Independent French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron would beat far right leader Marine Le Pen in the second round of the French presidential election with 61 percent of the vote, according to an Odoxa/Dentsu-Consulting poll on Sunday. The pollsters said Macron had been buoyed by the...

An Egyptian lawmaker started collecting signatures on Sunday for a motion to extend presidential terms and lift restrictions on re-election - a year before general-turned-president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's first term is due to expire. As defense minister, Sisi overthrew elected President...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime has stepped up its aerial bombing on the besieged city of Douma near the capital, killing 10 people in the last 24 hours, local activists said Sunday. A man was killed early Sunday in Napalm bombs attack on Douma, 15km (10 miles) northeast Damascus. Activists...

Egyptian Christians fearing attacks by ISIS militants are fleeing the volatile northern part of the Sinai Peninsula for a fourth day, after a string of sectarian killings there sent hundreds fleeing and raised accusations the government is failing to protect the minority. Official Nabil...

The Syrian army and its allies made a sudden advance on Saturday and Sunday into areas held by ISIS in northwest Syria, a war monitor said, as the extremist group retreated after losing the city of al-Bab to Turkey-backed rebels on Thursday. The eastwards advance in an area south of al-Bab...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A leaked document obtained by Zaman al-Wasl reveals the names of 170 political prisoners detained in Palmyra (Tadmour) Prison whom the al-Assad regime transferred to Tartus before the Islamic State forces took control of the city in 2015. The document was leaked by an official...

Most of the hundreds of people streaming over the US border into Canada in recent weeks are asylum-seekers, coming from Syria, Yemen, Turkey or Sudan, according to the United Nations' refugee point man in the country. In an interview, Jean-Nicolas Beuze, the representative in Canada of the...

The Taliban group in Afghanistan on Sunday used a rare public statement in the name of its leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, to call on Afghans to plant more trees for worldly and other-worldly good. Official Taliban outlets released the "special message" under Akhundzada's name, an uncommon...

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Iraqi officials that the kingdom plans to appoint a new ambassador in Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said.  Al-Jaafari was speaking during a joint press conference with the top Saudi diplomat, who started an official visit...

(BBC)- The imagery is all too familiar. A family on the move, their meagre belongings carried on their heads; a cluster of frightened children gripping a mother figure; the body of a victim cradled on the ground by a woman. These are depictions of the war in Syria - but they have been...

Malaysia welcomed Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Sunday for the start of a rare, month-long Asian tour, where the monarch will build ties and seek to draw more investments to the oil-rich gulf nation. The visit is the first by a Saudi king to Malaysia in more than a decade, as the Arab nation...

(Sky News)- Islamic State militants are planning "indiscriminate attacks" on UK citizens on a scale similar to those perpetrated by the IRA 40 years ago, the new terrorism watchdog has said. Max Hill QC, the new Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, warned that Islamists were...

Twenty-eight people were injured Saturday after a vehicle ran over a crowd watching the Krewe of Endymion parade in New Orleans, Louisiana, according to police. A suspect was taken into custody as an investigation continues, police chief Michael Harrison told reporters. "We suspect that...

The PLA Navy is likely to secure significant new funding in China's upcoming defense budget as Beijing seeks to check U.S. dominance of the high seas and step up its own projection of power around the globe. China's navy has been taking an increasingly prominent role in recent months, with a...

Iraqi forces backed by jets and helicopters battled jihadists inside west Mosul on Saturday but still faced a tough and potentially protracted battle to retake the Islamic State group's bastion. Almost a week into a major push on the city's west bank, they were gaining significant ground,...

 French judges have placed two people under formal investigation and detained them on suspicion of wanting to travel to Syria or planning attacks in France, a judicial source said on Saturday. They were arrested last Tuesday along with a third person by French intelligence agents in the...

Morocco's King Mohammed VI has called on the United Nations to take "urgent measures" following months of tensions with the Polisario independence movement in the disputed Western Sahara region. The king talked with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, denouncing the Polisario Front,...

Syria's chief negotiator at U.N.-sponsored talks in Geneva demanded Saturday that all opposition parties at the talks condemn the deadly assault in Homs or be considered "accomplices of terrorism." "Any party who refuses to condemn these attacks today we will consider that party to be an...

Syrian government and opposition delegates to peace talks in Geneva on Saturday warned of the impact on negotiations after a day of violence in Syria that included jihadist suicide bombings and missile strikes by the air force. The United Nations opened the peace talks with a symbolic...

President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi Saturday ordered the government to take all necessary measures to help resettle Christians who have fled Egypt's Northern Sinai after ISIS killed several members of the community. Hundreds of Christian families and students have fled to Ismailia, north Sinai's...