Intensified coalition air strikes have killed at least 300 civilians in the Syrian northern city of Raqqa since March, as U.S.-backed forces close in on the stronghold of Islamic State forces, U.N. war crimes investigators said on Wednesday. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group of...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime has enhanced the mounting power of its allied militias with Gazelle helicopters in the Syrian desert, sources said, after reaching the eastern border with Iraq for the first time since 2015. The French helicopters that commonly used for light transport,...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 8 people, including children, were killed in Syrian regime air strikes on a school sheltering displaced people in southern Daraa province, local activists said in an initial death toll. The Wednesday's strikes hit Tafas town in the western countryside of Daraa.  ...

Germany is planning a new law giving authorities the right to look at private messages and fingerprint children as young as 6, the interior minister said on Wednesday after the last government gathering before a national election in September. Ministers from central government and federal...

A sudden change in the color of the Bosphorus Strait that divides the continents of Europe and Asia in Turkey's largest city Istanbul has surprised residents, with scientists putting it down to a surge in a species of plankton across the Black Sea. The sudden transformation of the usually...

Thousands of Syrian refugees are returning home for a visit during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, after Turkey temporarily opened two border crossings with its war-torn neighbor. For some of the younger ones travelling back, the visit means seeing some of their relatives, even siblings,...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)-   U.S.-led coalition air strikes killed a family of five members in Raqqa, backing Kurdish –led forces in the offensive to liberate the city from the Islamic State, local monitor said Wednesday. Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently said the US strikes hit the...

A high level Syrian army delegation held talks in Baghdad with Iraqi counterparts on border security in the first public visit of its kind in years to coordinate the fight against ISIS, the Iraqi defense ministry said on Wednesday. The Syrian army last week reached the Iraqi border in a move...

More than 100 ISIS militants launched a counterattack in Mosul on Wednesday, killing 11 Federal Police and four civilians in clashes that were still underway, Iraqi security officials said. The wide-scale assault underscored the extremist group's resilience in the city despite months of...

( The Guardian )- The cholera outbreak in Yemen is escalating at an alarming rate, with experts warning that a child is now infected with the disease every 35 seconds, according to Save the Children. Grant Pritchard, the charity’s director in Yemen, warned the country is on “the verge of...

Talks between Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party and Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives on supporting the British leader's minority government restarted on Wednesday, a senior Conservative source said. May and DUP leader Arlene Foster held more than an hour of talks on...

Chelsea will open the defense of their Premier League title at home to Burnley when the season kicks off on the weekend of Aug.12-13. The full list of fixtures was released on Wednesday with Antonio Conte's side also slated for a follow-up game at Tottenham Hotspur, who will play all their...

France's government is presenting a bill on cleaning up political ethics after years of corruption scandals - even as investigations haunt members of President Emmanuel Macron's new government. Justice Minister Francois Bayrou is unveiling the draft law on "restoring trust" in politics...

Islamic State militants enslaved Noura Khalaf for three years, dragging her from her small Iraqi village across their territory in Syria. They bought and sold her five times before she was finally freed with her children last week. Khalaf is one of many Yazidi women that Kurdish fighters in...

A massive fire ripped through a 27-storey apartment block in west London before dawn on Wednesday, killing several people and injuring dozens more after residents were left trapped inside. London Fire Brigade chief Dany Cotton said there had been "a number of fatalities" and 30 people had...

Armed U.S. troops are on the ground near Marawi City in the southern Philippines, but are not involved in fighting Islamist militants who have held parts of the city for more than three weeks, a Philippines military spokesman said. "There are some U.S. personnel who are operating equipment...

Human Rights Watch says the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS in Syria and Iraq is endangering civilians by using artillery-delivered white phosphorous. Steve Goose, the arms director for the New-York-based rights group, says in a statement Wednesday that "no matter how white phosphorus" is...

By Ethar Abdul Haq (Zaman Al Wasl) Syrians know by virtue of their engagement with the army, Baath Party and media institutions in their country that Saudi Arabia and the Saudis were always within the al-Assad regime’s target circle. For the head of the regime, Saudi Arabia is the head of...

The World Bank has approved a $500 million credit for Tunisia to help the North African country with budget support, a government official said on Tuesday. The new loan came just after the International Monetary Fund released a $320-million delayed tranche of Tunisia's IMF loan after the...

A group of Syrian doctors based in rebel-held provinces said on Tuesday that aid had dropped markedly over the last two months because donors were losing interest, a factor that will make it harder for them to handle government assaults. Tens of thousands of displaced Syrians have found...