Outgoing US President Barack Obama on Friday left the Oval Office for the last time, before welcoming his successor Donald Trump to the White House Obama walked into the Oval Office holding a letter, which he left on the Resolute desk, a 19th century gift from Queen Elizabeth that is made...

Denmark will deploy up to 60 special forces to fight ISIS in Syria, the Danish government said on Friday. NATO member Denmark is part of the U.S.-led operation "Inherent Resolve" against ISIS and already has ground troops operating in Iraq. "Based on a concrete approach from the...

Russia has observed positive signs in the Syria peace process and sees a meeting in the Kazakh capital next week as an important step toward establishing a framework for talks taking place in Geneva, Russian news agencies cited Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying Friday. Lavrov was also...

West African officials say Gambia's defeated President Yahya Jammeh must cede power by noon Friday or he will be dislodged by a regional force that has already moved into the country. Marcel Alain de Souza, chairman of the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS, said early Friday that if Jammeh...

Thailand's junta is setting up a reconciliation panel of generals and experts to find common ground between political factions ahead of elections, the general named to lead the body said Friday. But critics questioned how neutral the panel would be given decades of military involvement in...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that he plans to visit the U.S. as soon as possible to meet with incoming U.S. President Donald Trump. Speaking on the eve of Trump's inauguration, he called the U.S.-Japan alliance an "unchanging principle" for his country's foreign and...

Three people died and 20 more were hurt Friday when a car ploughed into pedestrians in the Australian city of Melbourne, but police said it was not a terror attack. Witnesses described "bodies flying through the air" and people running out of the path of the speeding car in the central...

More than 80 Islamic State militants, some of whom were believed to be plotting attacks in Europe, died in U.S. air strikes on camps outside the group's former North African stronghold of Sirte in Libya, the United States said on Thursday. "These strikes were directed against some of ISIL's...

(The Wall Street Journal)- President Barack Obama entered the Oval Office with a promise not to engage the U.S. in protracted and messy conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan. As he leaves, his adherence to that promise is muddying his foreign-policy legacy because of how he handled another Mideast...

The French government has filed a legal complaint against cement maker Lafarge for buying oil in Syria to power a factory there in violation of sanctions, sources close to the case told AFP Thursday. Lafarge is suspected of sourcing oil locally to operate the Jalabiya cement factory in...

The United States is reviewing an invitation to attend upcoming talks on the Syria conflict in the Kazakh capital, Astana, later this month, a State Department official said Thursday. "We did get an invitation, and it's under review," the official told Reuters after Russian Foreign Minister...

ISIS is using "headhunters" on social media and instant messaging sites to recruit disaffected young people in Germany, some as young as 13 or 14, the head of the country's domestic intelligence agency said on Thursday. Hans-Georg Maassen also drew parallels between the militant Islamist...

(Al-Monitor)- Russia has issued an invitation to the Trump administration to send a representative to Syria peace talks set to get underway in the Kazakh capital of Astana next week. But amid the transition of power in Washington, there is confusion as to whether the United States will...

The Afghan Taliban has sought to reassure the United Arab Emirates that it was not behind an attack in the southern city of Kandahar that killed five UAE diplomats and injured the ambassador, senior Taliban officials said on Thursday. More than a dozen Afghan and foreign officials were...

Saudi Arabia's government should end the kingdom's ban on women driving and reform the male guardianship system, a United Nations independent expert said Thursday. Philip Alston spoke at the end of a 12-day visit during which he met cabinet ministers, people living in poverty, activists,...

Undeterred by a blessing from Pope Francis, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte launched an angry rebuke Thursday of priests and bishops critical of his drugs war, accusing them of homosexuality, corruption and of abusing children. Duterte was furious over concerns by the Catholic Church of...

(Financial Times)- When the Syrian government and rebels meet in Kazakhstan next week, the chances of the warring parties agreeing on a political solution to end their near six-year conflict will be slim. But for Moscow, the main sponsor of the talks, one crucial thing has already been...

Barack Obama has ended his last news conference as President with an optimistic message: "I think we're going to be okay". "This is not just a matter of no-drama Obama," he said. "It is true that behind closed doors I curse more than I do publicly. "And sometimes I get mad and...

A South Korean court on Thursday dismissed an arrest warrant against the head of Samsung Group [SAGR.UL], the country's largest conglomerate, amid a graft scandal that has led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. But the reprieve for Jay Y. Lee, 48, may only be temporary, as the...

Leaders of an ad hoc group of protesters enraged by Republican Donald Trump's election as president of the United States vowed on Wednesday to disrupt his inauguration this week by blocking public access to the event. The DisruptJ20 protest group said it will send groups of demonstrators to...