An Iranian soldier opened fire on his colleagues, wounding 10 of them at a military air base in south Tehran, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Sunday. The report offered no motive for the attack. State media did not immediately report the shooting, which Mehr said took place in...

 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to increase sanctions on the Gaza Strip, drawing a fresh attack from Hamas. Abbas, the leader of the internationally-recognised Palestinian government based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has been seeking to weaken Hamas by cutting...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A mother and her son were killed on Sunday when the powerful Kurdish militia YPG launched a rocket attack on the northern town of Marea near the Turkish border, medics told Zaman al-Wasl. Six more people, mostly children, were wounded in the attack. In retaliation,...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Eastern Qalamoun region near the capital is due to receive a batch of Syrian refugees coming from the Arsal refugee camp in Lebanon in the coming days. This is in line with the terms of the agreement recently signed between Saraya Ahl al-Sham and the Lebanese Hezbollah...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian refugees in the Kilis 2 camp, adjacent to the Syrian border in the south of Turkey, suffer from serious problems in securing drinking water. The water is not being pumped into the caravans in which Syrian live, forcing several of them to dig near the main...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged North Korea on Sunday to make a "smart decision", after the United Nations imposed tough new sanctions on the isolated regime over its missile and nuclear programmes. "It will help the DPRK to make the right and smart decision," Wang told reporters,...

France has seen 271 jihadi militants return from war zones in Iraq and Syria and all of them are subject to investigation by public prosecutors, the country's interior minister said in a newspaper interview. Some 700 French nationals are estimated to have fought in Islamic State ranks in...

U.S. military officials called off a search and rescue operation on Sunday for three U.S. Marines who were missing after their Osprey aircraft crashed into the sea off the east coast of Australia while trying to land. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps suspended the rescue operation and launched...

Southeast Asian nations were battling Sunday to find a compromise on how to deal with Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, with Cambodia lobbying hard for Beijing, diplomats said. Foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) failed to release a...

( Washington Post) - The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved tough new sanctions Saturday to punish North Korea for its escalating nuclear and missile programs including a ban on coal and other exports worth over $1 billion — a huge bite in its total exports, valued at $3 billion last...

US naval forces have suspended their search for an American sailor who went missing during a joint drill in the South China Sea with Japan on Tuesday. "After more than three days of continuous search efforts, the US Navy suspended operations to locate a Sailor assigned to guided-missile...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 42 regime army troops from the coastal city of Tartus have been killed by ISIS and rebels in the last two weeks, activists told Zaman al-Wasl. The death toll included 2 general brigadiers, 1 captain and 4 lieutenants, mostly were killed in eastern Hama and in...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Riad Seif, Head of the Syrian opposition's National Coalition, has decided to step down, three months since he was elected to carry out a reform process inside the Western-backed group and once the only legitimate representative of the Syrian people, well-informed sources told...

Brazilian President Michel Temer expects Congress to water down his proposal to overhaul pension rules and approve the new legislation by a slim majority this year, he said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday. It was the first time Temer acknowledged there would be further changes...

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has the unenviable task of exploring U.S.-Russian cooperation following Washington's latest sanctions on Russia and Moscow's expulsion of U.S. diplomats. Tillerson and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov meet this weekend at a regional forum in...

 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is being sworn-in for a further term on Saturday, has accused the United States of trying to undermine Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, and urged European countries not to side with Washington. Rouhani, who was decisively re-elected in May...

The US Marine Corps said Saturday that a major search and rescue operation was underway for three missing service members following a "mishap" involving an American military aircraft off the Australian coast. US Marines based in Japan said "search and rescue operations continue for three...

From special forces officer to brigade-hopping rebel, Abu Jaafar has seen Syria's uprising from all angles. But after years of setbacks, culminating in cuts to US support, he feels disillusioned. The 31-year-old spent three years in a Syrian prison and once counted himself among his US...

 Security forces surrounded the entrance to Venezuela's chief prosecutor's office Saturday ahead of a session of the newly installed constitutional assembly that is expected to debate removing the onetime loyalist turned arch government critic. Luisa Ortega denounced what she called a...

Jordan's King Abdullah II is to meet Monday with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on his first visit to Ramallah in five years, a Palestinian official said. Mohammed Shtayyeh, a top official in the Fatah party of Abbas, told AFP Saturday that the two leaders would discuss efforts to revive...