(The Daily Star)- Kuwait's election authorities Tuesday barred 47 candidates from contesting parliamentary polls later this month for being convicted in courts or not fulfilling nomination requirements, candidates said. Those barred include former opposition MPs Bader al-Dahum and Safa...

(Marca)- Gareth Bale is unlikely to be the last Real Madrid player to have his contract renewed this year, given that the capital city club is working to finalise new deals for Cristiano Ronaldo, Pepe, Isco and Dani Carvajal.  Los Blancos hope to have the new contracts signed within the...

Iranian lawmakers approved three new ministers on Tuesday, signaling support for changes in the cabinet of pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani seven months before a presidential election. State media reported that Reza Salehi Amiri, Saeed Soltanifar and Fakhredin Ahmadi Danesh-Ashtiani won...

 Italy's deputy public prosecutor arrived in Egypt Tuesday for an update on the investigation into the January abduction, torture, and murder of Italian student Giulio Regeni, officials said. Sergio Colaiocco heads a security and judicial delegation to discuss the latest findings in the...

(The Daily Star)- All sides fighting over the Syrian city of Aleppo may be committing war crimes through indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. Last week insurgents launched an offensive...

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday called for more investment to revive the economy of Tunisia, home country of the Arab Spring, calling it a "strategic priority". "Today, I want to convey a very strong and very clear message to all Europeans -- Tunisia is truly a...

Turkey’s army dispatched tanks to southeastern Sirnak province's Silopi district, a military source said Tuesday. According to the source, who asked to remain anonymous, the tanks were from the Ankara-based 28th Mechanized Infantry Brigade and will travel close to the Iraqi border. The...

Elite Iraqi forces were poised Tuesday for a first push into Mosul, after the prime minister warned jihadists who hold the city they have no choice but to surrender or die. Forces from Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) were fighting IS in Gogjali, a village on the eastern edge of Mosul...

Hundreds of rescuers Tuesday were struggling to find 18 coal miners still trapped a day after a gas explosion killed 15 of their colleagues in western China. Whether the 18 are alive was not known more than 24 hours after the blast ripped through the privately owned Jinshangou mine in the...

Turkish Armed Forces hit 120 Daesh and two PKK/PYD targets in northern Syria as part of Operation Euphrates Shield on Monday, said the army in a written statement on Tuesday. Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield was launched in late August to clear Syria's northern border area of terrorists....

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday a Western failure to rein in violent Islamists in Syria had indefinitely delayed the resumption of peace talks. In remarks broadcast on Russian television, Shoigu said that rebels backed by Western governments had been attacking...

(BBC)- The prime minister of Iraq has urged the Islamic State group to surrender as government troops close in on its last urban stronghold in the country, Mosul. Haider al-Abadi appeared on state TV wearing combat fatigues and said: "They have no choice. Either they surrender or they die."...

(The Guardian)- Eight civilians from one family, three of them children, were killed by a US airstrike on their home a few kilometres outside Mosul, relatives, officials and Kurdish troops fighting in the area say. The attack came after a week of heavy fighting in Fadhiliya village, where...

French riot police swooped on a makeshift migrant camp in northeast Paris on Monday, sparking a brief standoff at a site where numbers have soared since the closure of the Jungle shanty town in the northern port city of Calais. The operation, largely consisting of identity checks on some of...

(The Guardian)- Olivier Giroud hopes to stake a claim for greater involvement at Arsenal by impressing on his first start of the season against Ludogorets Razgrad on Tuesday. The France international is convinced his “turn will come” after a slow start to his campaign. The striker returned...

 Turkey wants the operation on Raqqa, ISIS' main stronghold in Syria, to start after Mosul and Euphrates Shield operations have been completed, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday. "Turkey's stance on the Raqqa operation is clear. It would be better both militarily and...

(Middle East Eye)- Saudi-led raids on rebel-held security buildings and a prison in the west of Yemen killed at least 60 people on Saturday, officials said on Sunday as the death toll from the attacks rose. A provincial official said that dozens of bodies were transported to hospitals in the...

(the Daily Star)-  The UN Security Council on Monday extended the mandate of a panel investigating chemical attacks in Syria for two weeks to allow time to negotiate a one-year renewal of the probe. The council unanimously backed a US-drafted resolution on the short extension as a...

Egypt's state news agency says the country's oil ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding with its Iraqi counterpart to pave the way for Egypt to import oil from Iraq. Oil Minister Tarek el-Mulla was quoted by MENA on Monday as saying that the agreement will "open the doors" for...

 The leader of Iraq's largest Iranian-backed Shiite militia expressed hope on Monday that the battle of Mosul would not be as protracted and devastating as in the one that allied Shiite militias are fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo. "We are afraid that Mosul could be another...