( Reuters )- U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday assured Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of continued U.S. support to defeat Islamic State, the Iraqi government said in a statement. The two discussed the situation in Syria and the war on Islamic State in a phone call from Pence...

( Associated Press )- Seven wounded Syrians __ two children, four women and a man __ waited in pain for darkness to fall to cross into enemy territory. Under the faint moonlight, Israeli military medical corps quickly whisked the patients across the hostile frontier into armored ambulances...

( The New Arab )- Israel put the Palestinian organisation, Hamas, on notice over unpaid fuel bills that could lead to roaming power cuts in the Gaza Strip. Hamas has allegedly not paid Israeli energy company, Dor, for the diesel it has already received to operate Gaza's only power plant and...

( AFP )- Three strong earthquakes rocked a coastal region near the Philippine capital within half an hour of each other Saturday, sending people running out of buildings. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties from the quakes, the strongest of which hit the coast close to...

( AFP )- Two traffic policemen were killed Saturday after their vehicle came under fire in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, investigators said. The local branch of Russia's Investigative Committee said "unidentified people ... fired multiple shots from an automatic weapon" at two...

( Reuters )- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that "terrorists" were applauding his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump for launching a missile strike on an airbase of his Syrian government ally. But he backed calls for an independent inquiry into a suspected chemical weapons attack...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Russian and Syrian warplanes struck Lataminah town northwest Syria with internationally forbidden Napalm bombs overnight, causing huge fire, local activists said Saturday. The fire has swept large areas in the key town of the northern countryside of Hama province....

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The fourth batch of Waer neighborhood's evacuees left the last rebel stronghold in Homs city Saturday, heading Jarablus, the border town with Turkey, local reporter said. The 40 buses carried 1427 people, including 405 women and 600 children, resuming an evacuation expected to...

( AFP )- What if Marine Le Pen wins in May? Two weeks before the French cast their first presidential ballots, the specter of victory for the far-right leader who promises to crack down on immigration and outlaw gay marriage sends shivers down many a spine. Pollsters say the anti-EU...

( Washington Post )- It is either a turning point or a welcome aberration that President Trump found the cruelly extinguished lives of Syrian children to be compelling (or at least contributory) in his decision to use force in Syria. The nerve gas attack by the Bashar al-Assad regime, he said,...

( Anadolu )- A devastated Syrian father whose twin babies were killed in Tuesday’s chemical attack in Idlib has described Turkey and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as his only hope. Abdulhamid al-Youssef’s nine-month-old twins -- Aya and Ahmed, a little girl and boy -- have become...

( Reuters )- A truck ploughed into a crowd on a shopping street and crashed into a department store in central Stockholm on Friday, killing four people and wounding 15 in what the prime minister said appeared to be a terrorist attack. Police said they had detained one person in a northern...

( AFP )- Far-right backers of U.S. President Donald Trump rebelled Friday after he ordered a missile strike to punish Syria for a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed 86 people. Bandying the hashtag #Syriahoax, leaders of the "Alt-Right" white nationalist fringe lashed out at the...

( AFP )- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad bears "sole responsibility" for the US strike on a regime airbase, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande said in a joint statement on Friday. "After the chemical weapons massacre of April 4 on Khan Sheikhun in...

( AFP )- Sweden said on Friday it had strengthened border controls after an unidentified attacker ploughed a truck through a crowd into a department store in central Stockholm, killing four people and injuring 15. "I have decided to strengthen our border controls," Prime Minister Stefan...

( Anadolu )- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on Friday for further steps to be taken over the Syrian regime’s chemical attack on Idlib. Speaking at a rally in Turkey’s southern province of Hatay, Erdogan said it was the time to take “result-oriented steps to protect the people of...

( Middle East Eye )- Analysts in the United States reacted cautiously to President Donald Trump’s decision to order a massive military strike on a Syrian airbase on Thursday in retaliation for a “barbaric” chemical attack he blamed on President Bashar al-Assad. Responses were guided by...

( Reuters )- ISIS militants have killed dozens of civilians attempting to flee Mosul in recent days, hanging several dead bodies from electricity poles as Iraqi forces fight to retake the city, witnesses said. Troops are meeting fierce resistance as militants retreat into the Old City, where...

( Reuters )- Russia warned on Friday that U.S. cruise missile strikes on a Syrian air base could have "extremely serious" consequences, as President Donald Trump's first major foray into a foreign conflict opened up a rift between Moscow and Washington. The U.S. military launched dozens of...

( The Guardian )- The American ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, says the US “took a very measured step last night. We are prepared to do more but we hope that will not be necessary”. Speaking in her capacity as ambassador and not as the current head of the security council, Haley condemned...