(The Guardian )- The Gambia has announced its withdrawal from the international criminal court, accusing the tribunal of the “persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans”. The announcement late on Tuesday came after similar decisions this month by South Africa and...

Islamic State fighters kept up on Wednesday their fierce defense of the southern approaches to Mosul, which has held up Iraqi troops there and forced an elite army unit east of the city to put a more rapid advance on hold. Ten days into what is expected to be the biggest ground offensive in...

(Eqtsad)- Om Ali, a diabetic with heart disease lady from a remote village in Western countryside of Damascus, waits at door of health centres begging for treatment and the medication she needs after becoming unable to afford for her life-long drugs. She was offered new medication different...

(The Daily Star)- Britain cannot have it all as it exits the European Union and cannot leave behind the bloc's problems while benefiting from its advantages, French agriculture minister Stephane Le Foll said Wednesday. "You cannot say when exiting the EU you will keep all the advantages but...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Many athletes had joined the Syrian revolution soon after its start, 20 football player were killed with by regime forces, 2 of the were killed under torture in regime’s prisons. 13 detainees still missing, added to dozens of wounded and martyrs of under-18 year old athletes....

One in three Germans worry that tensions between the West and Russia over Crimea, Ukraine and Syria could lead to a military confrontation, according to an opinion poll by the respected Forsa institute published on Wednesday. The survey found that 32 percent of 2,504 Germans polled believe it...

(The Daily Star)- Kurdish YPG militia fighters will be a part of the force to isolate ISIS-held Syrian city of Raqqa, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq said Wednesday. The United States regards the YPG as an ally in its fight against ISIS, but Turkey regards it as a terrorist...

Turkey said on Wednesday it will press its military offensive in Syria until Islamic State is driven from the town of al-Bab, despite a warning from forces allied to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and a helicopter attack on the rebels it backs. Turkey's incursion into Syria, launched two...

French authorities declared the Calais migrant camp known as "the jungle," empty on Wednesday, after fires set by departing migrants accelerated plans to evacuate people from the burgeoning slum. Local officials announced the destruction of the camp, where thousands fleeing war and poverty...

(The Daily Star)- An Egyptian court has upheld life sentences against the top leader of the country's now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group and 36 others, including former ministers, in murder and violence charges, and upheld death sentences against 10 others tried in absentia. The Appeals...

(The Guardian)- Russia has withdrawn a request for a flotilla of warships to be allowed to refuel in Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta, after Nato allies criticised Madrid for assisting warships they believe could be used to target civilians in Syria. The Russian embassy in Madrid gave...

The Afghan woman whose teenage portrait became one of the most iconic photos of Afghanistan's decades-long conflict has been arrested by Pakistani authorities, who accused her of living with fake documents. Now in her mid-40s, Sharbat Bibi was famously featured on the cover of the National...

(The Daily Star)- Iraq's army said it had regained full control of the western town of Rutbah on Wednesday, three days after ISIS attacked it. ISIS raided Rutba on Sunday in an apparent effort to divert Iraqi government troops from an ongoing assault on its stronghold in Mosul. The...

Chelsea have called on West Ham United "to deliver a safe event" ahead of Wednesday's League Cup clash at London Stadium, a fixture with a history of crowd trouble that is viewed as a major test of security at the Hammers' new ground. Security has been tightened for the fourth round game...

(The Daily Star)- A major Pakistani militant group worked with ISIS to carry out a huge raid on a police academy in the country's southwest this week that left more than 60 dead, a spokesman said Wednesday. The claim appears to confirm analysts' predictions that the Middle East based group,...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 23 civilians, including seven children, have been killed in Russian air strikes on a school complex in Hass town in northern Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and local activists said.  The Observatory, a British-based war monitor, said...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- A number of Kurdish parties and political figures forming the Kurdish National Council objected to mechanisms to elect independent candidates to the council.  Elections for the Kurdish National Council’s 4th conference are expected to take place in two days. ...

(CNN)- ISIS is sending "suicide squads" from Syria to its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, witnesses have told CNN, as tens of thousands of troops close in on the key city to take it from the militant group's control. Witnesses said most of hundreds of new arrivals had streamed into Mosul from the...

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sought to assure Japan on Wednesday that his high-profile visit to China last week was about economics, not security, and vowed to stand on Tokyo's side over the disputed South China Sea when the time came. Earlier in the day, Duterte reiterated his harsh...

(Human Rights Watch)- Homemade landmines have killed and injured hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children, in Manbij, a city in northern Syria. The antipersonnel mines, often called improvised explosive devices, were planted by the extremist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS,...