German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives have extended their lead over the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) to 12 percentage points, a poll showed Wednesday, almost four months before a federal election. The Forsa poll for the weekly magazine Stern and broadcaster RTL put Merkel's...

China has installed rocket launchers on a disputed reef in the South China Sea to ward off Vietnamese military combat divers, according to a state-run newspaper, offering new details on China's ongoing military build-up. China has said military construction on the islands it controls in the...

 French President Emmanuel Macron will meet EU Council President Donald Tusk in Paris Wednesday, the new leader's office said. The two will have lunch at the Elysee Palace before Macron is expected to announce his cabinet appointments. Tusk was one of the first prominent European...

( The Guardian )- The Assad regime in Syria is not only responsible for the worst state-orchestrated mass killings so far this century, it now appears to be trying to cover up at least some of its tracks in the belief that this will one day help it evade accountability when the war is over. It...

( The New Arab )- The United States has reiterated that the al-Qaeda-linked Syrian rebel alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham [HTS] is a terrorist group after media reports emerged, claiming the extremists had evaded the classification. The US embassy in Syria confirmed on its official Twitter feed on...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday his country would not accept Syrian Kurdish fighters in the region but stopped short of directly criticizing a U.S. decision to arm them. At a White House meeting, Trump lauded Erdogan as an important ally in...

U.S. President Donald Trump asked then-FBI Director James Comey to end the agency's investigation into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia, according to a source who has seen a memo written by Comey. The explosive new development on Tuesday...

President Donald Trump came under pressure on Tuesday from U.S. lawmakers, including his fellow Republicans, to explain why he shared highly sensitive intelligence information with senior Russian officials at a meeting in the Oval Office last week. U.S. officials said Trump discussed...

The U.S. Treasury said it imposed sanctions on Tuesday against five people and five entities accused of providing support to Syria's government or linked to those previously sanctioned over the Syrian government's violence against its citizens. Among those put on the Treasury sanctions black...

( The Wall Street Journal )- The U.S. military is preparing to provide Kurdish forces in Syria with antitank weapons in their fight against Islamic State, U.S. officials said Monday, a move that would allow them to target armored Islamic State trucks used in suicide bombings but could also give...

Canada introduced a ban Tuesday against bumping passengers from commercial flights following a public outcry over a passenger being dragged off a plane in the United States, and other incidents. The passenger bill of rights is part of a package of transportation law amendments that also...

Investigators from the global chemical weapons watchdog found that two Syrian women were exposed to sulfur mustard in an apparent attack in Aleppo province last September, a report to the United Nations Security Council said. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)...

President Donald Trump was set to hold talks on Tuesday with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan amid tensions over the U.S. decision to arm Kurdish fighters in Syria that angered Ankara, a crucial partner in the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State forces. The meeting between Trump and...

Syria's opposition pledged not to walk away from a new round of peace talks in Geneva on Tuesday despite rebel defeats in Damascus and US charges of regime atrocities at an infamous prison. The sixth UN-backed round of talks got under way after Syria's government secured the evacuation of...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- A woman killed and 8 more people wounded in renewed aerila bombing on northern countryside of Homs province despite a regional deal to de-escalate conflict in Syria last week, local reporter said Tuesday. The regime arm struck  the  town of Kafrlaha with...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- The tenth batch of Waer neighborhood’s evacuees left the last rebel stronghold in Homs city on Tuesday, heading northern Idlib province, local reporter said. The 60 buses were loaded with 2613 people, including 400 rebel fighters, resuming an evacuation expected...

The top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East has told colleagues that he has decided to retire, three U.S. officials said on Tuesday, the latest senior U.S. diplomat to leave the Trump administration. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones has extensive...

Iran's reformist first vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, on Tuesday pulled out of this week's presidential election and endorsed the incumbent, Hassan Rouhani, ISNA news agency reported. "I will vote for Mr Rouhani in the presidential election," Jahangiri said as he announced he was...

( Al-Monitor )- Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives in Washington today to hold what promises to be a bumpy meeting with his American counterpart Donald Trump. The pair are expected to meet at the White House May 16 and much of the discussion will likely focus on a controversial US...

A new round of Syria peace talks opened Tuesday in Geneva as the Damascus regime fiercely denied it used a prison crematorium to hide evidence of thousands of murdered detainees. Five previous rounds of UN-backed negotiations have failed to yield a political solution to the raging six-year...