Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi says the government will increase the monthly capacity of ration cards through which it distributes food subsidies from LE21 ($1.16) per person to LE50 ($2.77) in an attempt to ease the effects of hard-hitting economic reforms. El-Sissi said in a...

Russian hackers targeted 21 U.S. states' election systems in last year's presidential race, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official told Congress on Wednesday. Jeanette Manfra, the department's acting deputy undersecretary of cyber security, would not identify which states had been...

Top diplomats and defense chiefs from the United States and China began a day of talks in Washington on Wednesday looking for ways to press North Korea to give up its nuclear and missile programs. The talks come a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said Chinese efforts to persuade North...

Syrian government forces recaptured territory on Damascus' eastern outskirts from rebels on Wednesday after stepping up attacks in that area, a military media unit run by Hezbollah said. The army took control of a number of blocks in the Jobar district, and another area in Ain Terma, more...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- A Syrian military pilot succeeded to land safely after his helicopter was targeted by the Islamic State rockets in eastern Deir Ezzor province, sources said Wednesday. Colonel Issa Ezzeddin landed in Qamishli airport despite damage in his fighter helicopter. The army...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 14 civilians from the same family have been killed Wednesday in U.S.-led airstrikes on eastern Deir Ezzor province topping the death toll to a total of 400 people in two months of daily bombing, local activists said. The US strikes in support of Kurdish militias...

( The Guardian )- The rush to Raqqa, Islamic State’s capital on the banks of the Euphrates in Syria, marks the beginning of a new and perilous phase in one of the world’s most dangerous battle zones. The capture of the capital of Isis’s self-declared caliphate would be partly symbolic – the end...

U.S.-backed forces are closing in on Islamic State in Raqqa, but local Syrians who have escaped the battlefield are worried about what comes after the fight. Dozens of them have volunteered to help rebuild the town once the militants have been defeated. The aim of organization they have...

Spain said Wednesday that it had arrested three Moroccans, including a presumed member of ISIS whose profile matched those of terrorists implicated in recent attacks in Britain and France. In a statement, the Interior Ministry said police apprehended the main suspect, aged 32, in the Madrid...

Egypt began on Wednesday to deliver a million liters of fuel to Gaza, a Palestinian official said, in an attempt to ease the Palestinian enclave's desperate electricity crisis. The fuel, trucked in through the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza, will be routed to the territory's only power...

Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused Kurdish authorities of delaying thousands of Iraqi civilians fleeing from militant-held areas at checkpoints, in some cases within range of front lines. The New York-based rights group said the delays, some lasting weeks or months, were not only...

Israel would use all its strength from the start in any new war with Hezbollah, the chief of the Israeli air force said on Wednesday, sending a firm warning a decade after their last conflict. At the annual Herzliya security conference near Tel Aviv, Major-General Amir Eshel said qualitative...

Reporting by Mohamed Hussein (Eqtsad)- Harvesting of the wheat crop was nearing completion in the Hasaka province more than a week after its launch, while the recurrence of fire incidents worried farmers whose fields were still waiting for the harvesters to enter. Mr. Ibrahim, a farmer from...

Morocco has decided to allow the Syrian families who were trapped on its border with Algeria to enter the Kingdom, said Royal cabinet in a statement on Tuesday evening, describing the decision as a “human” gesture. The communiqué said on the basis of humanitarian considerations, King Mohammed...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- One person has been killed and 5 people have been wounded on Wednesday in regime's aerial and ground bombardment on the northern countryside of Homs province, local reporter said. Three children were among the wounded as regime warplanes conducted two raids on Kafr Laha...

Four men went on trial in Hungary on Wednesday charged with murdering 71 refugees found suffocated to death in the back of a lorry at the height of Europe's migrant crisis in 2015. The one Afghan and three Bulgarian defendants walked into the court room packed with journalists and onlookers,...

Japan opened a missile defense drill to the public on Wednesday, a move it says will reassure the country it is ready to counter any missile attack by neighboring North Korea. A PAC-3 Patriot battery drove on to the Asaka Self Defense Forces base near Tokyo, deployed its radar antenna and...

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces said they began a push on Wednesday toward the mosque of Mosul, where ISIS declared a self-styled caliphate three years ago. The military said the forces had encircled the militant group's stronghold in the Old City of Mosul, where the mosque is located, on Tuesday....

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria have saved at least 160 antiques from looting acts during the 6-year-old conflict, source told Zaman al-Wasl. Asayish, the domestic security forces, said the artifacts are strictly controlled and protected by Kurd and Arab...

 Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef has been relieved of his post and replaced by Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a royal decree said on Wednesday, in a promotion for King Salman's 31-year-old son that confirms him as next ruler of the kingdom. Prince Mohammed bin Salman...