BEIRUT (AP)- Rebels attacked the Syrian defence minister's village on Friday, capturing parts of it after killing at least 18 soldiers and pro-government gunmen, activists said. The assault began with a suicide bombing against an army checkpoint in government-controlled Rahjan,...

Turkey's president on Friday called on Israel to halt its offensive on the Gaza Strip and not to carry out a ground incursion, while the prime minister said there can be no normalizing of Turkish-Israeli ties as long as Israel's actions continue. “I would like to remind Israel...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The video on his phone shows the boy firing a heavy machine gun mounted on a tripod through a hole in a crumbling building, his slender body shaking from the kickback. “We were kind of nervous, not because we are cowards, because it was our first fight and...

BEIRUT/JERUSALEM, July 11 (Reuters) - Rockets were fired at northern Israel from Lebanon on Friday and Israel's army responded with artillery fire, Lebanese and Israeli military authorities said. Southern Lebanon is a stronghold of Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim group that...

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - At least 78 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's Gaza offensive, Palestinian officials said on Thursday as militants in the enclave kept up rocket attacks on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities. As Israeli officials...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday imposed financial sanctions on a Lebanese consumer electronics company, saying it purchased supplies used to develop military drones for the militant Hezbollah movement. Stars Group Holding secretly bought electronics in the...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Spying on allies is a waste of energy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday when asked about two suspected U.S. spy cases that have come to light in the last few days and caused anger in Germany. "From my point of view, spying on allies... is a...

Baghdad, July 10 (IANS) Kurdish ministers in Iraq's capital Baghdad Thursday boycotted the country's cabinet meetings, protesting remarks made earlier by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that accused the Kurdish region of being a "base for terrorism", a Kurdish official said. "We...

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The success of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has emboldened like-minded militants in Lebanon who believe they can emulate it, the interior minister said, confirming the militant Sunni group had now appeared in Beirut for the first time. In an interview...

(Al Jazeera)- Hundreds of bombs shake Gaza, leaving 75 dead and hundreds injured, as Palestinian fighters fire rockets into Israel. At least 75 people, including many children, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in two days of Israeli air raids, as Israel's army...

Lionel Messi's Argentina beat Netherlands 4-2 in a penalty shootout in Sao Paulo to reach the World Cup final for the first time since 1990. Lionel Messi's Argentina beat Netherlands 4-2 in a penalty shootout in Sao Paulo on Wednesday...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday slapped sanctions on a United Arab Emirates company for supplying specialty petroleum products to the Syrian government, and blacklisted two additional Syrian companies. Pangates, based in Sharjah in the UAE, supplied...

Tel Aviv (Al Jazeera)-  The Israeli army carried out 160 airstrikes in Gaza overnight, escalating a bombardment that has killed at least 27 Palestinians and wounded more than 100. Local media reported on Wednesday morning that one of the airstrikes targeted the house of a...

(Reuters) - One night last week, Islamic State militants in an SUV with tinted windows pulled up at the home of a former Iraqi army officer, one of the men they see as an obstacle to their goal of establishing a caliphate from Iraq to the Mediterranean. As the retired...

  Brazil's World Cup dream was smashed into oblivion as majestic Germany ran riot to win an extraordinary semi-final 7-1. Brazil's World Cup dream was smashed into oblivion as majestic Germany ran riot to win an extraordinary...

(Reuters) - Germany has tightened security at its airports after U.S. authorities said they were concerned that al Qaeda operatives in Syria and Yemen were developing bombs that could be smuggled onto planes. Germany's interior ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that...

(Reuters) - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would need to significantly increase its uranium enrichment capacity, highlighting a gap in positions between Tehran and world powers as they hold talks aimed at clinching a nuclear accord. Iran and six major powers...

(Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder urged countries in Europe and elsewhere on Tuesday to do more to keep their own citizens from traveling to Syria to fight, saying the world cannot allow Syria to become a training ground for violent extremists. In a speech in...

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel launched an offensive against Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, bombing some 50 targets, including homes, in a campaign meant to end Palestinian rocket fire into the Jewish state. The Israeli military urged Israelis within a 40-km...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli judge on Sunday released from jail and placed under house arrest a 15-year-old American of Palestinian descent whose apparent beating by Israeli police in East Jerusalem has drawn U.S. concern. Tariq Khdeir from Tampa, Florida, is a cousin of...