With Islamic State expelled, Iraqi Christians are trickling back to the ransacked town of Qaraqosh, beset by anxiety for their security and yet hopeful they can live in friendship with Muslims of all persuasions. The town, about 20 km (12 miles) from the battlefront with Islamic State in the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 7 regime troops have been killed by rebels in al-Manshiya neighborhood in southern Daraa city, a military operation room said Friday. Al-Bonyan al-Marsous Operation Room said that the opposition fighters launched attack on regime checkpoints early Friday,...

Smoking-related diseases will claim 200 million lives in China this century and plunge tens of millions into poverty, a report said Friday. China is the world's largest consumer and producer of tobacco, and the industry provides the government with colossal sums. In 2015, it recorded 1.1...

Police in Istanbul have detained five ISIS suspects, some of whom were believed to be planning an attack in Turkey ahead of Sunday's referendum, the state-run Anadolu news agency said Friday. Anadolu said three of the detained people were suspected of planning an attack in the name of ISIS....

 Iran said Friday that new U.S. sanctions imposed against the brother of the high-profile commander of the Revolutionary Guards' foreign operations arm, Qassem Soleimani, were "illegal". The U.S. Treasury added Sohrab Soleimani, along with the Tehran Prisons Organisation which he...

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault Friday dismissed as "lies and propaganda" comments by Syrian President Bashar Assad that a poison gas attack blamed on his government last week in Idlib province was "100 percent fabrication". Syria has already denied the attack and Assad had said...

 French prosecutors have asked the European parliament to lift the immunity of far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen over an inquiry into alleged fake parliamentary jobs, legal sources said Friday. The revelation comes just nine days before France heads to the polls for a...

Much like the vast mosque he has commissioned atop one of Istanbul's highest hills, President Tayyip Erdogan's supporters hope a referendum Sunday will be a crowning achievement in his drive to reshape Turkey. The vote, in which millions of Turks will decide whether to replace their...

North Korea's vice foreign minister Friday blamed President Donald Trump for escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula through his tweets and expansion of military exercises, saying the U.S. was becoming "more vicious and more aggressive" under his leadership than it had been under President...

Buses evacuated thousands of people from two rebel-besieged Shi'ite villages in northwest Syria on Friday and hundreds of rebels left a town near Damascus with their families, under a deal between the government and insurgents. A monitoring group said government forces later entered...

By Abdullah Ghadawi (Zaman Al Wasl)- The spokesman for opposition's High Negotiations Committee said the recent developments followed Khan Sheikhoun gas attack are due to delay Astana talks as the White House follows new policy in Syria pushing for ousting Bashar al-Assad.  Dr. Yahya...

(Zaman Al Wasl TV)- Commanders of the Syrian Air Force never been 'so carefully selected', as the last appointments list shows which includes name of the military pilot who carried out the deadly Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack last week where hundreds of people killed and affected....

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The National Gathering for the Revolutionary Forces and Opposition said Thursday it condemned the foreign intervention in northeastern Hasaka province, affirming its adherence to the native identity of the city. During the press conference Thursday in Gaziantep under caption...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Insulin is running out in many areas in the embattled Eastern suburbs of Damascus, which threatens lives of diabetics and their health. The Hospital of al-Rajaa in Barzeh, northeastern district of Damascus, has appealed to Human Rights organizations and the World Health...

The Pentagon says U.S. forces in Afghanistan dropped the military's largest non-nuclear bomb on an ISIS target in Afghanistan. Pentagon spokesman Adam Stump said it was the first-ever combat use of the bomb, known as the GBU-43, which he said contains 11 tons of explosives. The Air Force...

Russia and Turkey will hold high-level economic talks next week, a Moscow official said on Thursday, hoping to restore normal trade ties amid political tensions over the war in Syria. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich, the government official responsible for agriculture, will...

The U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State on Thursday denied a Syrian army report it had carried out an air strike that had hit poison gas supplies belonging to IS and caused the deaths of hundreds of people. A statement by the Syrian army, circulated by state media, said the alleged...

A misdirected airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition earlier this week killed 18 allied fighters battling ISIS in northern Syria, the U.S. military said Thursday. U.S. Central Command said coalition aircraft were given the wrong coordinates by their partner forces, the predominantly-Kurdish...

 Syrian authorities – "abetted by Russia's continuing efforts to bury the truth" – still possess and use chemical weapons, an American diplomat told the international chemical weapons watchdog on Thursday. The strong comments by Kenneth D. Ward, the American ambassador to the...

( The Guardian )- One afternoon, I managed to sneak away to see the Krak des Chevaliers. This medieval castle used to be a big tourist destination. I’d met some people in Jordan a couple of years ago who told me that it was absolutely stunning.  We were delivering sheep to farmers...