The major Syrian Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham said Thursday that six other rebel factions had merged with it in northwestern Syria, in response to a major assault on these factions by a powerful extremist group. Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly allied with al-Qaeda as the Nusra...

(Daily Sabah)- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has approved the construction of 2,500 new settlement units in the occupied West Bank, according to a statement issued by his office on Tuesday. The approval is the second of its kind since Donald Trump assumed the U.S. presidency last...

(Atlantic Council)- Ever since it kicked off this macabre dance by shooting a bunch of teenagers in 2011, the Assad regime has masterfully manipulated Syria’s struggle—and story. Not only has it escalated, militarized, and radicalized the struggle, from a peaceful contest for control that it...

(The Guardian)- And so the Brexit cavalcade gathers pace. After paying court to Donald Trump in Washington on Friday, Theresa May will fly to Turkey to meet another hard man with a weakness for “alternative facts”: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has engaged in a brutal clampdown on human...

A statue stolen from Japan in 2012 should be given to a South Korean temple, a South Korean court ruled Thursday, on the grounds that it was previously seized by Japanese pirates centuries ago. The ruling prompted an immediate protest from Tokyo, which is embroiled in disputes with Seoul...

Asian stocks rose to 3-1/2-month highs on Thursday, cheered by the Dow Jones Industrial Average breaching the 20,000-level for the first time, though concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump's protectionist stance kept the dollar on the defensive. Spreadbetters forecast European stocks...

Democratic U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard said on Wednesday she met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Syria and discussed the possibility of achieving peace. The Hawaii Democrat told CNN in an interview that during her four-day visit, she wanted to get a first-hand view of the...

Mohammad Salah’s thumping early free kick gave Egypt a 1-0 win against Ghana Wednesday as they sealed their place in the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup of Nations. The record seven-time winners of the competition only needed a draw to be certain of going through but the victory allowed them to...

They have been waiting for two and half years and the children of Iraq's east Mosul are flocking to enrol in their reopened schools, eager not to waste another day. "It's a great day, today we are giving our children their right to receive an education," said Ghassan Ahmed, queueing with his...

Reporting by Abdullah Ghadawi (Zaman Al Wasl)- Top Syrian opposition figure has disclosed the details of the Astana delegation's meeting with the head of the Russian delegation where rebels refused the Russian-adopted constitution, saying it is not a priority at the meantime. Dr. Yahya...

Hundreds of Syrians took a train through battle-scarred east Aleppo on Thursday as services resumed for the first time after four years of fighting, a photographer working with AFP said. Men, women and children peered out the windows as they rode across eastern districts after regime forces...

US President Donald Trump took a first step toward fulfilling his pledge to "build a wall" on the Mexican border Wednesday, signing two immigration-related decrees. Trump visited the Department of Homeland Security to approve an order to begin work to "build a large physical barrier on the...

(The Independents)- President Donald Trump is expected to restrict the issuing of visas to people from seven Middle East and north African countries—of which his military is currently bombing four. Mr Trump tweeted he was planning a "big day" on national security matters on Wednesday...

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to order a review that could lead to the reinstatement of a CIA program to hold terrorist suspects in secret overseas "black site" prisons that used interrogation techniques often condemned as torture, two U.S. officials said on Wednesday. The black...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- ISIS on Wednesday have recaptured 5 villages from the Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces west of Raqqa city, killing 30 SDF militants, the group's Amaq news agency said. ISIS launched counter attack on Ja'bar citadel and surrounding villages but the U.S.-backed group says it...

A powerful jihadist group has crushed a Free Syrian Army rebel faction in northwestern Syria, in an attack that threatens to deal a critical blow to the more moderate wing of the Syrian rebellion and derail new Russian-backed peace talks. The Jabhat Fateh al-Sham jihadist group, formerly...

A judge says the Guantanamo war crimes tribunal can't go forward without a defense lawyer who broke her arm. The court convened Wednesday at the U.S. base in Cuba for several days of pretrial motions in the case against five prisoners charged in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. It was to be...

A Russian aircraft carrier used to wage a massive offensive on the Syrian city of Aleppo is on its way back to Russia, Britain's defense minister said Wednesday, calling it a "ship of shame". "We will keep a close eye on the Admiral Kuznetsov as it skulks back to Russia," Defence Minister...

"Wanted" was emblazoned across photographs posted online by Islamic State. Files bearing Islamic State logo showed faces of Egyptian military and police officers, alongside names, addresses, and ranks, urging followers to hunt them down and kill them. All the men listed were not...

Syrian government forces and their allies drove ISIS militants out of several villages northeast of Aleppo between Tuesday and Wednesday, opposition-aligned activists said, bringing them closer to territory held by Turkish-backed rebels. Advances in the last week have brought the Syrian army...