A senior Syrian opposition official Friday ruled out even indirect peace talks with the government before a halt to Russian airstrikes and the lifting of government blockades on populated areas. George Sabra, deputy head of the opposition delegation, also said the opposition council he...

Turkey is "closely watching" Russian troop movements in Syria near its border, a government source in Ankara said Friday, after reports that Russian servicemen had deployed in the Syrian border town of Qamishli. Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said that Russia...

Syrian Kurds must be represented at peace talks in Geneva or they will fail, a Syrian Kurdish leader said Friday, adding that one of the opposition groups involved, Jaysh al-Islam, had the "same mentality" as al Qaeda and ISIS. "If there are some parties that are effective in this Syria issue...

Five children were hurt on Friday when an explosive ripped through a schoolyard in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, a region gripped by violence between militants and state security forces for months, security sources said. The sources blamed the attack on the Kurdistan Workers...

Protests over unemployment rates in Tunisia, which started in the western Kasserine province, have intensified and spread to other parts of the country. Solidarity rallies were held in cities including Tunis, Sidi Bouzid and Gafsa on Thursday, with several reports of suicide attempts as...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Al-Muthanna Islamic Movement operating in the southern province of Daraa has freed Sheikh Khaled Zein al Abedin, head of Ahel Horan association after one day of abduction, sources told Zaman al-Wasl. Sheikh Zein al Abedin and Sheikh Yousef al-Amer were kidnapped in the western...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Al Qaeda's Syria branch, the Nusra Front, has set up three more checkpoints in rebel-held Aleppo city late on Wednesday, such a move sparked outrage of rebel factions operating in Aleppo. Zaman al Wasl reporter said people of Aleppo have also expressed their disappointment...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Two people have died due to unknown epidemic that has the same symptoms of flu in Tal Abyad town in the eastern province of Raqqa, local activists said Thursday. Many people have been suffering high fever, joint pain and headache. Medics and activists have called on...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Field sources said two clerics were abducted on Thursday by al-Muthanna Islamic movement in the southern province of Daraa. Sheikh Khaled Zein al Abedin, head of Ahel Horan association, and Sheikh Yousef la-Amer were kidnapped in the western countryside by militants affiliated...

At least 12 refugees have drowned in the Aegean Sea after their boat sank near the Foca district of the western Turkish province of Izmir. The Turkish Coast Guard found the bodies on Thursday while on patrol. However, 26 other people were rescued, including children and women, and 12 more...

Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Thursday that three Americans who disappeared in Iraq last week "just went missing," and he very much doubted any Iranian involvement. Asked by a pool reporter at the start of a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Davos...

An Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent is missing and is believed to have been kidnapped while reporting in the besieged Yemeni city of Taiz. Hamdi al-Bokari, a Yemeni national, was last seen around 10pm on Monday in the middle of the war-torn central city, according to a statement by Al Jazeera...

On New Years Eve in Cologne, Germany, a number of women said they were sexually harassed by a group of men that may have included some asylum seekers. Recent reports though show that Syrian refugees in Cologne helped protect an American woman from organized attacks. Hesham Ahmad Mohammad, 32,...

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused Russia Thursday of jeopardizing peace talks on Syria planned for next week by insisting on the inclusion of "terrorist groups" such as the Kurdish YPG militia on the opposition side. Turkey is concerned by the growing influence of the YPG, across...

Airstrikes by Saudi-led forces hit oil storage facilities at Yemen's Ras Isa port on the Red Sea Thursday, killing at least five people, oil workers said. They said the attack targeted a facility used to load tanker trucks with refined products for domestic distribution. The area was on fire...

More than 100 humanitarian and U.N. agencies called Thursday for an end to the war in Syria, appealing to governments and people around the world to add their voices to the demand for an end to the 'carnage.' Oxfam, Save the Children, Caritas International, nearly 30 UNICEF branches and...

The U.S.-led coalition on Wednesday staged 16 strikes in Iraq and Syria targeting the against Islamic State militant group, the Combined Joint Task Force leading the operations said. In a statement released on Thursday, the coalition said 15 strikes in Iraq centered on seven...

Israel confirmed on Thursday it was planning to appropriate a large tract of fertile land in the occupied West Bank, close to Jordan, a move likely to exacerbate tensions with Western allies and already drawing international condemnation. In an email sent to Reuters, COGAT, a...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian regime allowed Wednesday fuel and gas trucks to enter besieged al-Waer neighborhood in Homs, local activists told Zaman al-Wasl. Three trucks loaded by fuel and 500 gas cylinders were entered to al-Awer in biding to the U.N.-brokered ceasefire reached last month....

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 53 people, mostly soldiers, were killed on Wednesday in the central province of Homs when a barrel-bomb factory exploded in a military base west of Homs city, well-informed source said. Regime forces and state-run media were very discreet over the huge explosion...