Russia has told the United States it regrets Washington's opposition to letting its inspectors take part in an investigation into a chemical weapons attack in Syria earlier this month, the foreign ministry said Friday. It said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone to U.S. Secretary...

 Israel's army said Friday it had targeted positions inside Syria in retaliation for mortar fire that struck the northern part of the occupied Golan Heights. "The Israeli army targeted the source of the fire," an army statement said without giving further details. An army...

Abdul Salam Haj Bakri (Zaman Al Wasl)- Kasab, the once first-ever destination for tourists in Syrian coast  has turned into a deserted area since most of residents fled to Turkey after regime capture in 2014. The Turkish town of Yayladagi is the closest town to Kasab, almost hundreds of...

  (Zaman Al Wasl)- The deputy commander of Ahrar Al-Sham Movement told Zaman al-Wasl that most the freed detainees due to the four-town evacuation deal were employees and civilians and no activists or political detainees had been released. Anas Najib said the first batch of released...

Around 100 migrants have drowned in the Mediterranean according to shipwreck survivors, raising the death toll for the perilous crossing to Italy to over 1,000 victims in 2017, the U.N.'s refugee agency said Friday. "This latest tragedy pushes the number of people dead or missing in the...

 Prominent Kuwaiti opposition leader Mussallam al-Barrak was released from prison Friday after serving a two-year sentence for insulting the emir in public. Barrak, 61, walked out of Kuwait's central prison to a frenzied reception by hundreds of his relatives and supporters who broke...

( New York Times )- The world seems awash in chaos and uncertainty, perhaps more so than at any point since the end of the Cold War. Authoritarian-leaning leaders are on the rise, and liberal democracy itself seems under siege. The post-World War II order is fraying as fighting spills across...

Rebels have reached an agreement with the Syrian government for it to release 500 prisoners who will then cross into rebel territory Friday as part of a swap deal between the warring sides, a rebel official told Reuters. Mohamad Abu Zeid, a spokesman for the Ahrar al-Sham faction, said...

Syrian President Bashar Assad was quoted Friday as saying that the group formerly known as the Nusra Front carried out the bombing of a convoy of evacuees from two Shi'ite villages Saturday that killed 126. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing. Assad's comments were quoted...

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was Friday to meet his Irish and Danish counterparts as the three northern European countries grapple with the likely fallout from Britain's divorce from the EU. Rutte was hosting Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and his Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen...

By Faris Rifai (Zaman Al Wasl)- Nomair al-Basha, a businessman from Yabrud town northwest of Damascus was tortured to death by Syrian Intelligence over providing aid to displaced people in his hometown in the first year of revolution. Al-Basha was born in January 3, 1960 of a Syrian father...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Thousands of civilians in ISIS-held areas in eastern Raqqa province have been under severe siege as the daily clashes between the radical group and U.S-allied forces mount, activists said. Muhab Nasser, said thousands of people are stuck in the town of Tabqa. They are trapped...

 France said its security forces were fully mobilized for a presidential election at the weekend after the killing of a policeman by an Islamist militant threw a dark shadow over the last day of an unpredictable campaign. With the first round of voting in the two-stage election due to...

Israel reopened a border crossing into Egypt's Sinai region Friday after a more than week-long closure due to security threats, but urged its citizens to avoid visiting the peninsula. A statement from the prime minister's office said that based on an assessment at the counter-terrorism...

Turkish soldiers clashed with Kurdish militants in a rural area of southeast Turkey near the Iraqi border Friday morning and two soldiers were killed, the armed forces said. The firefight occurred around 9.30 am (0630 GMT) in the Uludere district of Sirnak province and two soldiers were also...

Tunisia will restrict some imported goods to tackle its widening trade deficit and protect foreign reserves as the local dinar currency slides to historic lows against the euro, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said Friday. "The fall of the dinar reflects this enormous trade deficit but there...

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited Israel Friday for talks expected to focus on Iran, Syria and the two countries' close strategic relations despite recent tensions with Barack Obama's administration. Mattis held talks with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman Friday morning, to be...

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence announced $10 billion in deals between American and Indonesian companies during a visit to Jakarta Friday, as he pushed for greater access to Southeast Asia's top economy. Eleven deals were signed. Energy firm Exxon Mobil, General Electric, and aerospace giant...

The evacuation of Syrian civilians and fighters from four besieged towns was completed on Friday after a 48-hour halt, as part of a mediated swap deal between the warring sides, state media and a rebel official said. Thousands of civilians and pro-government fighters from the Shi'ite towns...

One policeman was killed and another wounded in a shooting incident in central Paris on Thursday night, a police source said. The person who fired on police on the Champs-Elysees, one of the world's most prestigious boulevards, has been killed, the source said. Police authorities called...