Hamas this week marks 10 years since taking power in Gaza with the Palestinian enclave at risk of conflict and facing electricity blackouts, poverty and Israel’s blockade, analysts and officials say. The situation is likely to be further complicated by the Saudi-led diplomatic row with Qatar,...

LafargeHolcim, the Swiss-French cement company, faces a French judicial inquiry into allegations it helped finance terrorism in Syria, a scandal that has already led to the exit of its chief executive. The prosecutors’ office in Paris confirmed on Tuesday that three judges would start...

It was Efrem Desta's yearning for freedom that made him flee his home country of Eritrea and enter Sudan illegally, hoping that he could later make it to Europe. But he and a group of fellow migrants were abducted by Sudanese Bedouin Rashaida tribesmen after they crossed into east Sudan near...

( The Guardian )- The European commission has launched a legal case against Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic for refusing to take in refugees, intensifying a bitter feud within the bloc about how to deal with migration. The Eurosceptic governments in Poland and Hungary have refused to...

Heavy monsoon rains and landslides have killed at least 134 people in southeast Bangladesh, burying many in their homes as they slept, authorities said Tuesday. Three young children from the same family were among those killed in the disaster, which comes just weeks after a cyclone battered...

 A mass food poisoning at a camp for displaced Iraqi civilians outside Mosul has left hundreds of people requiring urgent treatment, the UN and Iraqi officials said Tuesday. Health ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr had told AFP that there were 752 cases of food poisoning and two deaths, a...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 20 regime troops have been killed by the Islamic State near the ancient city of Palmyra, local reporter said Tuesday. ISIS has stormed the regime bastion in Tallit al-Sawana northwest of Palmyra in the Syrian desert. 13 forces were killed and dozens...

Pentagon chief Jim Mattis on Tuesday warned lawmakers that the Taliban is surging in Afghanistan, and said America is "not winning" in the country. The "Taliban had a good year last year, they are trying to have a good one this year," Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee....

It may not be necessary to expand a ban on laptops and other large electronics in the cabins of many international flights into the United States right now, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Tuesday. Kelly didn't rule out an expansion from 10 current airports, mostly in the Middle...

North Korea has released Otto Warmbier, a U.S. university student who has been held captive there since January 2016, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Tuesday. Warmbier, a University of Virginia student from suburban Cincinnati, is on his way back to the United States, Tillerson...

Rome mayor Virginia Raggi, a prominent member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, has asked the government not to send any more asylum seekers to the capital, saying it is already groaning under the strain. The request was made public on Tuesday, after 5-Star took a drubbing at local...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized a federal appeals court one day after it handed him another legal setback by refusing to revive his U.S. travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority nations, and appeared poised for the nation's top court to weigh in. On Monday, the San...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Syrian regime army has made a sudden advance against Islamic State in the desert area west of Raqqa, a military media unit run by its ally Hezbollah said on Tuesday. Syria's vast deserts have become the main theater of war in recent weeks as rival forces race to...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 11 rebel fighters were killed when Kurdish militias stormed their positions in northern Aleppo province, activists said. Rebel commander told Zaman al-Wasl that rebels had thwarted the suspire attack on Darret Ezza town early Tuesday, retaking checkpoints were...

Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo was on Tuesday accused of evading 14.7 million euros in tax through offshore companies, the latest footballer to fall foul of fiscal authorities in Spain. The 32-year-old -- the world's highest paid athlete according to Forbes magazine -- follows in the...

The United Nations has only limited access to besieged areas of Syria, and humanitarian supplies -- even diapers -- which make it through are often looted by the country’s military, according to a UN coordinator.  Speaking exclusively to Anadolu Agency, Kevin Kennedy said the UN was...

( The Guardian )- At least two people have been killed and hundreds are undergoing treatment after a mass food poisoning at a camp for displaced people near the Iraqi city of Mosul. “There are 752 cases of food poisoning and two death, a woman and a child” following a meal on Monday night,...

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday said Saudi Arabia was supporting militants inside Iran, days after hardline Sunni group ISIS claimed attacks in Tehran. Relations between the two neighbors are at their most tense in years. Last week Riyadh, along with other Arab...

France has launched a judicial inquiry into the Syrian activities of French-Swiss cement and construction giant LafargeHolcim, Paris prosecutors said on Tuesday. Three judges -- one dealing with anti-terrorism matters and two financial judges -- would handle the probe, which was opened on...

Iraqi forces on Tuesday reported progress in the U.S.-backed campaign to dislodge ISIS from Mosul, announcing the capture of a district just north the city's historic center. With the loss of the Zanjili neighborhood, the enclave still held by ISIS in the northern Iraqi city has shrunk to...