ISIS detonated explosives in the largest hotel in western Mosul Friday, in an attempt to destroy it and prevent Iraqi forces from using it as a landing spot or base in their offensive to capture the city, witnesses said on Sunday. The Mosul Hotel, shaped as a step pyramid, appeared to be...

 Members of the Syrian opposition delegation arrived Sunday in the Kazakh capital Astana for face-to-face peace talks with the war-torn nation's government. The talks, set to begin on Monday, will be the first time a delegation composed exclusively of rebel groups will negotiate with...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Islamic State on Sunday captured Panorama district at the southern gate of Deir Ezzor city in a surprise attack left dozens pf regime troops killed and wounded, activists said.   Activist Ahmed Ramadan said many Afghan fighters who fight in support of Bashar al-Assad have...

The U.S.-led anti-Daesh coalition said Saturday it struck more than 90 boats and three barges trying to ferry the terror group's members attempting to flee parts of Iraq. Daesh's militants were seeking to cross the Tigris River to west Mosul as Iraqi security forces secured the city's...

(Al-Arabiya)- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may be suffering from an eyelid twitch in his left eye as a result of psychological pressures, according to sources in Moscow. In its Saturday edition, the London-based pan Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat quoted these sources as saying that after...

Top seeded Briton Andy Murray was knocked out of the Australian Open in the fourth round on Sunday, losing 7-5 5-7 6-2 6-4 to German world number 50 Mischa Zverev on Rod Laver Arena. Murray's defeat follows that of reigning champion Novak Djokovic, who fell to Denis Istomin in the second...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime warplanes killed 7 people on Sunday in air strikes hit the embattled northern countryside of Homs province a day before the start of Syrian peace talks in Astana, local activists said. The aerial bombing targeted the twons of Talbiesh, Rastan and al-Houleh....

At least 36 people were killed and 50 injured on Saturday night when nine coaches of a passenger train derailed in eastern India, in the latest disaster to hit the vast and accident-prone state railways, police said. The Hirakhand express train from Jagdalpur to Bhubaneswar derailed at...

Whatever the expectations for President Trump’s new relationship with Russia, anyone looking for a dramatic shift from the Kremlin is going to have to wait past Day One.  While some Russian companies and political activists have taken advantage of “Trumpomania” here, holding...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime has moved most of its fighters jets from the embattled T4 military air ports in the past two weeks over fears the Islamic State will succeed in taking the strategic base in Syria desert, sources said. The military sources said 20 Su-24 and Su-22 were transferred...

Left-wing sympathizers are headed to the polls Sunday to choose two finalists among seven candidates vying for the Socialist Party nomination for president. The primary is open to all who are registered on the party's electoral roll and for a €1 ($1.04) fee, 1.5 million - 2 million voters...

(Al-Jazeera)- A letter from a young woman to her fallen husband, a pro-Assad fighter in Syria, was recently published in Tasnim News, one of Iran's most prominent news agencies affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). "This shrine [the Zaynab shrine] is sacred ... I am...

(Sky News)- To the very end nobody was absolutely sure that Yahya Jammeh, The Gambia's president of 22 years, would actually leave. A jet set to take him to Guinea had idled on the runway of the country's main airport in Banjul for seven hours as he continued talks with negotiators about his...

(The Guardian)- Key parties in Syria’s brutal civil war, now stretching towards the end of its sixth year, will meet in the Kazakh capital of Astana this week for a new round of peace talks. Organised by Russia and Turkey, and backed by Iran, these are the latest in many attempts to...

Iraqi forces used to facing deserted, explosives-rigged streets and booby-trapped buildings are discovering fewer bombs planted by jihadists in Mosul than in earlier battles against them. The Islamic State group has no qualms about killing civilians, but the presence of a large number of...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces on Saturday took a strategic village at the banks of Euphrates dam from ISIS, activists said. The capture of al-Suwaydiya al-Kabira from ISIS west of the group's self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa city, will tighten the noose on the radical...

(Sky News)- Marine Le Pen, leader of the French far-right Front National party, has said the Brexit vote has set off a domino effect that "will bring down all of Europe". She said the British and Americans had pulled off "coups" in 2016 and predicted that 2017 would be the "year the people...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Kurdish PYD militia has arrested dozens of civilians, including a woman in northeastern of Hasaka province, local activists said. The armed groups surrounded the villages of Tell al-Tahin and Khawliyet Jouleh and arrested dozens of residents from both villages including a...

On the first full day as U.S. president, Donald Trump will head to CIA headquarters on Saturday, signaling an effort to mend fences after he slammed spy agencies for their investigation into Russian hacking during the presidential election. Trump engaged in an unprecedented feud with the CIA...

(Time)- In the year since the nuclear deal, Iran's destabilizing presence has grown Just days before Christmas, as U.S. policymakers were settling into the holidays, Iran staged massive war drills, with one of its top military leaders even boasting that the Persian Gulf was within...