Russians are protesting government plans to hike the retirement age, in a rare challenge to President Vladimir Putin's leadership. The State Duma is voting on the bill Thursday, which would raise the age at which retirees can receive state pensions from 60 to 65 for men, and from 55 to...

The Syrian regime news agency SANA said Thursday there are reports that rebels had agreed a surrender deal in the southwestern province of Qunaitra at the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Reuters could not independently confirm the report. If verified, the move...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Clashes continued between Daesh and US-backed forces in eastern as the radical group battling to keep its control on an oil-rich area between Hasaka and Deir Ezzor provinces, activists said Wednesday. The Syrian Democratic Forces have seized 16 villages in two...

The White House struggled Wednesday to contain the furor over President Donald Trump’s heavily criticized summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, denying Trump ever meant to say that Moscow was no longer targeting the United States. Trump, facing a political uproar over his...

British Prime Minister Theresa May said Wednesday her government had begun negotiations with the European Union based on her hard-won Brexit plan, pressing on with a proposal criticized by both wings of her Conservative Party. After narrowly escaping defeat in Parliament over her plans...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Two members of the US-backed forces were killed on Wednesday by unknown assailants in eastern Deir Ezzor province, local activists said. The attack on the Syrian Democratic Forces took place in the village of al-Zer east of al-Basira town.   A child boy...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- About 1200 Syrian refugees who have been living near the Lebanese border town of Arsal will return to Syria by Thursday, local reporter said. The refugees will return backed to their towns in the western Qalamoun region which overlooking on the Lebanese Bekka Valley....

London's Heathrow Airport said its operations were starting to resume after a fire alarm briefly affected the running of the airfield, including the control tower, on Wednesday. "We apologise for any inconvenience that this has caused," a spokeswoman said. "Emergency services responded...

President Donald Trump says Air Force One is getting a patriotic makeover. Trump says the familiar baby blue color on the presidential aircraft will give way to a red-white-and-blue color scheme. Updated models could be in service during a potential second term. The president made the...

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Greece's expulsion of two Russian diplomats would have consequences, the RIA news agency reported on Wednesday. Athens said last week it had expelled two Russian diplomats for trying to bribe officials and foment demonstrations to thwart a deal to allow...

British authorities looking into inappropriate use of data gathered by political consultant Cambridge Analytica from millions of Facebook users say some of the systems that accessed the material appear to be in Russia or a group of former Soviet states. The Information Commissioner's...

The world's chemical weapons watchdog said on Wednesday it has collected samples to identify the substance believed to have caused the July 8 death of a British woman in Amesbury, England, and sickened her partner. The British government had asked the Hague-based Organization for the...

Russia's defense ministry said on Wednesday Russian and Syrian authorities had set up a refugee center in Syria to help refugees return home from abroad. The defense ministry said in a statement that the Centre for the Reception, Allocation and Accommodation of Refugees will "monitor...

Iran continues to acquire uranium and is close to finishing a factory where it can build more centrifuges to enrich it, the country's nuclear chief said Wednesday, adding also that uranium stockpiles have nearly doubled in the last few years. The comments by Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's...

 The U.S. Justice Department asked a federal court on Wednesday to detain alleged Russian agent Maria Butina pending her trial, saying she poses a serious flight risk, has ties to Russian intelligence and will likely appeal to people in the Russian government to assist her in fleeing....

South Africans along with former U.S. President Barack Obama were marking the centennial of Nelson Mandela's birth on Wednesday with acts of charity in a country still struggling with deep economic inequality 24 years after the end of white minority rule. Obama was meeting with young...

The trial of a U.S. pastor who is accused of aiding terror groups and engaging in espionage has resumed in a town in western Turkey. Andrew Craig Brunson, a 50-year-old evangelical pastor from Black Mountain, North Carolina, was arrested in the aftermath of a 2016 coup attempt for...

An aid group says it won't dock its boat in an Italian port and that instead it's seeking a go-ahead to disembark in Spain with the woman who survived a migrant boat wreck and the dead bodies of another woman and a toddler. Spanish rescue group Proactiva Open Arms has accused Libya's...

A Moscow court Wednesday extended the house arrest of renowned Russian theater and film director Kirill Serebrennikov over a controversial fraud case to Aug. 22, TASS state news agency reported. Serebrennikov is awaiting trial on charges of embezzling 133 million rubles ($2.1 million at...

Alphabet Inc.’s Google is expected to be fined a record 4.3 billion euros ($5.00 billion) by the European Union over its Android system, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Google Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai had a call with EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager late...