An Iranian filmmaker imprisoned over his work has been released from prison after serving about five months of his yearlong sentence. Keywan Karimi told The Associated Press on Sunday that he did not receive any of the 223 lashes that was part of his sentence. Karimi says: "I want...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Residents of al-Shadadi town in northeastern Hasaka province demanded Sunday that the former ISIS stronghold be handed over to a police force and disarmed after an Arab youth was killed by gunmen from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), creating a state of tension in the...

An Iraqi commander expects to dislodge ISIS from Mosul in May despite resistance from militants in the densely populated Old City district. The battle should be completed "in a maximum of three weeks", the Iraqi army's chief of staff, Lieutenant General Othman al-Ghanmi, was quoted as saying...

FIFA Council member Sheikh Ahmad Al Fahad Al Sabah of Kuwait is resigning from his soccer roles under pressure from allegations in an American federal court that he bribed Asian officials. Sheikh Ahmad said Sunday in a statement he will withdraw from a May 8 election in Bahrain for the FIFA...

SpaceX on Sunday postponed for 24 hours the launch of a secretive US government payload, known only as NROL-76, due to a "sensor issue" with the rocket, a spokesman said. "Out of an abundance of caution we have decided to scrub today's launch," a SpaceX spokesman said, describing the issue...

At least 15 Iraqi civilians were killed on Sunday when a warplane struck their house in western Mosul, according to an Iraqi rights activist. "The victims were taking refuge inside the house when the plane struck the building," Mohamed Fadel told Anadolu Agency. He said five other people...

( The New Arab )- Five extended comic strips by different artists have been published as part of a project to give the wider public an insight into the severe and unforgiving lives of Syrian refugees living across Lebanon. "Meantime", the name given to the collection by French NGO...

British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Sunday divorce talks with the European Union would be difficult, responding to the tough stance taken by EU leaders over the upcoming Brexit negotiations. EU leaders endorsed stiff divorce terms for Britain on Saturday and warned Britons to have "no...

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has criticized President Hassan Rouhani for saying his detente policy with the West had caused the threat of war to fade as tensions intensify in Tehran before May election. Rouhani, a pragmatist whose election in 2013 led to a diplomatic thaw...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country may take further military action against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria, saying U.S. support for such groups "must come to an end." He said he would discuss the issue at a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump next month....

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 8 workers in Syria’s leaing rescuing group have been killed Sunday in Russian air strikes hit Kafr Zeita town in northwestern Hama province, activists said. The 8 volunteers in the White Helmets were killed when Russian targeted their center with vacuum, cluster and...

Donald Trump thinks Chinese President Xi Jinping is "putting pressure" on North Korea, the US president said in an interview to air Sunday, as tensions mount over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. If North Korea carries out a nuclear test "I would not be happy," Trump told the CBS...

Five suspected members of Yemen's Al-Qaeda branch were killed Sunday in what local authorities said was a US drone strike east of the capital Sanaa. The early morning strike targeted a car in central Marib province that had been transporting arms from Yakla in Baida province, a military...

A US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance is advancing against ISIS in the key town of Tabqa near the extremist bastion of Raqqa in northern Syria, a monitor said Sunday. The Syrian Democratic Forces now control at least 40 percent of the town of Tabqa, and more than half of its heart, the Old City,...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats have opened a seven-point lead over the centre-left Social Democrats five months ahead of the Sept. 24 election, according to a poll on Sunday in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. The Emnid institute survey found the Christian...

( The New Arab )- Zouzfana, a Syrian baby girl, was born on Sunday night along the Algerian-Moroccan border near Mount Tagla in cruel weather conditions, with temperatures nigh on 40 degrees Celsius. The mother went into a sudden labour immediately after she was brought to the border region....

South Korea said Washington had reaffirmed it would shoulder the cost of deploying the THAAD anti-missile system, days after U.S. President Donald Trump said Seoul should pay for the $1-billion system designed to defend against nuclear-armed North Korea. In a telephone call on Sunday,...

Two U.S. special operations forces soldiers killed in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday may have been struck by friendly fire in an operation targeting the emir of Islamic State militants in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Friday. Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis told reporters that...

U.S. President Donald Trump hit the road on Saturday to celebrate his first 100 days in the White House with cheering supporters at a campaign-style rally, touting his initial achievements and lashing out at critics. Trump told a Pennsylvania crowd he was just getting started on meeting his...

  (Zaman Al Wasl)- About 8000 fighters loyal to Bashar al-Assad from coastal Tartus province have been killed in six years of war, a new death toll revealed by the governorate of main militant stronghold in Syria. At least 7986 troops and allied militants killed, 975 missing, 5450...