The Trump administration Friday announced sanctions on the son of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in a move to increase pressure on family members of top officials backing the socialist leader and suspected of corruption. The action by the U.S. Treasury Department freezes any U.S....

Amnesty International says Sudanese authorities must guarantee the safety of protesters ahead of planned mass rallies and following a deadly military crackdown that has left more than 100 dead since early June. The rights group released a statement Friday quoting its Secretary General, Kumi...

Lewis Hamilton topped the times for Mercedes ahead of Ferrari?s Sebastian Vettel in Friday's opening free practice at the Austrian Grand Prix. On a hot day at the Spielberg circuit in the Styrian Alps, the defending five time champion set a best lap time in one minute and 4.838 seconds on...

Nearly 100 combatants were killed on Friday in clashes between fighters loyal to Syria's regime, rebels and jihadists in northwestern Syria, a war monitor said. Starting at dawn on Friday morning -- and after bombing by the regime -- fighting in northern Hama province killed 51 government...

Iran said on Friday it had formally lodged a complaint to the UN Security Council against the United States over a drone violating its airspace, Tasnim news agency reported. Iran "filed a complaint to the UN Security Council and the organisation's Secretary General after a US spy drone...

Israel allowed Gaza fuel deliveries to resume and expanded its fishing zone Friday in exchange for calm in the enclave, Israeli and Palestinian officials and a U.N. source said. Israel began blocking deliveries of fuel to the Gaza Strip on Tuesday after new incendiary balloons were launched...

Iraq denounced an "attack" by protesters on the embassy of Bahrain Friday that prompted Manama to recall its ambassador from Baghdad. On Thursday around 200 protesters upset by Manama's hosting of a U.S.-led Middle East peace conference torched Israeli flags outside the Bahrain embassy in...

The United Arab Emirates, a key member of the Arab coalition fighting in Yemen, is scaling back its military presence there as worsening U.S.-Iran tensions threaten security closer to home, four western diplomatic sources said. The UAE has pulled some troops from the southern port of Aden...

A new chemical weapons investigation team has started work on identifying the culprits behind alleged attacks in Syria, the head of the world's toxic arms watchdog said. Member states of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) agreed one year ago to give The...

Its south is a volatile frontline, its northern border an open-air encampment for the displaced and its centre a teeming urban jungle. Syria's jihadist-controlled region of Idlib is home to some three million people who have been variously affected by a surge in regime attacks since April....

The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate governs most aspects of public life in the northwestern anti-regime bastion of Idlib. Raising income from key trade crossings, it rules over the affairs of three million people with a civilian government, a security...

Authorities on Friday reassured anxious Tunisians there is no power vacuum in the North African state, shaken by President Beji Caid Essebsi's hospitalisation on the same day as twin suicide attacks in the capital. Essebsi, 92, was taken to hospital for a "serious illness" on Thursday, even...

OPEC is on red alert over escalating US-Iran tensions that have fuelled strong oil-price gains -- but the cartel and other crude-producing nations are unlikely to end output cuts at a meeting Tuesday, traders say. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, a cartel of 14...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Residents of the eastern enclave of Damascus are still blockaded and under harsh scrutiny since visiting the capital needs a security permit that takes 6 weeks on the waiting-list. Local activists and media unit has revealed the suffering of Eastern Ghouta since the...

President Donald Trump on Friday sardonically asked his Russian counterpart to please not meddle in U.S. elections, appearing to make light of a scandal that led to an investigation of his campaign’s contact with the Kremlin during 2016 elections. A two-year investigation into a Moscow-run...

One Turkish soldier was killed and three others were wounded on Thursday when their observation post in Syria’s Idlib region was attacked by shelling and mortar fire, the Turkish Defense Ministry said. The attacks were launched from territory controlled by Syrian government forces and were...

Iran said Friday’s meeting in Vienna between the remaining signatories of the nuclear deal was the “last chance” to save the accord after the U.S. withdrawal last year and warned Tehran would not accept “artificial” solutions to U.S. sanctions. Iran is threatening to exceed the maximum...

Tunisian Tourism Minister René Trabelsi has sought to reassure tourists after twin suicide bombings targeting security forces struck the country's capital on Thursday, killing a patrol officer and injuring at least eight people. In an interview with The Associated Press, Trabelsi said he...

Hundreds of angry Iraqis broke into the Bahraini embassy compound in Baghdad on Thursday, taking down the country’s flag and replacing it with a Palestinian one to protest Bahrain’s participation in a U.S.-led economic conference in Manama. A group from the crowd was also seen burning the...

The United States on Thursday said it was time to scrap a 17-month effort to form a constitutional committee for Syria and come up with other diplomatic initiatives to bring the country closer to peace. The UN drive to set up a committee tasked with drafting a post-war constitution has been...