The White House Wednesday said U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team have refused to make public information that would put to rest questions about his and his family's possible financial entanglements in Russia. "There's ample evidence that they could marshal, to make...

(New York Times)- Now that forces supporting the Syrian government have completed the takeover of Aleppo, and Russia, Turkey and Iran have negotiated a tenuous cease-fire, it is more than likely that President Bashar al-Assad and the regime he oversees will continue to govern Syria, in one form...

There seems to be no way for the international community to stop the ongoing war crimes being committed by the Syrian regime and its Russian allies, especially in Aleppo. But by brazenly flouting international law, leaders and rank-and-file officials in both countries are opening themselves up...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces have encircled around 45  ISIS-held villages northwest of the group's self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa city, local activists said Wednesday. Backed by the the U.S.-led airstrikes, the SDF alliance took villages of Karmanji and...

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, said on Wednesday he would support maintaining U.S. sanctions on Russia until the United States further develops its approach to the country. "I would leave things in the status quo so we are able to convey...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- U.S.-led coalition air strikes on Wednesday hit vehicles carrying fighters of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham in in the northwestern province of Idlib, killing 11 people, field sources said. The third attack in a week on the formerly known as Nusra Front has left two senior...

 Alois Brunner, an Austrian SS officer found responsible for the World War II deportation of 125,500 European Jews to Nazi death camps, died in a Syrian jail cell in 2001, according to a report by two journalists published in France. Until now, Brunner, Adolf Eichmann's right-hand...

Britain's divorce terms with the European Union must be fair, but not as good as those for full EU members, the Prime Minister of Malta, which holds the rotating EU presidency, told a news conference on Wednesday. "We want a fair deal for the United Kingdom, but that fair deal needs to be...

Turkish warplanes destroyed 14 PKK terrorist targets in northern Iraq Tuesday night, a military source said Wednesday. The airstrikes took place in the country’s Zap, Gara, Hakurk and Avasin-Basyan regions between 6 p.m. (1500GMT) and 8.34 p.m. (1734GMT) and destroyed 14 targets of the...

A Syrian provincial governor said on Wednesday the government and rebels had agreed on a plan to repair damage to a spring in the Wadi Barada area that supplies water to the capital, state television reported. The report could not be immediately confirmed with rebel fighters. The local media...

Germany took in 280,000 asylum seekers in 2016, about one third of the previous year's record figure, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday. At the height of the huge refugee and migrant influx to Europe in 2015, a total of 890,000 people came seeking safe haven in the EU's...

  (Zaman Al Wasl)- Well-informed source said the head of air intelligence Jamil al-Hassan was behind the damage of the capital’s main water supply two weeks ago. The de facto first commander in Syria who controls the aerial bombing campaign had ordered regime warplanes to conduct...

Palestinian citizens of Israel are calling for a general strike Wednesday after the Israeli authorities destroyed 11 buildings in the Arab city of Qalansawe in central Israel. The High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens, which represents Palestinians living in Israel, called for the...

World stocks edged down from recent highs and the dollar steadied ahead of a news conference by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in which he is expected to give more details about his plans for the U.S. economy. While Trump's election campaign calls for tax cuts and more infrastructure...

Government aircraft pounded rebels and their extremist allies in northern Syria overnight, activists said Wednesday, as Moscow announced new peace talks to be held in Kazakhstan on Jan. 23. Air raids targeted the rebel strongholds of Atarib and Khan al-Assal in Aleppo province, the Syrian...

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia had arrested two rights activists in the first ten days of this year and accused Riyadh of a crackdown on dissent. The organisations said in press releases that Essam Koshak in Mecca and Ahmed al-Mushaikhass in the eastern city...

 Iraqi forces have retaken at least 80 percent of east Mosul from ISIS, the spokesman of the special forces spearheading the campaign said Wednesday. "I think you can say that we have retaken 80 to 85 percent" of the eastern side of Mosul, Sabah al-Noman, spokesman for the...

President Barack Obama didn't just say farewell to the nation. He said goodbye to Air Force One, too. Obama's roundtrip to his Chicago hometown, where he delivered the speech, marked the 445th time that he's flown aboard the familiar, eye-catching blue and white U.S. government airplane with...

The PYD should be party to any Syrian peace talks, the U.S. said Tuesday. "This process has to include all Syrians, and that includes the Syrian Kurds," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters. Asked explicitly if the PYD should be at the table, Toner replied, "At some point...

A top Iraqi commander says the operation to retake the city of Mosul from ISIS could be complete in three months or less. Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati said in an interview with the AP Tuesday evening that "It's possible" Mosul will be liberated in three months or less. But he warned it is...