Syrian peace talks kicked off in Switzerland with little hope that it could override clashing stances between key players, the Syrian regime and the opposition, whose presence on the same table for the first time in almost three years resembles the highlight of the conference, according...

  A Lebanese group loyal to al-Qaeda vowed Tuesday to keep up its attacks against Iran, Hezbollah and Israel, less than a fortnight after the death of its leader, Majid al-Majid. The Saudi-born Majid, which claimed responsibility for a November attack on the Iranian...

  The wife of a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail gave birth on Friday to a boy born from sperm smuggled into Gaza, her family said, the first successful pregnancy of its kind in the embattled coastal enclave. The procedure follows several similar cases last year in...

The negotiations are underway to swap the 14 Maaloula nuns by rebel detainees in Assad’s prisons, well-informed source said to Zaman Alwasl, assuring that the number of nuns   is 14 not 12, in addition to their servant. Bashar al-Assad’s big ally, t ycoon George...