The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces militia said it thwarted an attempted Islamic State group suicide bomb attack early on Wednesday during a last-stand battle for the jihadist group’s final enclave. The SDF has said the battle for Baghouz, a collection of hamlets and farmland near the...

Hong Kong and Kazakhstan on Wednesday joined the growing list of nations barring Boeing 737 MAX from flying over their airspace with immediate effect in the wake of a deadly plane crash in Ethiopia last Sunday. The Civil Aviation Department (CAD) of Hong Kong -- a semi-autonomous Chinese...

Israeli police on Wednesday reopened East Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound after a one-day closure.  The holy site was reopened shortly before the dawn prayers, according to local residents.  Israeli police shut the compound on Tuesday on claims of an arson...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday slammed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a "dictator" and "a joke" in the latest exchange of insults between the two leaders. Turkey on Tuesday denounced Netanyahu's "blatant racism" after he called Israel the nation-state of...

The United Arab Emirates has slammed a European Union decision to add it to a tax haven blacklist despite the Gulf state's efforts to meet EU requirements. The EU on Tuesday added 10 countries to the list, created in 2017 as part of efforts to battle tax evasion by the wealthy. The UAE...

The military fight against the Islamic State group may be nearing an end, but one Yazidi doctor treating survivors is soldiering on against unseen scars the jihadists carved into her community. "They tell me that wherever they go, they have pain. They can never forget what happened," said...

Around 3,000 Islamic State members have surrendered from the group's last holdout in Syria, Kurdish-led forces said Tuesday, as air raids and shelling resumed after a brief lull. A ragged tent encampment in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz is all that remains of a once-sprawling IS...

Venezuelan officials reported blackouts easing in some areas Tuesday, as the chief prosecutor said opposition leader Juan Guaido is being investigated for allegedly sabotaging the national power grid, whose collapse has inflicted misery on millions. The announcement by Tarek William Saab,...

Justice must be achieved for slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, the chair of the EU's Subcommittee on Human Rights wrote in an opinion piece published Tuesday. "Khashoggi’s heinous murder shines a light on how these rights have been brutally trampled on under the Saudi...

The Bashar al-Assad regime forces attacked southern Idlib with white phosphorus bombs, forbidden as weapon, according to the White Helmets civil defense agency. Mustafa Haj Yousuf, head of the White Helmets in Idlib, told Anadolu Agency regime forces deployed in Abu Dali village in Hama...

Two headers and a penalty from the Atlético Madrid terroriser were enough to overcome a first-leg deficit and The Old Lady strolls on in the Champions League.

U.S. and Taliban negotiators wrapped up their longest round of consecutive peace talks Tuesday with progress made but no agreement on when foreign troops might withdraw, multiple sources said. The 16 days of talks, in which the United States also sought assurances that Taliban insurgents...

Around 2,000 people, mostly Daesh (ISIS) fighters, handed themselves over Tuesday to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces closing in on their last holdout in eastern Syria, a spokesman said. SDF spokesperson Adnan Afrin said the latest group to leave the shrinking extremist pocket in...

urkey is discussing with Russia and the United States a potential military offensive in a region of northeast Syria controlled by Kurdish fighters, a Turkish defense official was cited as saying by state media Tuesday. Turkey wants to set up a safe zone in the border area east of the...

Recent visits to both Pakistan and India by Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir were intended to calm tensions between the two nuclear-armed Asian rivals, according to Saudi officials. In a Tuesday statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the Saudi Council...

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) appealed to the international community Tuesday for $207 million so it can continue providing humanitarian aid to refugees in Syria and across the region as the conflict enters its ninth year. The funds will allow IOM to support more than...

Venezuela has given U.S diplomats 72 hours to leave the country, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said Tuesday. “U.S. diplomatic personnel must leave Venezuela in the next 72 hours,” Arreaza said on Twitter. If the U.S. wants to reestablish ties with Venezuela, this can only happen...

Afghan security forces on Tuesday claimed to have killed 31 Taliban militants in different operations a day after the rebels killed and captured almost an entire company of the army. Amid stalled peace process, violence has flare-up evidently across the country with both sides fighting...

Unrest at a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site led Israeli police to shut off access to it on Tuesday after several weeks of tension at the location. Israeli police said they evacuated the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, after a Molotov cocktail damaged a...

The Syrian government Tuesday condemned a statement by an influential US senator that the occupied Golan Heights should remain "forever" under the control of Israel. Lindsey Graham, a Washington ally of President Donald Trump and a strong backer of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,...