamic State, the Iraqi government said in a statement. The two discussed the situation in Syria and the war on Islamic State in a phone call from Pence...

( Associated Press )- Seven wounded Syrians __ two children, four women and a man __ waited in pain for darkness to fall to cross into enemy territory. Under the faint moonlight, Israeli military medical corps quickly whisked the patients across the hostile frontier into armored ambulances...

( The New Arab )- Israel put the Palestinian organisation, Hamas, on notice over unpaid fuel bills that could lead to roaming power cuts in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has allegedly not paid Israeli energy company, Dor, for the diesel it has already received to operate Gaza's only power plant and...

( AFP )- Three strong earthquakes rocked a coastal region near the Philippine capital within half an hour of each other Saturday, sending people running out of buildings. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the quakes, the strongest of which hit the coast close to...

( AFP )- Two traffic policemen were killed Saturday after their vehicle came under fire in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, investigators said. The local branch of Russia's Investigative Committee said "unidentified people ... fired multiple shots from an automatic weapon" at two...

( Reuters )- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that "terrorists" were applauding his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump for launching a missile strike on an airbase of his Syrian government ally. But he backed calls for an independent inquiry into a suspected chemical weapons attack...

( AFP )- What if Marine Le Pen wins in May? Two weeks before the French cast their first presidential ballots, the specter of victory for the far-right leader who promises to crack down on immigration and outlaw gay marriage sends shivers down many a spine. Pollsters say the anti-EU...

( Anadolu )- A devastated Syrian father whose twin babies were killed in Tuesday’s chemical attack in Idlib has described Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as his only hope. Abdulhamid al-Youssef’s nine-month-old twins -- Aya and Ahmed, a little girl and boy -- have become...

( Reuters )- A truck ploughed into a crowd on a shopping street and crashed into a department store in central Stockholm on Friday, killing four people and wounding 15 in what the prime minister said appeared to be a terrorist attack. Police said they had detained one person in a northern...

( AFP )- Far-right backers of U.S. President Donald Trump rebelled Friday after he ordered a missile strike to punish Syria for a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed 86 people. Bandying the hashtag #Syriahoax, leaders of the "Alt-Right" white nationalist fringe lashed out at the...

( AFP )- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad bears "sole responsibility" for the US strike on a regime airbase, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said in a joint statement on Friday. "After the chemical weapons massacre of April 4 on Khan Sheikhun in...

( AFP )- Sweden said on Friday it had strengthened border controls after an unidentified attacker ploughed a truck through a crowd into a department store in central Stockholm, killing four people and injuring 15. "I have decided to strengthen our border controls," Prime Minister Stefan...

( Anadolu )- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Friday for further steps to be taken over the Syrian regime’s chemical attack on Idlib. Speaking at a rally in Turkey’s southern province of Hatay, Erdogan said it was the time to take “result-oriented steps to protect the people of...

( Reuters )- ISIS militants have killed dozens of civilians attempting to flee Mosul in recent days, hanging several dead bodies from electricity poles as Iraqi forces fight to retake the city, witnesses said. Troops are meeting fierce resistance as militants retreat into the Old City, where...