Australia’s football association failed to pass a vote to secure reforms demanded by FIFA at an annual general meeting on Thursday, paving the way for the global body to take over the governance of soccer in the country. Football Federation Australia (FFA) said it had fallen short...

Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev said on Thursday Moscow was already preparing to withdraw its military contingent from Syria, Russian news agencies reported. “Preparations are underway,” RIA news agency quoted Patrushev as saying. The chief of the Russian...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A Syrian air force pilot filmed being burned to death by Islamic State extremists almost three years since the savage murder of the Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh who was slaughtered on camera by ISIS who locked him in a cage before setting him alight, according to...

When Iran declared victory over Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, it hailed the “strong and pivotal” role played by Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement. The praise, contained in a top general’s letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader in November, confirmed Hezbollan’s pre-eminence among Shi‘ite Muslim...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Islamic State has inflicted heavy losses on the elite forces in eastern Deir Ezzor province, killing at least 250 troops and wounding 280 more in three weeks of clashes, sources told Zaman al-Wasl. The Tiger Units, led by notorious general Suhail al-Hassan, Assad’s...

Much has changed since Syria’s warring sides met for the last round of U.N.-brokered talks in Geneva last summer. The Islamic State group has been defeated in all its major strongholds, rebels seeking to topple President Bashar Assad have been significantly weakened and Russia, Iran,...

Childhood malnutrition levels in Syria's Eastern Ghouta region, which has been under government siege since 2013, are at the highest levels recorded in the country since its six-year war began, the UN said on Wednesday. The UN children's agency UNICEF said a November survey in the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Several executives of the French-Swiss cement maker Lafarge were investigated on Wednesday by the SNDJ (judicial customs) on financial links to extremist groups in Syria, including Daesh (ISIS), France Inter Radio said. Some of them have already...

U.S. President Donald Trump urged a boycott of CNN on Wednesday, ramping up his fight against the television network as his administration fights AT&T Inc’s deal to buy CNN’s owner Time Warner Inc. Trump has criticized the proposed deal, which the Justice Department has sued to...

Dozens of mortar bombs landed on the last major rebel stronghold near the Syrian capital Damascus on Wednesday, a war monitor and a witness said on Wednesday, despite a 48 hour truce proposed by Russia to coincide with the start of peace talks in Geneva. After a relatively calm morning,...

Former Egyptian Premier Ahmed Shafiq said on Wednesday the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was preventing him from travelling to his country after he announced his plans to run in Egypt's presidential elections next year. In an exclusive interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera television,...

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations accused the U.S.-led coalition in Syria on Wednesday of trying to partition the country by setting up local governing bodies in areas seized from Daesh (ISIS), Russian news agencies reported. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia was cited as...

Former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq, a former air force pilot and ex-presidential candidate, told Reuters on Wednesday he intended to run in the presidential election early next year, saying he would return to Egypt in the “coming days”. In a video declaration sent to Reuters...

President Donald Trump on Wednesday retweeted three anti-Muslim videos posted by a British far-right group. One of them purports to show a Muslim beating up a Dutch boy on crutches. Another is described as showing an Islamist mob pushing a teenager of a rooftop. The third...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Activists based in the border town of Albu Kamal have documented death of 103 civilians in seven days of heavy bombing even after the regime claims of taking the key town in eastern Deir Ezzor province on November 19. The regime army and its allies said ten days ago...

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday it was making a “stop-gap” purchase of fuel so as to provide clean water to one million people in the Yemeni cities of Hodeidah and Taiz for one month. The fuel shortage in Yemen has become “critical” under the...

Senior Saudi Arabian prince Miteb bin Abdullah, once seen as a leading contender to the throne, has been freed after agreeing to pay over $1 billion to settle corruption allegations against him, a Saudi official said on Wednesday. Miteb, 65, son of the late King Abdullah and former head...

A tribal militia killed at least 43 people in South Sudan's central Jonglei state, local officials said Wednesday, as part of a cycle of tit-for-tat revenge killings that local authorities have so far been powerless to stop. Raiders from the Murle ethnic group killed 20 men, 22 women...

Bahrain's jailed Shiite opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman pleaded not guilty Wednesday to new charges of working with the kingdom's Gulf rival Qatar to overthrow the Sunni minority government. The trial comes amid a bitter diplomatic spat now approaching its seventh month pitting...

EU governments will study a new proposal aimed at overcoming the deep splits over sharing responsibility for asylum-seekers that has soured relations in the bloc since the migrant crisis of 2015, diplomats said Wednesday. Estonia, which holds the rotating presidency of the European...