Hamas security forces broke up a protest in the northern Gaza Strip Thursday, an AFP photographer and witnesses said, as thousands took to the streets over an ongoing electricity crisis. The demonstrators gathered in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza for a march, with attendees...

A leading Syrian opposition figure on Wednesday called on the UN to stop the Assad regime from committing ceasefire and human rights violations in the Wadi Barada region west of capital Damascus. Riyad Hijab, chief coordinator for Syria’s opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC), sent a...

The United States on Thursday blacklisted 18 senior Syrian officials it said were connected to the country's weapons of mass destruction program, after an international investigation found Syrian government forces were responsible for chlorine gas attacks against civilians. The action marked...

France said on Thursday Syrian peace talks should resume as quickly as possible under the auspices of the United Nations and appeared to question plans for Russian-backed discussions on the subject in Kazakhstan. Syria's government and rebel forces started a ceasefire on Dec. 30 as a first...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday told the European Union it must keep a united front in negotiations with Britain over its exit from the bloc. "We are absolutely in agreement that we cannot let ourselves be divided," she told a news conference after talks with Luxembourg Prime...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called this weekend's Middle East peace conference in Paris "rigged" on Thursday, with his government refusing to play any role in the meeting. "It's a rigged conference, rigged by the Palestinians with French auspices to adopt additional anti-Israel...

Syria's cessation of hostilities is largely holding but there are some exceptions and humanitarian aid is still not getting in to besieged areas where food is running out, U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said Thursday. He told reporters that 23 buses and Syrian drivers, used in recent...

London's Heathrow Airport says dozens of flights have been cancelled amid forecasts of snow and strong winds in Britain. Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, said 80 out of about 1,350 flights scheduled Thursday have been cancelled pre-emptively because of the wintry weather. Britain's...

The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday it had started changing the make-up of its strike force in Syria as part of a previously announced partial drawdown, Russian news agencies reported. The ministry was cited as saying that the first six SU-24 bombers had already been withdrawn, but...

An iconic photo of three-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi washed up dead on a Turkish beach had a greater impact on fundraising efforts for Syrian refugees than hundreds of thousands of deaths, a study has shown. The photo of Kurdi appeared in media across the world in the days after he...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Powerful Kurdish PYD militia allowed dozens of families to return back to their homes in al-Arbeyn village in al-Hasaka province after two years of displacement where each family paid 50,000 Syrian Pounds, local activists said. A local activist, who spoke on condition...

Iraqi forces drove back Islamic State militants in southeastern Mosul on Thursday, making gains in an area where advances have been particularly tough, the military said in a statement. Rapid response units from Iraq's federal police advanced in the Sumer district, which lies on the eastern...

A UN-backed program to train Syrian entrepreneurs in Turkey has produced a thousand graduates, a Turkish NGO said on Wednesday. The three-month scheme was a pilot program run by Habitat and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Called IMECE -- a Turkish word which...

China's Navy has launched a new electronic reconnaissance ship, state media said Thursday, the latest addition to an expanding fleet and as Beijing's new assertiveness to territorial claims in the South China Sea fuels tensions. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) now operates six electronic...

The dollar lost ground against the Japanese yen, Australian dollar and euro during Asian trading Thursday, as investors tempered their optimism over the likely policy stance of President-elect Donald Trump following his first news conference since the U.S. election. Mr. Trump spoke widely,...

The ongoing campaign to recapture Mosul from the Daesh terrorist group is likely to continue for another three months, Iraqi Ambassador to Turkey Hisham Ali Akbar Ibrahim al-Alawi said Wednesday. "We expect the Mosul campaign to wrap up in three months," he said. Speaking at a press...

The U.S. military in Afghanistan says its investigation into a November firefight with the Taliban in Kunduz province has shown that 33 civilians died in the raid during which U.S. troops fired on Afghan homes. The probe followed claims that civilian deaths resulted from airstrikes called in...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman lashed out at the U.S. military on Thursday after it re-tweeted a statement by a Kurdish-dominated alliance it backs in Syria saying it had no links to Kurdish militants fighting the Turkish state. The Syrian Democratic Forces, the main U.S....

The U.S. Senate on Thursday took a first concrete step toward dismantling Obamacare, voting to instruct key committees to draft legislation repealing President Barack Obama's signature health insurance program. The vote was 51-48. The resolution now goes to the House of Representatives, which...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 8 civilians, including 4 children,  have been killed in Russian air strikes hit the western countryside f Aleppo province, despite a fragile two-week-old truce, local reporter said Thursday. The Russian warplanes hit an apartment complex in Babka town...