Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Ankara had assured Moscow that it did not plan to launch a new military operation in Syria despite earlier comments, the TASS news agency reported. Turkey's state-owned Anadolu agency on Monday cited Turkish Foreign Minister...

Some anti-government protesters trapped inside a Hong Kong university Wednesday tried to flee through the sewers, where one student said she saw snakes, but fireman prevented further escape bids by blocking a metal manhole into the system. Reuters witnesses said fewer than 100 protesters...

A coalition government or new elections? Israeli incumbent prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and rival Benny Gantz traded blame over faltering talks Wednesday ahead of a midnight deadline. Former military general Gantz has until 11:59 pm (2159 GMT) to cut a coalition deal, or the country...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- The upcoming meetings of the Constitutional Committee in Geneva on the 25th, enforced its agenda on the elections of the Chairman of the Negotiating Body, Dr. Nasr Hariri, in accordance with the rules of procedure of the Negotiating Body, which stipulate that the term of...

Days of protests over rising fuel prices and a subsequent government crackdown have killed at least 106 people across Iran, Amnesty International said Tuesday, adding that the real figure may be much higher. Iran’s government has not released a toll of those arrested, injured or killed...

The Israeli military said it struck dozens of Iranian targets in Syria on Wednesday, carrying out a “wide-scale” strike in response to rocket fire on the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights the day before. A Britain-based war monitoring group said the Israeli airstrikes killed 11 people,...

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement released three vessels and 16 people it had seized, South Korea’s foreign ministry and a Houthi military source in Yemen said on Wednesday. The seizure on Sunday was the latest incident at sea around Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading a Western-backed...

A UN independent human rights expert on Tuesday condemned the U.S. policy shift on the settlement issue in the occupied Palestinian territories. “This is not a step towards peace or justice in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” said Michael Lynk, the Special Rapporteur for the situation of...

Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the enemy had been "repelled" in the country where dozens are thought to have died in violent protests sparked by a petrol price hike. Demonstrations broke out in the sanctions-hit Islamic republic on Friday after it was announced the price...

Israeli aircraft struck dozens of Iranian and Syrian targets in Syria on Wednesday, the Israeli military said, in what it described as a retaliatory attack. “In response to the rockets fired by an Iranian force from Syrian territory at Israel last night, IDF fighter jets struck dozens...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 12 pro-Iran militants were killed and 10 more wounded in a land mine explosion near the ancient city of Palmyra in the Syrian desert, local news site reported.  Tadmur (Palmyra) Network said the militants were operating in the Iranian Hajj Kamal militia....

More than 120 journalists are still being held in Turkey’s jails, a global record, and the situation of the media in the country has not improved since the lifting of a two-year state of emergency last year, a global press watchdog said on Tuesday. Turkey declared a state of emergency soon...

Amnesty International said on Tuesday that more than 100 protestors had been killed in 21 cities in Iran during unrest that broke out over a rise in fuel prices last week. Snipers have shot into crowds of protestors from rooftops and, in one case, from a helicopter, Amnesty said. The...

The U.S. aircraft carrier strike group Abraham Lincoln sailed through the vital Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, U.S. officials told Reuters, amid simmering tensions between Iran and the United States. Tensions in the Gulf have risen since attacks on oil tankers this summer, including off the...

King Mohammed VI of Morocco on Tuesday appointed former Interior Minister and ambassador to France Chakib Benmoussa as head of a committee to tackle social inequality and poverty, the Royal Palace said in a statement. The King said in July that the committee was intended to design a “new...

Syrian refugees in Norway have joined a pan-European drive for justice over torture, extra-judicial killings and other abuse, making a landmark request for Norwegian police to investigate atrocities committed during Syria’s long civil war. Five torture survivors filed statements...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 9 troops and Shiite militants were killed in fresh attack by Syrian rebels on the regime’s army bastions in Kabana hilltops in coastal Latakia province, military sources said Tuesday.  The heavy artillery fire has halted the regime advance into Kabana...

German police on Tuesday arrested a 37-year old Syrian man suspected of exchanging bomb building material through an Islamist messenger group with the aim of planning an attack, police and prosecutors said. Police special forces searched the apartment of the suspect in Berlin who had...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Leishmaniasis disease has spread in eastern Deir Ezzor province as tens of cases have been recorded in health centers, local news site said Tuesday. Deir Ezzor 24 said the ‘intracellular protozoan parasite’ spread in the eastern countryside  of  the...

Protesters prevented Lebanon’s parliament from holding its first session in two months on Tuesday, escalating a wave of demonstrations against rulers blamed for steering the country into economic collapse. Banks reopened after a one-week closure, with police stationed at branches and banks...