Russia's U.N. ambassador says a key aim of a high-level meeting on Syria is to get countries that support moderate opposition groups to use their influence to work for a new cease-fire. Vitaly Churkin said Friday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John...
(Eqtsad)- Syrian Activists in Turkey reported that offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) refuses admitting Syrian refugees and ignore them even in days allocated for the public. Journalist Jamal Mamo told Eqtsad that directors of UNHCR most of the time close...
(Zaman al-Wasl)- Activists said death of Abu Ja'far al-Homsi was due to myocardial infarction and not being assassinated on Thursday in northern Idlib province. Ghaith Abu Ahmad, a member in the brigade's media office, told Zaman al-Wasl that the military commander of the Martyrs of Islam...
(Tablet)- When her 27-year-old son died in Syria, Rima felt more furious than sad. Unfortunately, she could not say out loud what she wanted to say. He was sent to fight in Syria, without her approval, and without receiving proper training. She wanted to blame someone—mainly those who had...
(Zaman Al Wasl)- A rebel group operating in central Hama province said Friday it had killed Russian and Iranian officers, according to statement posted online. Failaq al-Sham says the operation took three months of monitoring and tracking the Russian personnel in Hama city, assuring...
(FT)- Rebel-held eastern Aleppo looks as though it will either fall or be razed to the ground in the face of relentless Russian bombardment from the air and under siege from Iran-backed militia on the ground. President Vladimir Putin will then have got his way: saving the regime of Bashar...
(The Guardian)- Pity the luckless children of Aleppo. If only the bombs raining down on them, killing their parents, maiming their friends, destroying their hospitals – if only those bombs were British or, better still, American. Then the streets of London would be jammed with protestors...
(Zaman Al Wasl)- Muslims around the world celebrate the religious day of Ashura as a commemoration of the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussein. Ceremonies of this day are practiced in a bizarre and bloody way, in which men punish themselves and cause pain to themselves even...
The leader of the Shia Houthi militia on Thursday accused the U.S. of planning an attack on Yemen’s Al-Hodeida province following a U.S. cruise missile strike one day earlier that targeted Houthi positions along Yemen’s Red Sea coast. In a statement broadcast by the Houthi-run Al-Maseera...
Top seed Angelique Kerber suffered a shock defeat at the hands of eighth seed Australian Daria Gavrilova in the quarter-finals of the Hong Kong Open Friday. Gavrilova dispatched the reigning Australian and US Open champion 6-3, 6-1, and will now face Kristina Mladenovic of France in the...
In a dank flat in southwestern France, 23-year-old Nasir stares at a living room wall bare except for a list of emergency numbers and contemplates life for his asylum-seeking family outside the migrant camp in Calais that had become home. Nasir volunteered his family for resettlement days...
As Hurricane Matthew roared across southwestern Haiti, Joselien Jean-Baptiste huddled with his family while the wind whipped at his little house. When it was finally safe to venture outside at dawn the 60-year-old farmer realized his troubles had only just begun. The storm knocked down part...
Greece has returned a group of 60 irregular migrants to Turkey, the Greek ministry of public order and citizen protection announced Friday. Afghanistan, Algeria, Iran, Morocco, Palestine, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka nationals were sent from the Greek island of Lesbos to the coastal town of...
Overwhelmed rescue workers combed rubble for victims of intense air strikes on Syria's battleground city Aleppo on Friday, ahead of fresh diplomatic efforts to end the country's intractable conflict. The United States and Russia, which support opposite sides in the five-year war, will meet...
A senior rebel commander said on Friday that Syrian government forces would never be able to capture Aleppo's opposition-held east, more than three weeks into a ferocious offensive, but a military source said the operation was going as planned. Russian air strikes were proving of little help...
State television threatens the West with nuclear weapons, the Kremlin halts a disarmament treaty, the army warns of shooting down US jets. As ties between Russia and the West have once again slumped, rhetoric in Moscow has peaked. "Relations between Russia and the US, and the West in...
The Syrian refugee suspected of planning to bomb a Berlin airport was radicalised only after arriving in Germany, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Friday, citing the suspect's brother who still lives in Syria. Jaber Albakr committed suicide in prison in Leipzig on Wednesday after two fellow...
Humanitarian aid for the Syrian province of Aleppo is currently stuck at the Turkish border, said a UN official on Friday. “Twenty UN humanitarian aid trucks have been stuck at the Turkish-Syrian border and aid supply cannot be reached to the east of Aleppo neither by air nor by land,” UN...
Top-ranked Novak Djokovic hummed on the baseline to keep himself calm as he survived an almighty scare against 110th-ranked Mischa Zverev to reach the Shanghai Masters semi-finals on Friday. The defending champion, who has been struggling with motivation and injuries, lost the first set and...
Nigeria's first lady has openly questioned her husband's work and said she may not support him if he runs again — comments that President Muhammadu Buhari laughed off, saying, "I don't know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room." His comments to...
