(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime bombardment killed four civilians and wounded 20 more in the besieged al-Waer neighborhood in central Homs city, local reporter said Saturday. Regime forces have extended its aerial and ground campaign on al-Waer since Feb 7, killing 45 people and wounding more...

Syria's chief negotiator said Saturday that the "only thing" achieved at 10-day talks in Geneva was an agreed agenda and that the government wanted a unified opposition delegation as its negotiating partner. In his first remarks since talks ended Friday, Bashar al-Jaafari, Syria's ambassador...

An Iraqi minister Saturday sharply criticized U.N. efforts to aid civilians fleeing fighting in west Mosul, even as the United Nations insisted that providing such assistance was the "top priority". Tens of thousands of people have fled west Mosul since Iraqi forces launched an operation to...

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is to travel to Russia in the coming weeks for high-level political talks, his office said Saturday. It will be the first time a British minister has been to Moscow for an official visit in more than five years and could signal a potential thaw in...

Iran's advanced S-300 air defense system, delivered by Russia following a July 2015 nuclear deal after years of delay, is now operational, state television reported Saturday. Iran had been trying to acquire the system for years to ward off repeated threats by Israel to bomb its nuclear...

Twelve people, including women and children, are being treated for possible exposure to chemical weapons agents in Mosul, where ISIS is fighting off an offensive by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces, the United Nations said Saturday. The U.N.'s World Health Organization has activated with partners...

Tens of thousands of Syrian civilians have fled advancing Russian-backed government forces fighting ISIS extremists in the north over the past week, activists said Saturday. Most of the more than 30,000 fleeing civilians in Aleppo province were women and children, the Syrian Observatory for...

 U.S. officials say three Philippine Cabinet members, including the defense chief, have toured a U.S. aircraft carrier patrolling the disputed South China Sea on the invitation of the Navy. U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Molly Koscina says Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Finance Secretary...

Jordan hanged 15 death row prisoners at dawn Saturday, its information minister said, in a further break with the moratorium on executions it had observed between 2006 and 2014. Ten of those put to death had been convicted of terrorism offences and five of "heinous" crimes including rape,...

Scandal-hit French conservative candidate Francois Fillon this weekend will bid to keep his presidential hopes alive after more allies abandoned him and a possible replacement to him emerged from the shadows. Fillon will mark his 63rd birthday Saturday, but a day that his entourage would...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Inside a cold and dark cell in Homs’ Central Prison, the time had been frozen for four years and a half years for Hani al-Homsi (a pseudonym). Al-Homsi was moved around between different military intelligence branches, but spent the longest duration in Saydnaya prison (18...

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will reply in writing to Senate Democrats' questions about his meetings with Russia's ambassador last year, the Justice Department said Friday after a top Republican denied Democrats' request for a public hearing. Nine Democratic senators sent a letter...

Malaysia on Saturday rejected any suggestion it may have violated sanctions imposed by the United Nations on North Korea, after a Reuters report that North Korea-linked firms were running an arms network in the country. Malaysia has for years been one of the few countries in the world to...

(Al-Monitor)- On Feb. 21, Ramadan Abdullah Shalah, secretary-general of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, gave a speech at the Sixth International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada in Tehran, during which he called for the need to unify fronts between Palestinian factions...

China's sweeping overhaul of its anti-corruption architecture could enable President Xi Jinping to justify retaining his key ally and top graft buster Wang Qishan beyond retirement age, sources with ties to the leadership say. Breaking the unwritten retirement rule could also set a precedent...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Kurdish PYD militia on Friday attacked three Kurdish National Council headquarters and its affiliated political parties in the cities of al-Qamishli, al-Darbasiyah, and al-Malikiyah in Hasakah on Friday, activists said. The PYD supporters destroyed the office furniture and...

THE MORNING PLUM: We keep hearing that President Trump will roll out the new version of his travel ban any day now. The White House delayed it earlier this week, because Trump advisers reportedly thought it could step on the good press he’d earned from his speech, thus inadvertently...

(The Independent)- The looming defeat of Isis in northern Syria is pushing the country’s six-year civil war into a new and dangerous phase as warring parties turn on each other, analysts have warned. The battle to defeat jihadis has made uneasy allies out of forces backed by countries...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused Germany of "aiding and harboring terror" and claimed a journalist who was detained this week on terror-related charges was a German agent. "They need to be put on trial for aiding and harboring terror," Erdogan said, criticizing German...

A U.N. chemical weapons watchdog is examining allegations of eight toxic gas attacks in Syria since the beginning of this year, according to a report released Friday. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is tasked with investigating allegations of such attacks in Syria...