(Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents "massacred" some 80 members of Iraq's Yazidi minority in a village in the country's north, a Yazidi lawmaker and two Kurdish officials said on Friday. "They arrived in vehicles and they started their killing this afternoon," senior...

Twenty-five percent of the new companies started up in Turkey in the first seven months of this year were set up by Syrians or partnered by Syrians, according to data from the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey. According to the data, of the more than...

(Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council is set to try and weaken Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria on Friday by blacklisting six people and threatening sanctions against those who finance , recruit or supply weapons to the insurgents, diplomats said. A...

(Reuters) - Nuri al-Maliki finally bowed to pressure within Iraq and beyond on Thursday and stepped down as prime minister, paving the way for a new coalition that world and regional powers hope can quash a Sunni Islamist insurgency that threatens Baghdad. Maliki ended eight...

All Syria's precursor chemicals that could be used to make deadly sarin gas have been destroyed on board a US Navy ship on the Mediterranean Sea, the world's chemical watchdog said on Wednesday. "All 581 metric tonnes of a precursor chemical for sarin gas that were removed from...

EDGARTOWN Mass. (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama congratulated Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday for his victory as the country's next president, the White House said. Erdogan vowed to pursue a period of reconciliation in Turkey after securing the post...

MALIKIYA, Syria (AP) — In a dusty camp here, Iraqi refugees have new heroes: Syrian Kurdish fighters who battled militants to carve out an escape route for tens of thousands trapped on a mountaintop. While the U.S. and Iraqi militaries struggle to aid the starving members of...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Ridiculed at first, the new power which has seized a third of Iraq and triggered the first American air strikes since the U.S. troop withdrawal in 2011 – has carved itself a powerful and possibly lasting presence in the Middle East. The...

(Reuters) - Russia will increase exports of wheat to Egypt and imports of other agriculture products from it, Russian officials said on Tuesday as the two countries discussed the potential for free trade. The move comes as Russia seeks new sources of supply after it...

(Reuters) - Turkish companies are enjoying a rise in orders from Russia as their government eyes a lucrative long-term opportunity from Moscow's ban on imported Western foods. Mehmet Buyukeksi, head of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM), said he expected a significant...

Hillary Clinton and congressmen alike have called on Obama to arm Syria’s rebels. But the president fumed at lawmakers in a private meeting for suggesting he should’ve done more. President Obama got angry at lawmakers who suggested in a private meeting that he should have armed...

(Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents who seized a Lebanese border town this month planned to turn Lebanon into another Iraq by unleashing sectarian war between Sunnis and Shi'ites that would have endangered the nation's very existence, the army commander said. General Jean...

(Reuters) - Talks to end a month-long war between Israel and Islamist militants in Gaza have made no progress so far, an Israeli official said on Tuesday, as a 72-hour ceasefire in the shattered Palestinian enclave held for a second day. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators...

(Reuters) - NATO will soon be forced to take a decision on a total pullout from Afghanistan unless a deadlock over the country's election ends and a new president signs an agreement allowing foreign forces to stay, the head of the alliance said on Monday. Secretary-General...

(Reuters) - Iraq's president named a new prime minister to end Nuri al-Maliki's eight-year rule on Monday, but the veteran leader refused to go after deploying militias and special forces on the streets, creating a dangerous political showdown in Baghdad. Washington, which...

Robin Williams , the comedian who evolved into the surprisingly nuanced, Academy Award-winning actor , imbuing his performances with wild inventiveness and a kind of manic energy, died on Monday at his home in Tiburon, Calif., north of San Francisco. He was 63. The Marin County...

(Reuters) - Iraq's president named a new prime minister to end Nuri al-Maliki's eight year rule on Monday, but the veteran leader refused to go after deploying militias and special forces on the streets, creating a dangerous political showdown in Baghdad. Washington, which...

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia discussed developments in Syria, Iraq, Gaza and Libya with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, during Sisi's first visit to his regime's powerful ally since winning May elections. Sisi flew to the Red Sea city of Jeddah late on Sunday and held...

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo police arrested 40 men on Monday on suspicion of having fought with Islamist insurgents in Syria and Iraq, a crackdown aimed at deterring recruitment of volunteer fighters, authorities in the small Balkan state said. They said explosives, weapons...

SYDNEY: Senior U.S. officials said the Obama administration had begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in Iraq. The U.S. previously had insisted on only selling arms to the Iraqi government. The...