Al Shabaab Islamist militants shot dead a military prosecutor in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region Sunday, witnesses and officials said, the type of targeted killing that Al Qaeda-allied gunmen frequently commit throughout Somalia. Al Shabaab's insurgency aims to drive out African...

At least 20 people were killed and scores injured in an airstrike in Iraq’s northern city of Mosul on Sunday. A warplane struck a marketplace in al-Baaj, 140 kilometers west of Mosul, Iraqi lawmaker Zahed al-Khatoni told Anadolu Agency.  He said the death toll is expected to rise as...

Syrian President Bashar Assad said Sunday he was "saddened by the crash of a Russian military plane on its way to Syria as its crew had wanted to celebrate his army's victory in Aleppo, but the fight against Islamist militants would not be affected. In a condolence message sent to Russian...

Pope Francis urged Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus by thinking about the plight of today's children, bemoaning how some must escape bombs or flee in migrant boats and how others are prevented from being born at all. Francis celebrated a somber Christmas Eve Mass in a packed St....

  (Zaman Al Wasl)- Key Syrian rebel factions held talks in Ankara Saturday, seeking merger in one armed body and a planned ceasefire that will be able to face the new challenges resulted after Aleppo collapse, well-informed sources told Zaman al-Wasl. The ongoing discussions under the...

Messaging app Snapchat is buying Israeli augmented reality startup Cimagine Media for an estimated $30-$40 million, marking Snapchat's first acquisition in Israel, the Calcalist financial daily reported on Sunday. Cimagine developed True Marketless Augmented Reality – technology that allows...

A fire erupted in a fuel tank at Oil Refineries Ltd in Haifa on Sunday, sending thick black smoke into the sky above the northern Israeli port city. "We have a fuel tank on fire. The level of the fuel in it is relatively low, about a metre (three feet) high," Uri Chibotero, a Haifa Fire...

A Russian military plane carrying 92 people, including dozens of Red Army Choir singers, dancers and orchestra members, crashed into the Black Sea on its way to Syria on Sunday morning with no reports of survivors. The Russian Defence Ministry said one of its TU-154 planes had disappeared from...

Indonesian police Sunday shot dead two terror suspects and arrested two more, only days after foiling separate plans by an ISIS-linked group for a Christmas-time suicide bombing near the capital. The pair were fatally shot at a house in Purwakarta 100 kilometers (62 miles) east of the...

China's first aircraft carrier will carry out drills in the Western Pacific, in what the navy called part of routine exercises, amid renewed tension over self-ruled Taiwan that Beijing claims as its own. The navy said in a statement late Saturday the Liaoning, along with its accompanying...

Israel was defiant Sunday over a U.N. vote demanding it halt settlements in Palestinian territory, after lashing out at U.S. President Barack Obama over what it called the "shameful" resolution. The Security Council passed the measure Friday after the United States abstained, enabling the...

Before braving a 'trip of death' to escape Syria, Talal Rankoussi was a chef in a Damascus restaurant considered the largest in the world. Bawabet Al Dimashq -- Damascus Gate -- still holds that distinction in the Guinness Book of Records as it can seat over 6,000 people. So...

South Korea's special prosecutor investigating a corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye said on Sunday it had no choice but to raid the presidential offices, Yonhap News reported. Special prosecutors are investigating allegations that Park colluded with a friend, Choi Soon-sil,...

A Tu-154 aircraft of the Russian Defense Ministry has crashed in the Black Sea after it disappeared from radar, regional emergency service said Sunday. "The debris of the Tu-154 found in 1.5 km from Sochi coast," the service was quoted as saying by the country’s official TASS news...

Russian jets stepped up strikes on several towns in rebel-held Idlib province and rural Aleppo two days after the evacuation of rebels from their last pocket in the northern city of Aleppo, rebels and residents said on Saturday. They said at least eight strikes targeted Binish, Saraqeb and...

Status Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt died in hospital on Saturday after suffering a severe infection, his family said. The veteran rocker, who had survived numerous health scares, was 68. He was taken into hospital in Marbella on the south coast of Spain on Thursday due to complications with a...

(Sky News)- The Boko Haram extremist group has been crushed and forced from its last enclave, Nigeria's president has said. Muhammadu Buhari said Nigeria's army had captured a key Boko Haram camp in the Sambisa forest that was its stronghold. "The terrorists are on the run and no longer...

(The Guardian)- In 10 days’ time a court in Cairo will hear an appeal by journalist Esraa Abdel Fattah against the iniquitous travel ban imposed on her two years ago. She was prevented from leaving Egypt in January 2015 to take up a scholarship at Stanford university in California because a...

Frank Lampard admitted on Saturday he would relish a return to Chelsea as a player and is keen to rejoin the Premier League leaders in some capacity even if he is not offered a deal. The former England midfielder is Chelsea's all-time leading goalscorer and is keeping his options open after...

Security was heightened for the Christmas weekend in Italy and at the Vatican on Saturday after Italian police killed the man believed to be responsible for the Berlin market truck attack while other European cities kept forces on high alert. In France, Britain and Germany, which have all...