Turkey's state-run news agency says a boat carrying migrants to a Greek island has sunk, killing five children and two adults on board. Anadolu Agency says the boat sank off the Turkish resort of Cesme late on Thursday. Nine other people - four Iraqis, three Somalis and two Syrians - were...

The Senate's decisive vote to approve a new package of stiff financial sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea sends the popular bill to President Donald Trump. He will be under pressure to sign it after weeks of intense negotiations. Trump's likelihood of supporting the measure is a...

Al-Qaeda said for the first time it is active in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, announcing Thursday on a linked propaganda network that a militant from an indigenous rebel group would lead a new outfit of fighters opposing Indian rule in the disputed region. The announcement was...

A government official says Afghan security forces have driven Taliban fighters from Taywara District in western Ghor province. Abdul Hai Khateby, provincial governor spokesman, says fighting raged for two days before Afghan soldiers drove them from the district center on Friday. Khateby...

Britain pressed Syria and its ally Russia on Thursday to allow access to humanitarian aid in the war-torn country as a senior U.N. official told the Security Council that aid convoys had not been able to reach 540,000 people in besieged areas during July. "We're not asking for humanitarian...

The captain and crew of a ship chartered by an anti-immigrant group was ordered to leave Cyprus after being detained on suspicion of forging the documents of 20 Sri Lankan nationals on board, a Turkish Cypriot aid group said Thursday. The Defend Europe-chartered ship's captain and his crew...

 Venezuela's government on Thursday issued a ban on protests against a controversial weekend election that has already been the focus of deadly street demonstrations. From Friday, those taking part in rallies, demonstrations, marches or similar events that "could disturb or affect" the...

A senior U.N. humanitarian official says over 200,000 people in Syria have fled their homes in the area around Deash's (ISIS) de facto capital of Raqqa since the start of April. The figure includes more than 30,000 people who were displaced this month alone, as U.S.-backed Syrian fighters...

President Vladimir Putin has signed a law ratifying a deal with the Syrian government allowing Russia to keep its air base in Syria for almost half a century, official documents show. The original deal, signed in Damascus in January, sets out the terms under which Russia can use its Hmeymim...

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has met with representatives of 19 German companies operating in Turkey and reassured them that no German firm is under investigation. This week, Turkey withdrew a request via Interpol for information on a number of German companies with ties to Turkish...

The U.S. Pacific Fleet commander said Thursday he would launch a nuclear strike against China next week if President Donald Trump ordered it, and warned against the military ever shifting its allegiance from its commander in chief. Adm. Scott Swift was responding to a hypothetical question...

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on 13 senior Venezuelan officials as the country's opposition launched a two-day strike on Wednesday, heaping pressure on unpopular President Nicolas Maduro to scrap plans for a controversial new congress. Venezuela's long-time ideological foe the...

The United States, Saudi Arabia, Britain, France and other nations are demanding the U.N. Security Council takes action to ensure aid convoys reach millions of needy Syrians, according to a letter seen by Reuters on Wednesday. In a rebuke to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies...

Moscow and the European Union hit out at the United States on Wednesday after an overwhelming vote by the House of Representatives to impose new sanctions on Russia left President Donald Trump facing a tough call. The package, which targets Russia, Iran and North Korea, "tightens the screws...

Greek authorities say they have arrested a Russian man wanted in the United States on suspicion of masterminding a money laundering operation involving at least $4 billion through bitcoin transactions. Police said Wednesday they arrested the 38-year-old, who has not been officially named,...

The United States will give Lebanon an extra $140 million to help Syrian refugees and the communities hosting them, the State Department said during a U.S. state visit by Lebanon's Prime Minister. Lebanon is hosting at least 1.5 million Syrian refugees who have fled the more than six-year...

A former Marine believed so strongly in the war against the Islamic State group that he secretly traveled to Syria, where he was killed this month while fighting for a Kurdish militia group. David Taylor, a 25-year-old former Florida resident, had kept his plans to join the Kurdish group a...

At least 26 Afghan soldiers have been killed and 13 wounded in a Taliban attack on a military base in southern Kandahar province, the defence ministry said Wednesday, the latest blow to the country's struggling security forces. The militants "attacked an army camp in Karzali area of Khakrez...

 Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have kidnapped 10 members of a geological research team from the University of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria, the state oil company, which contracted the work, said on Wednesday. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has been surveying for more...

Draft new U.S. sanctions against Russia leave no room to improve ties between Moscow and Washington in the near future and take the relationship into uncharted waters, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, the Interfax news agency reported. The U.S. House of Representatives...