US-backed fighters inched forwards in Raqqa's Old City against fierce resistance Wednesday, after penetrating the heart of the Daesh's (ISIS) Syrian bastion, a spokesman and a monitor said. The Syrian Democratic Forces -- an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters -- entered the historical...

Oil prices fell more than 1 percent on Wednesday, ending their longest bull-run in more than five years, as climbing OPEC exports and a stronger dollar turned sentiment more bearish. Benchmark Brent crude futures were down 57 cents, or 1.2 percent, at $49.04 a barrel by 1020 GMT. Prices had...

France's new president, Emmanuel Macron, sought to reassure opponents of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday after provoking concern among rebel groups by saying that he saw no legitimate successor to Assad. Former president Francois Hollande had backed the Syrian opposition,...

(Zaman Al Wasl) The Electronic Army of the Syrian Revolution hackered Tele Liban’s, the Lebanese state television channel, website in response to the massacre the Lebanese Army committed in al-Nour refugee camp in the town of Arsal on the Lebanese-Syrian border. Speaking to Zaman...

(Zaman al-Wasl) According to a source close to the municipality of Arsal, the Lebanese Army asked Basil al-Hujairi, the mayor, on Tuesday to receive the bodies of seven Syrian detainees who died under torture after being arrested by the Lebanese al-Majoqol Regiment on Friday June 30, 2017...

By Faris Rifai (Zaman Al Wasl)- Russian media outlets and officials hastened to defend the al-Assad regime after it recently bombed the city of Zamalka and the town of Ein Tarma, in Damascus suburbs, with chlorine and poisonous substances. In their defense of al-Assad, Russian media and...

The Kremlin said on Wednesday it hoped a planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump this week would help establish an effective working dialogue between them. Such a dialogue was needed between Washington and Moscow to help resolve...

A fifth round of peace talks aimed at ending the Syria conflict entered their second day on Wednesday in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana. "Negotiations have begun. Currently, there are bilateral meetings between the negotiators," Kazakhstan Foreign Ministry spokesman Anuar Zhainakov was quoted...

At least 10 people were detained in Barcelona Wednesday as part of a Europe-wide operation against members of Italy's Camorra crime syndicate, a Spanish police spokesman said. "For now there are a dozen detained although this figure may rise," said a spokesman for police in Catalonia where...

( The Guardian )- Years of living under Islamic State has left the children of Mosul with such dangerous levels of psychological damage they are unable to show emotion or play and are haunted by waking nightmares. Experts report that the children are so affected by witnessing extreme...

It's lonely at the top for British Prime Minister Theresa May but she's holding on -- for now. May faced calls to quit from inside and outside her ruling Conservative Party after losing its parliamentary majority in an ill-judged election that she did not need to call, plunging Britain into...

Grinning broadly, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un delighted in the global furor created by his nation's first launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile, vowing Wednesday to never abandon nuclear weapons and to keep sending Washington more "gift packages" of missile and atomic tests....

An Iraqi commander Wednesday said he believes some 300 Daesh (ISIS) fighters remain in the small patch of territory still controlled by the group in Mosul's Old City. Lt. Gen. Sami al-Aridi of Iraq's special forces said that the extremists are confined to a 500 square meter area. Read...

East Libyan forces battled to advance into a final area of Benghazi controlled by their opponents on Tuesday, clearing mines and roadblocks and targeting snipers with cover from tank rounds. Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) says it is close to concluding a three-year...

Samsung Electronics will invest nearly $18 billion in its chip business, the South Korean firm said Tuesday, as it seeks to expand its lead in the global memory chip and smartphone markets. The world’s top maker of smartphones and memory chips will invest 20.4 trillion won ($17.7 billion) by...

A bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators visiting Afghanistan on Tuesday called for a new strategy from the Trump administration to turn the tide against an increasingly strong Taliban insurgency and end the longest war in U.S. history. The delegation led by Senator John McCain was in Kabul...

The United States Tuesday requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council after North Korea declared that it had successfully tested its first intercontinental ballistic missile, the U.S. mission said. The meeting is expected to take place on Wednesday around 3 pm (1900 GMT)....

 Lebanon's army said on Tuesday that four Syrian men it had arrested after a raid on a refugee camp on Friday had died while in detention from chronic illnesses. It said in a statement posted on its website that the four were already unwell but that after a routine medical inspection upon...

Western-backed forces edged into the final redoubts of the two capitals of Islamic State's self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria on Tuesday, hampered by fierce resistance from the militants and the presence of human shields. Iraqi commanders have predicted final victory in Mosul this...

Turkey appeared to toughen its stance in talks to reunify Cyprus by insisting Tuesday that it won't sign up to any deal involving the withdrawal of all its troops from the ethnically divided Mediterranean island nation. At talks to end Cyprus' 43-year ethnic divide at the Swiss ski resort of...