(Middle East Eye)- Russia has agreed the United States should be involved in talks on Syria's future planned for later this month, Turkey's top diplomat said, as a series of explosions rocked Damascus.  Moscow and Ankara last month brokered a fragile ceasefire for the war-torn country,...

(The Guardian)- In the valleys between Damascus and Lebanon, where whole communities had abandoned their lives to war, a change is taking place. For the first time since the conflict broke out, people are starting to return. But the people settling in are not the same as those who fled...

The United States has not received a formal invitation to Syria peace talks being organized by Russia and Turkey to be held in the Kazakh capital of Astana on Jan. 23, the U.S. State Department said Friday. "To my knowledge we have not received ... a formal invitation to the talks," State...

Israel's UN ambassador on Friday raised concern over what he said were moves at the Security Council to adopt a new measure to build on the Paris Middle East conference. Sweden's Ambassador Olof Skoog, who holds this month's presidency of the Security Council, said however that there were no...

Poland on Friday told US President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration that any improvement in Washington's ties with Moscow cannot come at the cost of harming Warsaw. "You can't criticise anyone for wanting to improve relations with Russia," Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski...

The Donald Trump administration would be committing "sheer folly" if it supports the European Union's breakup as it seems to be doing, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to the EU warned Friday. Anthony Gardner, who is leaving his Brussels post after three years, said Trump's transition team had...

The Kremlin Friday declined to confirm whether it would invite the United States to Syria peace talks later this month after Washington was excluded from brokering a recent truce in the war-torn country. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Turkey and Russia had...

Refugees and migrants are dying in Europe's sudden cold snap, and governments must do more to help them rather than pushing them back from borders and subjecting them to violence and confiscations, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday. "It's about saving lives, not about red...

Prospective U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson better watch his mouth, angry Chinese media said Friday, warning Donald Trump's nominee that his threats to block China in the South China Sea are fighting words. The comments came after the former ExxonMobil CEO told U.S. senators that he...

Turkey has arrested five soldiers in connection with a deadly suicide attack on the military claimed by a Kurdish radical group in the central city of Kayseri, state media said Friday. A bus -- carrying low-ranking privates and non-commissioned officers -- was attacked after leaving the...

(New York Times)- The long convoy from an American armored brigade slid unobtrusively across the German frontier into Poland just before 10 a.m. on Thursday. A dozen residents from the southwestern border town of Olszyna turned up to watch. “Americans coming here is the biggest thing that’s...

Spanish police have arrested two people in Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta accused of connections with Islamic militants, the Interior Ministry said Friday. The two detained had been through a long radicalization process and formed part of a group which was thought to be at an...

China's commodity imports jumped again in December, pushing 2016 shipments of goods from crude to iron ore to record levels and boosting expectations that lower domestic output will help prolong the months-long buying binge. For 2016, shipments of oil, iron ore, unwrought copper, copper...

Iraqi special forces pushed forward to reach a second bridge that links eastern Mosul to the city's west, which is still fully controlled by Islamic State, a military statement said on Friday. Troops further north meanwhile battled to try to seize the strategic Mosul University area, capture...

Prospective U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson better watch his mouth, angry Chinese media said Friday, warning Donald Trump's nominee that his threats to block China in the South China Sea are fighting words. The comments came after the former ExxonMobil CEO told U.S. senators that he...

(The Guardian)- A Hungarian television camerawoman who was filmed tripping and kicking migrants fleeing police has been found guilty of breaching the peace. A judge in Szeged, southern Hungary, said the actions of Petra László triggered “indignation and outrage”, and rejected her defence...

Israel's top court has ordered the Western Wall's ultra-Orthodox administration to explain why women are banned from leading prayers at the holy site, as sought in a petition. In accordance with strict ultra-Orthodox tradition, there are currently separate prayer sections for women and men...

Russia and Turkey have signed an agreement spelling out mechanisms to "coordinate" their air forces in Syria when conducting strikes "on terrorist targets", the Russian defence ministry said Thursday. Delegations from the two countries, which last month brokered a ceasefire in war-torn...

Tunisian police firing tear gas clashed on Thursday with hundreds of youths who tossed rocks and petrol bombs in protests over jobs and a lack of development in a town in the country's south, residents said. Six years after their revolt ousted autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia's...

French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen was seen at Trump Tower on Thursday but a spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump said she was not meeting with him or his team. "No meetings with anyone," transition spokesman Sean Spicer said. "It's a public building." Le Pen,...