Turkish banking sector posted a 4.5 billion Turkish lira ($1.2 billion) net profit in January this year, according to the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) on Friday. In January, the net profit of the sector recorded a 22.7 percent rise year-on-year, compared to 3.7...

A Palestinian youth was martyred -- and another four injured -- in clashes with Israeli troops that erupted in the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to witnesses. The clashes followed a weekly demonstration against the recent U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s...

France on Friday condemned Bashar al-Assad regime and its allies for targeting Syria's besieged Eastern Ghouta region, despite an adoption of UN Security Council resolution late last month, which called for a 30-day cease-fire. "France condemns the continued intensification of the...

Three people were injured Friday by a car-bomb attack on a checkpoint near Libya’s eastern city of Ajdabiya, a stronghold for forces loyal to military commander Khalifa Haftar, according to a local security source. The source, who spoke to Anadolu Agency on condition of anonymity, said...

At least three people were killed on Friday -- and another four injured -- in two separate attacks by unknown perpetrators in Baghdad, according to a local police source. “Unidentified gunmen stormed a house early Friday in Baghdad’s eastern Al-Mashtaal district, killing a doctor and...

Turkey's military and its rebel allies have besieged the northern Syrian town of Afrin and were nearing its town center, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday, in what would mark a major advance in Turkey's military operation. Turkey launched its operation, dubbed "Olive Branch", in...

Turkish military and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) on Friday took two more strategic villages in northwestern Afrin region from Kurdish YPG militia. According to Anadolu Agency correspondents on the ground, Shawarighat al-Jawz and Milkiyah villages in Afrin were cleared of terrorists...

An aid convoy into Syria's eastern Ghouta Friday unloaded all its aid in the opposition-held area's main town of Douma and crossed back into government-held territory, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Syria told Reuters. The convoy consisted of 13 trucks of food supplies...

A months-long ban on international flights into and out of northern Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) will be lifted before the upcoming Nevruz spring festival, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has reportedly said. According to a Friday statement released by the office of...

Syrian Observatory, witness say air strikes hit town of Douma in eastern Ghouta, where aid convoy is bringing supplies

 The State Department spokesperson on Thursday said talks between Turkish and American officials have begun in the U.S. capital and many issues will be discussed including Syria and Turkey's ongoing operation in Afrin. "Today is the first day that the U.S. government and Turkish...

 Israel’s founding fathers, who etched a commitment to encouraging Jewish immigration into the declaration of independence, might be surprised to find that, seven decades later, the state is relying on Christians to fulfill that promise. What was once a strictly Jewish-funded mission is...

BEIJING (AP)- China's government says it "firmly opposes" U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff increase for imported steel and aluminum but has given no indication whether Beijing might impose its own measures in response. A Commerce Ministry statement on Friday accused Trump of...

Election observers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Thursday hailed the conduct of the March 7 presidential, parliamentary and local council polls in Sierra Leone. In a statement, the bloc -- comprising 70 observers led by Liberia’s former interim president,...

President Donald Trump has accepted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's invitation to meet for de-nuclearization talks, South Korea's national security advisor confirmed Thursday. Chung Eui-Yiong told reporters during brief remarks at the White House that Trump has agreed to meet Kim by...

Domestic and international considerations are behind Russian president's remark that Moscow has developed several advanced weapons, including intercontinental underwater drones and nuclear-powered cruise missiles, according to Turkish analysts. Vladimir Putin’s statements made on March...

Access to a debt market teeming with yield-hungry investors is helping some cash-strapped nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council kick reforms down the road. Taking advantage of attractive interest rates, Oman raised $6.5 billion in January, its biggest sale on record, to help bridge deficits....

SINGAPORE (AFP)- US tennis great Billie Jean King, a high-profile advocate of gender equality, has urged more players to take up causes off court and help "make this world a better place". King, the 74-year-old former world No. 1, said famous players have a global platform to speak out...

ICRC in Syria tells Reuters convoy of 13 trucks is waiting outside rebel enclave of eastern Ghouta, will deliver today

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Eastern Ghouta’s rebels denied regime reports of dividing the besieged enclave in two, saying they thwarted the multi-axes attack to advance in Ghouta on Thursday. The regime, determined to wrest the suburbs from the control of rebels after seven years of war, has...