Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Saturday talked to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov over the phone, according to a Turkish diplomatic source. The phone call came ahead of the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, which is set to be held on Jan. 29-30 in the Russian...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Daraa province celebrated the erasure of illiteracy among the 15-45 age group in 2009, but after the Syrian revolution began, the schools on whose walls the first slogans of freedom were written, became a threat to the lives of children and targets for the military...

At least 14 people were killed in an early Saturday shootout at a nightclub in Fortaleza, in northeastern Brazil, officials said. "We can confirm 14 deaths," Andre Costa, security secretary for the state of Ceara - of which Fortaleza is the capital - told a press conference....

A total of 5,783 civilians were killed in Syria, mainly by the Russian forces, over the last two years, according to a report released by Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) on Saturday. The report said 1,596 children and 992 women were among those killed between Sept. 30, 2015...

Plain-clothed Tunisian police Saturday broke up a demonstration by LGBT activists in the center of the capital after it was banned "for their own security", the interior ministry said. A call had been made to protest outside the tourism ministry under the hashtag "#Sayebni" ("Let...

UN’s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will attend a planned summit on the Syrian conflict in Russia’s coastal city of Sochi. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was fully briefed by Mistura, and “has decided to accept the invitation of the Russian Federation to send a...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- ISIS has arrested tens of fighters and civilians who planned to flee the southern suburbs of Damascus to regime-held areas, sources told Zaman al-Wasl on Saturday. The extremist group launched an arrest campaign tracking members who want to flee al-Hajar al-Aswad...

A powerful suicide car bombing at the entrance of a government compound in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday killed at least 40 people and injured some 140 more, according to officials. At around 12.50 p.m. local time (0820GMT), an ambulance packed with explosives was detonated...

Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has been released from detention, family sources said Saturday, more than two months after he was taken into custody in the kingdom's sweeping crackdown on corruption. His release came hours after he told Reuters in an exclusive...

The United States needs to withdraw from northern Syria's Manbij region immediately, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Saturday. President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said Turkish forces would sweep Kurdish fighters from the Syrian border and could push all the way east to...

Eight Iraqis were killed on Saturday, most of them security personnel, in a U.S. air strike that apparently targeted them by mistake, a provincial official said. "Eight people -- a senior intelligence official, five policemen and a woman -- were killed by a U.S. strike on the...

The United States has told Turkey it will not provide any more weapons to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, Turkish state media said on Saturday, as Turkey's offensive by against the U.S.-backed YPG in Syria entered its eighth day. The Turkish incursion in northwest Syria's Afrin...

 North Korea on Saturday condemned the latest U.S. sanctions announced this week aimed at curbing the isolated nation’s development nuclear weapons. The U.S. sanctions are “a manifestation of heinous intention to throw a wet blanket over the inter-Korean exchange and...

Bombardment of the rebel-held eastern Ghouta area of Syria continued early Saturday, a war monitor said, after an insurgent spokesman said late on Friday that Russia had promised to try to impose a cease-fire. No ceasefire was formally announced by Russia or the Syrian government,...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Ten thousand displaced people mostly from rural Homs and Hama have been living in difficult conditions in the refugee camp of al-Tuwaihina in eastern Raqqa province amid severe shortages of heating, food and health care. Displaced Saad al-Homsi, 35, said he had been with...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 30 fighters loyal to Bashar al-Assad were killed when Daesh (ISIS) launched surprise attack on their bases in eastern Deir Ezzor province. The Fifth Corps, a paramilitary group formed by volunteers and no trained men, has mourned 30 personnel, saying...

Aleppo’s largest square was packed with people of all ages: young men performing a folk dance, children playing, others buying ice cream, popcorn, peanuts and salted pumpkin seeds. A giant sign spelled out in colorful English letters, “I love Aleppo.”  The scene in Saadallah...

Trapped in a basement for three days with his family as Turkey shelled their northern Syrian hometown of Jandairis, Merhi Hassan fled just in time to escape bombardment that almost killed his elderly father. The family piled into a rusted pickup truck with whatever they could scavenge...

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, detained in the kingdom’s sweeping crackdown on corruption, said on Saturday that he expected to be cleared of any wrongdoing and be released from custody within days. Prince Alwaleed was speaking in an exclusive...

The Syrian opposition will not attend a peace conference Russia is hosting next week, a spokesman said on Saturday, dismissing the meeting as an attempt by the Syrian government’s close ally to “sideline” the current United Nations peace process. He was speaking at the end of two...