(New York Times)- A northern Syrian city that is one of the Islamic State’s last enclaves in the country is under assault by military forces bearing down from all sides. The complication is that the advancing forces — the Syrian Army and pro-government militias backed by Russia, and...

(The Guardian)- A self-styled “revolutionary” from Blackburn is believed to have become the first British woman to travel to Syria to join the fight against Isis. Kimberly Taylor, 27, left the UK to join the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ), the all-female affiliate army of the People’s...

New CIA chief Mike Pompeo arrived in Ankara Thursday for talks with Turkish officials, on his first foreign visit since the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump. His visit came two days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to Trump for the first time in his White House term,...

Israel Thursday reprimanded the Belgian ambassador after the country's prime minister met with anti-settlement and left-wing NGOs, the foreign ministry said. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel met with representatives of left-wing NGOs Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem during his visit to...

English soccer club Manchester United said it was on course to meet its full-year financial targets as it posted an 18 percent rise in second-quarter revenue despite its absence from the lucrative Champions League. United, whose best known players include Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic,...

South African police and military forces are deploying ahead of a speech in parliament by President Jacob Zuma, the target of protesters who say he should quit because of corruption allegations. Zuma will give an annual address on the economy and other matters of national importance Thursday...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The heavy clashes have been resumed inside the ISIS-controlled town of al-Bab on Thursday as the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army presses to take new neighborhoods in the last stronghold of the Islamic State in Aleppo province, local reporter said. On Wednesday, FSA fighters...

The Kremlin said Thursday it was unlikely that the situation in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists are ranged against the Ukrainian army, would be part of any deal with U.S. President Donald Trump. When asked how preparations for a meeting between Trump and President Vladimir...

The exiled former leader of the Maldives announced Thursday he would return to run for election as president of the troubled Indian Ocean nation, despite facing jail after a controversial conviction on terror-related charges. Mohamed Nasheed said he had decided to challenge President...

Russia views Romania as a NATO outpost and as a threat due to it hosting elements of a U.S. anti-missile shield, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday, citing a Russian foreign ministry official. The U.S. military, which says the shield is needed to protect from Iran, not threaten...

A total of 44 ISIS fighters were “neutralized” over the last 24 hours as part of Turkey’s Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria, the military announced Thursday. Turkish Armed Forces, who use the word "neutralized" to refer to killed, wounded or captured terrorists, also hit 253 Daesh...

(Daily Mail)- A member of the Islamic State was found dead from an apparent smothering in western Mosul, putting the extremist organization in high alert, according to local reports. The group put curfews in place in three residential areas in Tal Afar after the man was found dead, and ten...

(Financial Times)- There was a time when “Abu Ahmad”, a bulky man with a heavy limp, held court in the smoke-filled cafés of southern Turkey. Fellow Syrian opposition leaders looked to him for help; foreign intelligence officers sought his opinion. When he crossed into Syria, he brought bags...

Iraq's main oil export terminal, off the southern city of Basra, resumed loading after a 24-hour halt because of work to install a new pipeline feeding the facility, an executive at state-run South Oil Co said Thursday. Loadings stopped at midnight Tuesday and resumed midnight Wednesday, he...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- In unprecedented way, fuel crisis aggravated in Syrian in general and in Latakia province in particular. Most gas stations stopped working because they are not supplied with fuel since days and most cars were parked except for cars owned by state officials and big thugs and...

Hundreds of South Korean artists sued President Park Geun-hye and former aides on Thursday for trying to silence them with a blacklist of writers, actors and others critical of the scandal-plagued administration. Park's former presidential chief of staff and her culture minister have been...

 As judges deliberated President Trump’s travel ban, four children from the Syrian city of Aleppo were slipping and sliding across the floor of an airport in Turkey as the clock to their new life counted down. After years in a temporary apartment, 9-year-old Mohamed Tawouz imagined...

(Daily Mail)- German police have warned refugee groups against visiting carnival celebrations because of the risk of 'undesirable interactions' with local people. The North Rhine-Westphalia state police said they feared what would happen if there were 'mass appearances of refugees and asylum...

Donald Trump's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court, Neil Gorsuch, on Wednesday described the president's Twitter attacks on the judiciary as "disheartening and demoralizing," Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said. Gorsuch spokesman Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist hired by the White...

(Wall Street Journal)-American military airstrikes last week killed nearly a dozen al Qaeda militants in Syria, including a top-ranked operative, the Pentagon announced Wednesday. One strike Feb. 3 killed 10 al Qaeda militants gathered near Idlib, Syria, and a second on Feb. 4 killed Abu...