Talks on consolidating the Syrian cease-fire held in Kazakhstan this year helped jumpstart the United Nations-led peace negotiations in Geneva, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday. At the first round of the talks in the Kazakh capital Astana in January, Russia and Iran, allies of...

 Iran's navy has test-fired the latest versions of the Nasr and Dehlaviyeh missiles during military exercises in the Gulf, local media reported on Monday. "The latest naval cruise missile called Nasr was test-fired during Velayat 95 naval manoeuvres in the southern waters of the...

(The Guardian)- If they are lucky, Ahmad and his family in the Yarmouk refugee camp will have one meal today: two plates of rice cooked with undrinkable water. Others will have to do with less, perhaps a bowl of spiced water that doubles as a form of soup that will do nothing to ease the...

Indonesian police shot dead an attacker during a firefight at a government office Monday after a small bomb was set off in a public park. No one apart from the attacker was hurt in the incident in the major city of Bandung on Java island, which police said was linked to a "terrorist...

Russia hopes the Syrian opposition will form a joint delegation for the Geneva peace talks, RIA Novosti news agency reported on Monday, citing Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. The agency also quoted Bogdanov as saying that Kurdish representatives should also take part in the...

A film about Syria's White Helmets – rescuers who risk their lives to help save civilians caught in the country's devastating war – took home the Oscar for best documentary short on Sunday. The Netflix-produced film, called simply "The White Helmets," was directed by Orlando von...

Acting South Korean President Hwang Kyo-ahn officially ended hopes Monday of extending the country's presidential scandal investigation beyond the end of its current 70-day term on Feb. 28. Special prosecutors had asked for 30 more days to conclude unfinished business, including a plan to...

Iran's "The Salesman," a drama about honor and revenge in a modern marriage, won the Oscar on Sunday for best foreign language film. The movie, directed by Tehran-based Asghar Farhadi, marked Iran's second Oscar victory, coming five years after Farhadi's drama "A Separation" won the nation's...

Reporting by Manar Abdulrazaq (Eqtsad)- regime allied militias had looted electricity cables in neighborhoods of the Western part of Aleppo, besides looting electricity generators of the Eastern part. Mahmood Abo al-Nour from the regime-loyal neighborhood of al-Zahra told Eqtsad that thugs...

An Israeli military general is calling on a United Nations agency to fire a Palestinian staff member he claims has been elected to a leadership position with the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai of the Israeli defense body COGAT said Sunday he demanded the...

Four Bahraini policemen were wounded in a bomb attack Sunday near the village of Jaw, south of the capital Manama, the interior ministry said. "Terrorist blast in police bus near Jua village. 4 policemen injured and they are in a stable condition. Necessary steps are being taken," the...

Palestinian officials on Sunday called for a boycott of Israeli military courts after a Palestinian freed in a 2011 prisoner exchange was rearrested and sent back to prison for life. Speaking in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian Prisoners Club head Qadura Fares...

The Syrian regime army and its allies made a sudden advance on Saturday and Sunday into areas held by Islamic State in northwest Syria, a war monitor said, as the jihadist group retreated after losing the city of al-Bab to Turkey-backed rebels. By taking Islamic State territory south of...

  (Zaman Al Wasl)- Two civilians were killed on Sunday in regime airstrikes on the besieged al-Waer neighborhood in Homs city, local reporter said. The residents of al-Waer and the towns and villages in Homs’ northern countryside are immobilized. All daily activities have halted including...

The United States called on Russia Sunday to "immediately" observe the ceasefire in Ukraine, accusing combined Russian and separatist forces of targeting international monitors. "We call on Russia and the separatist forces it backs to immediately observe the ceasefire, withdraw all heavy...

The White House on Sunday did not rule out that Attorney General Jeff Sessions may recuse himself from Justice Department investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a deputy White House press secretary, said congressional investigations of...

Morocco said Sunday it will pull back from a zone of the contested Western Sahara that has raised tensions with Algeria-backed Polisario Front separatists. "The Kingdom of Morocco will proceed from today with a unilateral withdrawal from the (Guerguerat) zone," the foreign ministry said in a...

Every Sunday, the gymnasium along Beirut's airport highway echoes with the shouting and laughter of dozens of Syrian children enjoying a rare escape from a grim and confined life in exile. The Sport 4 Development program, run by the U.N. children's agency, aims to bring 12,000 children,...

(The Guardian)- Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, is facing growing political pressure to address the steady stream of asylum seekers who have been braving freezing temperatures, fields of waist-deep snow and icy ditches to cross into Canada from the US by foot. Recent months have...

Syrian activists called on Sunday for the Assad government to engage in serious talks on political transition and for the United Nations to strengthen the fragile ceasefire as violence engulfed parts of the country. U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura said a militant attack in Homs on Saturday...