The US Congress is poised to approve tough new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea this week after reaching a compromise deal, which the White House indicated Sunday it could support. In mid-June, the Senate overwhelmingly passed tough sanctions on Moscow and Tehran, but the text...

Pope Francis has appealed for moderation after recent killings at a Jerusalem holy site. Francis told faithful Sunday in St. Peter's Square that he was following "with trepidation the grave tensions and violence" unleashed at a contested shrine. Last week Arab gunmen, shooting from the...

Eight people were found dead in a tractor-trailer outside a Walmart store in the stifling summer heat in what police called a horrific human trafficking case, and the driver was arrested. Several other people, possibly dozens, were found in the truck, which didn’t have a working air...

Hundreds of British Palestinians staged a protest in front of Israel’s London embassy against the latest restrictions around the Muslims’ third holiest site in Jerusalem on Saturday. The emergency protest called for by the Palestinian Forum in Britain saw protesters from all ages, and...

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Monday to discuss the bloodiest spate of Israeli-Palestinian violence for years, diplomats said on Saturday. Sweden, Egypt and France requested the meeting to "urgently discuss how calls for de-escalation in Jerusalem can be supported,"...

 Venezuelans marched to the Supreme Court in Caracas on Saturday to press their demands that embattled President Nicolas Maduro leave office, as months of sometimes deadly anti-government demonstrations showed no signs of abating. The rally was also meant as a show of support for a...

 A US airstrike has killed 16 policemen in Afghanistan, officials said Saturday, the latest setback to Washington's efforts to bring peace to the war-torn country. The incident took place in Helmand province on Friday as Afghan security forces attempted to clear a village of Taliban...

Embattled US Attorney General Jeff Sessions discussed campaign-related issues with the Russian ambassador to Washington during the presidential race -- something Sessions has insisted he did not do, The Washington Post reported late Friday. The paper quoted current and former administration...

One of America's most senior generals said on Friday he instructed the Kurdish YPG militia to change its "brand" a day or so before it unveiled an alliance with Syrian Arabs in 2015 under the name Syrian Democratic Forces. The recounting by U.S. Army General Raymond Thomas, the head of...

A Spanish court on Friday dropped a criminal complaint brought against members of the Syrian security and intelligence forces by a woman seeking justice for her brother, ruling it lacked jurisdiction over the case. The complaint was raised by a Spaniard who said her brother was arrested,...

Afghan security forces were killed Friday in a U.S. military air strike in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province, the U.S. military said, calling the friendly-fire deaths "unfortunate" and pledging an investigation. "We would like to express our deepest condolences to the families affected...

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer is resigning his position, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. One source said Spicer quit because of objections over the appointment of a new White House communications director, New York financier Anthony Scaramucci. Read...

The Pentagon will not make the remaining military reimbursements to Pakistan for fiscal year 2016 after U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Congress Islamabad had not taken sufficient action against the Haqqani network, a U.S. official said on Friday. "The funds could not be released to...

Despite global sanctions over its weapons programmes, North Korea's economy grew at the fastest pace in 17 years thanks to a jump in exports and increased production in mining and other industries, the South's central bank said Friday. The Bank of Korea (BOK) said the North's gross domestic...

 Germany's finance minister is comparing Turkey with communist East Germany after his government toughened its stance toward Ankara following the jailing of a human rights activist. The government a day earlier told German citizens traveling to Turkey to exercise caution and threatened...

The United States warned leaders in South Sudan on Thursday that they risk losing U.S. support if they don't participate in a high-level forum and stick to deadlines for a cease-fire and political process to end their civil war. U.S. deputy ambassador Michele Sison said the Revitalization...

Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Thursday seeking to increase sanctions on Hezbollah, accusing the powerful Shi'ite Muslim political group of violence in Syria and amassing rockets along Israel's border. The bill, an amendment to existing sanctions on the...

Police fired tear gas and used truncheons to scatter hundreds of protesters in northern Morocco, a Reuters witness said on Thursday, part of the biggest wave of demonstrations in the kingdom since Arab Spring-inspired rallies in 2011. People have taken to the streets in the Rif region around...

Clashes with Russian-backed rebels left six Ukrainian soldiers dead Thursday in the bloodiest surge in fighting along the volatile frontline in recent months. The violence flared several days after a top rebel leader announced a plan to form a new "state" that Kiev warned could put a...

( The Guardian )- German authorities are investigating whether a suspected Islamic State fighter seized by Iraqi forces in the war-torn city of Mosul is a 16-year-old German schoolgirl who disappeared from her parents’ home in Saxony a year ago after apparently being groomed by jihadist groups...