Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr claims Mikel Obi is being "punished" by Premier League club Chelsea for playing at the Rio Olympics. Mikel, 29, missed most of Chelsea pre-season as he helped his country win a bronze medal at the football event of the Summer Olympic Games. He has yet to play...

ISIS fighters have executed scores more people around Mosul this week and are reportedly stockpiling ammonia and sulfur in civilian areas, possibly for use as chemical weapons, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said Friday. A mass grave with over 100 bodies found in the town of...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces on Thursday allowed hundreds of Iraqi refugees to cross via the barrier of Rajm Salibi at the Syrian-Iraqi borders to the camp of al-Hol Eastern of Hasaka. Farhan Saleh al-Turkey, manager of the human Rights Organisation office and other...

Riot police and armored vehicles filled the otherwise empty streets of central Cairo early on Friday as security forces built up a heavy presence in anticipation of popular protests over deteriorating economic conditions. A little-known group calling itself Movement of the Poor has called...

Almost 1,600 square kilometers (617 square miles) of land in northern Syria has been cleared of Daesh terrorists as part of Operation Euphrates Shield. In the last three days, Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army forces (FSA), have reached within eight kilometers of the Al-Bab district, in the...

(Rudaw)- ISIS militants launched chemical weapons attacks on Qayyara in the weeks after Iraqi forces retook control of the town, a new report from Human Rights Watch confirmed.  The attacks, in September and October, “caused painful burns to at least seven people consistent with...

(Independent)- The mood is damp and oh so ugly. It is difficult to believe that in two months’ time, the first black President of the United States will hand over the keys to the White House to a man who got there on an Islamaphobic, xenophobic ticket and ended up being congratulated by a former...

President-elect Donald Trump's positions on Middle East issues, if carried out, could bring yet more volatility to the world's most combustible region. Besides vowing to rip up the international nuclear deal with Iran, Trump says he will ramp up the war on Islamic State militants; he could...

It wasn't coarse language that got Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte attention this time; it was his crooning. He and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak performed karaoke at a state dinner in Malaysia on Thursday. Duterte sang Bette Midler's "Wind Beneath My Wings" while Najib...

The United States is continuing to reinforce its military forces in Europe as planned, irrespective of President-elect Donald Trump's future intentions, the Pentagon said Thursday. Trump, who will take office in January, raised serious concerns in Europe by promising during his campaign that...

In the sandy yard of a shelter near the Syrian capital Damascus, a three-legged dog bounds excitedly, her tongue swinging as she runs despite her amputated limb. Betty is one of 350 animals housed at a farm-turned-shelter run by the Syrian Team for Animal Rescue (STAR), whose volunteers...

(Eqtsad)- Ahmad, a pupil in the sixth grade, goes to his school every morning, but he returns home an hour later. When he is asked why he returned, he always says, “there are no teachers.” Ahmad’s was confirmed true by Ahed, pupil in the same grade but in a different school. Ahed and Ahmad are...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- An eye-witness described the last moment of Omar Bakour’s life, our late Zaman al-wasl correspondent in Idlib, who passed away in regime air strikes on the village of al-Dana in Idlib countryside last Sunday. Abo al-Ola Amin, rebel fighter, told Zaman al-Wasl that he had seen...

Michelle Obama carried on an awkward White House tradition when she hosted Melania Trump for tea Thursday. It was their first meeting, coming on the heels of the ugliest campaign in recent history. They talked about raising children and took a tour of the White House’s private residence...

(Daily Sabah)- Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said Thursday he knew who killed Yasser Arafat as he marked the 12th anniversary of the former leader's death but stopped short from giving a name. Speaking in front of thousands, Abbas said "you ask me who killed him, I know -- but my...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Regime's warplanes have committed a massacre around the crossing point of Nasib between Syria and Jordan near Daraa, killing 10 people including children and women, adding to dozens of injuries.  Field sources reported that regime warplanes have Thursday stroke a group...

(Middle East Eye)- Egyptian authorities have frozen the assets of a prominent human rights group that works with torture victims, the head of the organisation said on Thursday. The move came months after authorities tried on two separate occasions to shut down the El Nadeem Centre for the...

(Zaman al-Wasl)- 79 days passed on the battle of Euphrates Shield in Northern countryside of Aleppo, it reached to the city of al-Bab, and only few kilometres separating it from other fighting factions.  Head of the Turkish military staff reported Thursday killing two members of the...

Police put up metal security fences around U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's new Washington hotel on Thursday and a line of concrete blocks shielded the front of New York's Trump Tower as cities around the country braced for a second day of protests over his election. A day after thousands...

Cyprus police say a Syrian woman says she gave birth aboard a boat loaded with 128 other migrants as they made their way from Turkey to the eastern Mediterranean island. Police spokesman Andreas Angelides said Thursday the woman told authorities the birth took place a day into the two-day...