Hamas is due to end its decadelong dominance of Gaza by Friday in its biggest step yet toward Palestinian unity, but hopes raised by a reconciliation deal have already given way to doubts. The Palestinian Authority is supposed to take control of the strip by Dec. 1 under a landmark...

A Syrian government delegation to U.N.-backed peace talks in Geneva this week has not yet left Damascus and may announce on Tuesday whether it will participate, the pro-Damascus Syrian newspaper al-Watan said. United Nations Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura said on Monday that the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 12 regime soldiers were killed and wounded when a group of ISIS suicide bombers blew themselves up in a military checkpoint in the desert town of Sukhna east of Homs province, the state news agency SANA said on Monday. The attack came day after 17 troops...

Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari on Monday signaled he would continue to oppose raising U.S. interest rates until inflation shows signs of rising toward the Fed’s 2-percent goal. “Because inflation is low, I am seeing no reason to tap the brakes on the economy,”...

Uber executives are traveling the globe to reassure regulators that the company is changing the way it does business, after a massive data breach became the latest controversy to hurt the ride-service firm’s reputation. Uber Technologies Inc is also continuing talks with Japan’s...

Germany’s Christmas markets opened on Monday at the start of the holiday season, with security staff on hand and concrete barriers to protect shoppers, nearly a year after an Islamist militant killed 12 people by driving a truck into crowds. Some 2,600 markets, known for their sparkling...

The Pentagon said on Monday it was reviewing “adjustments” in arms for the Syrian Kurdish forces that have angered Turkey, but it stopped short of halting weapons transfers, suggesting such decisions would be based on battlefield requirements. Turkey said on Friday U.S. President Donald...

Existing route known as 'Israel Trail' was ranked by National Geographic magazine as one of world's top 20 hikes in 2012 The Israeli government on Sunday agreed to fund the creation of a hiking trail through the occupied West Bank and Golan Heights, Tourism Minister Yariv Levin...

A Russian-backed Congress of Syrian peoples in the Russian city of Sochi has been postponed until February, Russia's RIA news agency reported Monday, citing a diplomatic source. The event, called the Syrian Congress on National Dialogue, was initially to be held in November but some...

A breakthrough in U.N.-backed Syria peace talks in Geneva this week seems hardly more likely than in seven failed earlier rounds as President Bashar al-Assad pushes for total military victory and his opponents stick by their demand he leave power. U.N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 9 civilians have been killed on Monday in renewed airstrikes on the besieged Eastern Ghouta suburbs near the Capital, local activists said. Monday’s strikes targeted Madyara suburb topping the death toll to 160 people, including 30 children, since the...

Syrian regime came under pressure Monday to fill in gaps in its declaration to the world's chemical weapons watchdog amid reports of toxic arms use during its six-year civil war, triggering angry Syrian denials. A fact-finding mission from the Organization for the Prohibition of...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The educational process in Syrian opposition-held eastern Qalamoun region is facing many challenges and difficulties as most schools suffer lack of textbooks provided by the regime. Hazem Bakr, a pseudonym for a faculty member in the tow of al-Rahiba northeastern...

At least 80 people have been killed in just over 24 hours in suspected Russian and Syrian government shelling in the eastern and southern parts of Syria.  The majority of those killed were civilians.  In the eastern province of Deir Az Zor, suspected Russian warplanes...

The Syrian regime's delegation delayed its departure to the peace talks due to resume in Geneva on Tuesday. The pro-Syrian government newspaper al-Watan cited on Monday sources in Geneva saying the Syrian government was not pleased by the statement made last week in a Syrian opposition...

A US drone strike in Yemen killed 10 suspected al-Qaeda members over the weekend, according to local government officials, as raids against the group continued to intensify in southern Yemen. The United States is the only force known to operate armed drones over war-torn Yemen, where...

The death toll from flash flooding which hit Athens earlier this month has risen to 22, the fire department announced on Monday. The remains of the latest victim were found in the early hours of Monday near a depot in the western Athenian municipality of Mandra. Firefighters are...

Lebanon’s prime minister said in an interview Sunday that providing a solution to Hezbollah’s arms is a regional matter and Lebanon “cannot do anything about the issue”. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri told a Saudi magazine that he blamed Iran for using Hezbollah to destabilize...

Abdulkafi Auni, heavily wounded after unknowingly playing football with a bomb, is getting better every day in Turkey’s southern Kilis province. Nearly a week ago, five children were heavily wounded after playing with a bomb they found underneath the soil in Syria’s northeastern Aleppo...

German carmaker BMW (BMWG.DE) will further raise its spending on research and development next year, to 6.5 to 7 percent of sales, its finance chief Nicolas Peter told German daily Handelsblatt. “That is a lot of money, in absolute numbers it’s around 7 billion euros ($8.3 bln), which...