With his administration on the defensive over investigations into alleged Russian meddling in last year's election, U.S. President Donald Trump is no longer tweeting praise for his Kremlin counterpart. Less than five weeks after he took office, the chances of a spring thaw in relations...

Russia is hosting the head of Libya's U.N.-backed government, part of efforts to expand its clout in the fractured country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Thursday with Faez Sarraj, the prime minister of the unity government in Tripoli. Lavrov said that Russia, a "good and old...

Russia Thursday said stumbling U.N.-led Syrian peace talks in Geneva have sparked doubts that the opposition is capable of agreeing a deal with the regime in Damascus. "The results of the first days of the intra-Syrian dialogues, as before, raise questions over the ability of the Syrian...

 A suspected U.S. drone strike killed two men Thursday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, a local government official and a village elder said. The missile struck two men riding a motorcycle in Pakistan's northern Kurram Agency, part of the country's lawless tribal...

Cement maker LafargeHolcim admitted Thursday it had resorted to "unacceptable practices" to continue operations at one of its now-closed factories in Syria. The admission comes after sources close to the case told AFP in January that the French government had filed a legal complaint against...

The United Nations envoy to Syria is working round the clock in a bid to secure a modest victory in the fourth round of talks held in Geneva. Staffan de Mistura is due for another round of meetings Thursday marking a week of bilateral talks with the government delegation and opposition...

In a climactic battle at sea, an Iranian commander orders his forces to open fire on a much larger U.S. fleet, obliterating it with a barrage of rockets, some of which tear American flags from their masts. The scenario unfolds in "Battle of the Persian Gulf II," a new Iranian animated film...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel starts a two-day trip to Egypt and Tunisia Thursday, part of her push to limit migrant flows to Europe through North Africa, especially chaos-torn Libya. Since the 2011 overthrow of Moammer Gadhafi, Libya has lacked a national government, which has made it the...

U.N. Security Council envoys Thursday travel to Africa's Lake Chad region, where famine, the Boko Haram insurgency, climate change and poor governance have collided to create one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The 15 ambassadors from the U.N.'s top decision-making body hope to...

South Korea said on Thursday it was concerned about growing calls in China to put South Korean companies at a disadvantage over Beijing's objections to the planned deployment of the U.S. THAAD anti-missile defense system. Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho June-hyuck told a briefing that the...

President Donald Trump's new immigration order will remove Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens face a temporary U.S. travel ban, American officials say, citing the latest draft in circulation. Trump is expected to sign the executive order in the coming days. Four officials told...

The head of U.S forces fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria said on Wednesday that talks were underway with Turkey on the role it might play in liberating the militant group's de facto capital of Raqqa. "We are engaged in discussions with the Turks on how they might participate in the liberation...

The American government is investigating whether Al-Qaeda's number two has been killed in Syria, an official told AFP Tuesday, amid reports of a US strike in or around Idlib. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that agencies were working to confirm whether Abu Khayr...

Tornadoes touched down in the upper Midwest and northern Arkansas Tuesday, killing at least two people, as a spring-like storm system posed a risk to 45 million people. Compact but strong storms known as supercells raked parts of the central U.S., causing damage from Arkansas to Iowa and...

Bangladesh police fired riot guns and tear gas Wednesday as a protest by bus drivers and truckers turned violent, with several injured in clashes that saw a low-grade bomb hurled at officers. One driver was critically injured after being shot while four officers were taken to hospital after...

The U.S. Trump administration is reviewing its participation in the top United Nations human rights body, with an eye to reform and a balanced agenda that ends the forum's "obsession with Israel", a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. "In order for this Council to have any credibility,...

A Norwegian appeals court will decide Wednesday whether mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik is being treated inhumanely in prison by being kept in isolation after a lower court ruled in his favor. In April 2016, an Oslo district court stunned the survivors and families of the 77 victims of...

Afghan Taliban militants said they attacked police, military and intelligence targets in the Afghan capital of Kabul Wednesday and security officials confirmed ongoing attacks in at least two areas of the city. One attack appeared to have targeted an office of Afghanistan's intelligence...

South Korean and U.S. troops began large-scale joint military exercise on Wednesday conducted annually to test their defense readiness against the threat from North Korea, which routinely characterizes the drills as preparation for war against it. The exercise, called Foal Eagle, comes amid...

President Donald Trump told Congress Tuesday he was open to immigration reform, shifting from his harsh rhetoric on illegal immigration in a speech that offered a more restrained tone than his election campaign and first month in the White House. Trump, in a prime-time address to a country...