The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 12-9 on Thursday to approve President Donald Trump's nominee as ambassador to Israel, outspoken bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman, a staunch supporter of expanded settlements. The vote was largely along party lines, a contrast with strong...

A U.S. military investigation into a January raid against Al-Qaeda in Yemen has concluded that between four and 12 civilians were killed, U.S. Army General Joseph Votel, the head of the U.S. military's Central Command, said on Thursday. "We have made a determination based on our best...

A new U.S. strategy to break a stalemate in Afghanistan will require additional U.S. troops, the head of the U.S. military's Central Command said Thursday. "I do believe it will involve additional forces to ensure that we can make the advise and assist mission more effective," General Joseph...

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency is reporting that the country's Revolutionary Guard has successfully tested a ballistic missile. The Thursday report quotes Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the Guard's airspace division, as saying the missile destroyed target from a distance of 250...

The Dutch foreign minister paid tribute Thursday to activists who risk their lives in Syria to gather evidence of atrocities, saying it should be used to prosecute those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders was speaking at a...

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has rarely appeared in public since a crippling stroke in 2013, is doing "very well", the country's prime minister said Thursday. Speculation has mounted about the veteran president's health since he suffered a bout of bronchitis in February,...

A female member of the Palestinian parliament has been arrested by Israeli forces, Palestinian and Israeli security sources said Thursday. Samira Halayqa, a Hamas member of the largely defunct Palestinian Legislative Council, was arrested by Israeli forces on Wednesday night from her home...

Iraqi forces aim to dislodge ISIS militants from west Mosul within a month, despite gruelling urban combat in densely populated terrain, the head of the elite Counter Terrorism Service told Reuters on Thursday. As Iraqi forces advance deeper into west Mosul, they are facing increasingly...

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday Turkey would strike against U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG militia in Manbij if they advanced into the Syrian city and found them present, according to NTV television. A spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan said the YPG should move out of Manbij to...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday that Germany and Turkey had many ties such as NATO membership and their joint fight against Islamic terrorism but differences had come to the fore recently and everything should be done to resolve that. "There are on the one hand many common...

Barcelona were hailed as living legends Thursday after Neymar helped the Spanish giants pull off a Nou Camp miracle with a dying minutes Champions League win over stunned Paris Saint-Germain. The Brazilian forward played the game of his life as Barcelona made up a 0-4 first leg deficit by...

Dozens of migrants are sheltering on a former hospital ship in a Dutch canal, beneficiaries of a "Bed, Bath, Bread" program for asylum seekers. But their hopes of settlement are dimming with the anti-immigrant right poised for a surge at the ballot box. Polls suggest the far-right ticket...

(The Independent)- Dr Khaled Almilaji, a Brown University graduate student, is stuck in Turkey since January because of President Trump’s travel ban on Syrian citizens entering the country while his pregnant wife is in the US. He now plans on moving to Canada.  The latest form of the...

Pakistani officials say authorities have again closed the two main border crossings with Afghanistan after a temporary, two-day opening that enabled nearly 35,000 people to cross the border. The crossings were initially closed after a string of militant attacks in Pakistan last month killed...

Iraqi forces battled Islamic State militants in their stronghold of Mosul on Wednesday and took control of the last major road leading west from the city, before bomb blasts ripped through a wedding party near Tikrit, killing more than 20 people. The blasts in the village of Hajjaj, reported...

China has granted preliminary approval for 38 trademarks linked to Donald Trump, documents on China's state trademark office show, giving the U.S. President and his family protection were they to develop the "Trump" brand in the market. The trademarks - which in theory cover a wide sweep of...

The United States is open to a dialogue with North Korea on denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, but the onus is on Pyongyang to take "meaningful actions" toward that end and to refrain from provocative acts, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday. State Department spokesman Mark Toner...

ISIS has lost most of the land it once held in Iraq and Syria but hopes to cling to scraps of a self-declared caliphate, a US official said Wednesday. Since summer 2014, when ISIS was at its peak just ahead of the US-led war on the group, the extremists have lost 65 percent of the land...

A mayor who was handily defeated in his bid for a sixth two-year term said Wednesday that he believes his loss was due to his support for a plan to bring refugees from Syria and Iraq to the economically depressed Vermont city. Rutland Mayor Christopher Louras lost Tuesday's four-way race to...

Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui on Wednesday visited Baghdad to discuss regional developments -- especially the fight against terrorism -- with Iraqi officials. Jhinaoui was received upon his arrival by Iraqi President Fuad Masum, according to a statement released by Masum’s...