Antonio Guterres took the reins of the United Nations on New Year's Day, promising to be a "bridge-builder" but facing an antagonistic incoming U.S. administration led by Donald Trump who thinks the world body's 193 member states do nothing except talk and have a good time. The former...

President-elect Donald Trump again cast doubt Saturday on a U.S. intelligence finding that Russia meddled in the U.S. election through computer hacking, a conclusion that led to U.S. sanctions against Moscow. "Well, I just want them to be sure, because it's a pretty serious charge, and I...

A gunman shot his way into an Istanbul nightclub packed with New Year's revelers early on Sunday, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 40 in what the provincial governor described as a terrorist attack. The assailant shot a police officer and a civilian as he entered the Reina...

Two suicide bombers detonated their explosives, killing at least two security officers in the coastal city of Tartous, Syrian state television reported after midnight on Sunday. It said the officers were part of a security patrol that stopped the bombers, who then blew themselves up. Others...

Georginio Wijnaldum's early header earned Liverpool a 1-0 New Year's Eve victory over Manchester City that left Pep Guardiola's men 10 points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea. The Dutch midfielder struck in the eighth minute, emphatically converting a cross from Adam Lallana, as...

(The Huffington Post)- The first airstrike hit at 9:02 on the morning of Feb. 15. As rescue teams dashed to the scene, warplanes circled back for a “double tap,” pummeling the isolated hospital in northwestern Syria a second time, minutes later. And a third. And a fourth. Twenty-five people...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- Osama Abazeid, spokesman for the Syrian armed opposition, told Zaman al-Wasl the ceasefire agreement that had been signed by rebels was not the same one which was discussed in the United Nations Security Council on Saturday. The legal advisor and the representative of...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Perhaps 2016 is the ultimate year of forced displacement. And how can it be considered otherwise when it was witness to the largest operation of forced displacement undertaken against the residents of Aleppo, the economic and industrial capital of Syria, following a...

There were no big New Year's celebrations for the Iraqi men, women and children who narrowly escaped the fighting in Mosul, only to wait for hours under armed guard while the fighting-age males among them were cleared of links to the Islamic State. The lucky ones would go with their families...

President Francois Hollande said he would on Monday visit French troops fighting ISIS extremists in Iraq, as he warned that the terrorist threat within France was still live. "We are not yet finished with the scourge of terrorism. We must continue to fight it abroad -- that's the reason for...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin spoke on the phone Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the conflict in Syria and "continued security cooperation", his office said. The talks came as the 15-member U.N. Security Council unanimously voted to back a Russian-Turkish peace...

The United Nations Security Council on Saturday adopted a resolution endorsing a ceasefire in the Syrian civil war brokered by Russia and Turkey. Russia and Turkey announced the ceasefire this week, the third truce this year seeking to end the nearly six years of war in Syria....

(Al-Monitor)- In northern Syria, a group of Western volunteers is trying to bring combat medics into the fight against the Islamic State (IS). In September, when northern Syria was still hot enough for sand flies to bite, John Harding sat at a makeshift table of plywood and concrete...

Two elite Iraqi units linked up in Mosul on Saturday and will form a joint front to advance westward against the Islamic State group, officers said. The Rapid Response Division reached the northern edge of Al-Intisar neighbourhood, while the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) advanced to the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that the year 2016 was "difficult" but congratulated his country on its accomplishments and on believing in itself. The past year "was difficult, but the difficulties we came across united us," Putin said in his traditional New Year's greeting,...

Rafael Nadal ended an injury-plagued 2016 on a high by lifting the Mubadala World Tennis Championship title for a fourth time Saturday. The 30-year-old Spaniard defeated 11th-ranked Belgian David Goffin 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) in their first meeting after world number one Andy Murray earlier ousted...

A group of Egyptian lawyers on Saturday filed a lawsuit against President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and five top officials over a controversial agreement to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. The move came days after the government approved the agreement to transfer the sovereignty of...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated Saturday in his new year message that Turkey will reach its 100th year goals. Erdogan issued a new year's message at the presidential complex in Ankara, saying that 2016 was a year in which many sad incidents followed one another. "We were subjected...

Ban Ki-moon ends 10 years at the helm of the United Nations lamenting the "fires still burning" from Syria to South Sudan but buoyed by a global agreement to combat climate change and new U.N. goals to fight poverty and inequality. As a final act before his term ends at midnight on New...

A police officer and a soldier were killed by a roadside bomb in Egypt's northern Sinai peninsula Saturday, security sources said. The bomb was detonated remotely when the victims' armoured vehicle passed by during a security operation, the sources said. There was no immediate claim of...