Israel announced Wednesday it had tightened restrictions on Palestinian fishing off the blockaded Gaza Strip after more balloons fitted with firebombs were floated from the enclave into its territory. The zone it allows Gaza fishermen was reduced to a maximum of 10 nautical miles from 15,...

 (Zaman al-Wasl)- The fate of the Syrian poet Anas al-Abbas is still unknown after 40 days of his abduction in Lebanon’s beirut, according to his friend and journalist Amer Matar. The 37-year-old al-Abbas was kidnapped from a hostel in Ain Mraiseh district in central Beirut...

New satellite photos obtained Tuesday show significant damage to Syrian villages and surrounding farmland as a result of a government offensive on the last rebel stronghold in the country. The images, provided to The Associated Press by the Colorado-based Maxar Technologies, show fires in...

Talks between representatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and self-proclaimed interim leader Juan Guaido are under way in Oslo under Norwegian auspices, sources close to the process told AFP on Tuesday. Norwegian diplomats had said Saturday that the two sides would meet this week...

Apple on Tuesday introduced its first new iPod model in four years, highlighting music and games as it continued to make a priority of serving up digital content. The new-generation iPod touch, essentially an iPhone without the phone calls, was available in more than two dozen countries at...

Prime Minister Theresa May on Tuesday urged whoever succeeds her to get Britain out of the EU quickly but with a deal, as she met the bloc's leaders just days after announcing her resignation. May looked relaxed and smiled for the cameras as she arrived at a Brussels summit, the first one...

Thousands of Sudanese workers began a national strike on Tuesday, leaving air and bus passengers stranded as protesters piled pressure on the military to hand power to a civilian administration. The leaders of an umbrella protest movement remain at loggerheads with army generals who ousted...

Europe's most powerful leaders were on collision course over filling Brussels' top job Tuesday as they gathered for a summit in the wake of elections that shook up traditional alliances. The EU's 28 national leaders will begin haggling and horse-trading over who will succeed Jean...

US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is heading to the Middle East, the White House said Tuesday, signalling a fresh push on a long promised but yet to be delivered peace plan for the region. Kushner is accompanied by Jason Greenblatt, Trump's special representative for...

Leading Palestinian businessmen announced Tuesday they would boycott an economics-focused conference next month in Bahrain that is part of the United States' Middle East peace plan. The Palestinian political leadership had already announced it would not attend the June 25-26 conference, but...

Another wave of regime air strikes on Tuesday struck a jihadist bastion in northwest Syria where more than 40 civilians have been killed in several days of heavy bombardment, a war monitor said. Four children were among 10 people killed on Tuesday in government fire on several towns in the...

A wife of an adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was shot and killed at her home, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported Tuesday. The report said Mitra Najafi – the second wife of Mohammad Ali Najafi, a former reformist mayor of Tehran and a Rouhani confidant – was killed in...

The outlines of a stormy election campaign have begun to take shape in Austria a day after Chancellor Sebastian Kurz became the first post-war leader to be removed by a no-confidence vote. The 32-year-old conservative, who already broke records when he emerged as the world's youngest leader...

Jurgen Klopp said Liverpool were feeling "pure excitement" ahead of the Champions League final against Tottenham but confirmed on Tuesday that Naby Keita will definitely miss out. The German manager, who guided the Reds to last year's final, which they lost to Real Madrid, saw his side...

A Saudi Arabian cargo ship is set to arrive in the south of France on Tuesday to pick up munitions, according to a media report, rekindling criticism of weapons sales, which human rights groups say are being used in the devastating war in Yemen. The shipment was revealed by investigative...

Iran's foreign ministry on Tuesday insisted it did not currently see the need for mediation with the United States, as it played down the chances of a military clash with Washington. Spokesman Abbas Mousavi told a press conference that Tehran "does not feel any tension or (the possibility...

 By Ethar Abdulhaq (Zaman al-Wasl)- An intelligence document obtained by Zaman al-Wasl has shed further light on how the Syrian regime is monitoring religious movements and clergy where all their activities are under scrutiny and control. The intelligence document,...

 Britain’s two main parties set the stage on Monday for a battle over a no-deal Brexit, hoping to win back voters who abandoned them for a new movement led by eurosceptic Nigel Farage and other smaller parties in European elections. After a punishing night when acrimonious divisions...

North Koreans are forced to pay bribes to officials to survive in their isolated country where corruption is “endemic” and repression rife, the U.N. human rights office said on Tuesday in a report that Pyongyang dismissed as politically motivated. The report said officials extorted money...

 French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday reiterated calls for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to end a conflict in Yemen that he described as a “dirty war”.