Talks on a political solution to the civil war in Syria got under way Friday, with 17 countries plus the United Nations and European Union taking part. Syria itself was not represented, but senior envoys from Turkey, Italy, Britain, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt,...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian and Russian warplanes continued Friday its deadly air strikes on rebel-held areas in northern and western Syria in an initial death tool reaches 75, mostly from a rebel-held town near Damascus and Aleppo, according to monitoring groups and activists.   At least 47...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 47 people were killed and about 200 wounded after Syrian regime forces fired missiles into a market place in a town northeast Damascus, activists and monitoring groups said on Friday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces fired 12 missiles at...

Saudi Arabia has said reports about its response to the Syrian refugee crisis are “false and misleading” and it has in fact given residency to 100,000 people as war rages in their country. The kingdom’s statement followed a similar defence issued by the United Arab Emirates after questions were...

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged participants at international talks aimed at resolving the brutal war in Syria to show “flexibility” and welcomed Iran’s participation for the first time in the discussions. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will join key players in the...

A draft U.N. resolution aimed at reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks calls for a freeze on Jewish settlements and halting moves to prosecute Israel at the International Criminal Court. The text drafted by New Zealand has been circulated to the 15 Security Council members, as well as Israel...

Alex Whiting, Thomson Reuters Foundation- Nearly 100,000 refugees in Gaza face a second winter without proper housing, with just one of their homes rebuilt since being damaged or destroyed in conflict last year, said a United Nations agency that provides assistance in the region. Families are...

The rules are clear in Al-Obaidi in northern Iraq, the only U.N. refugee camp in Iraq operating in territory controlled by ISIS. Women have to cover their faces with a niqab and cannot walk around without a male escort. No alcohol or smoking is allowed. The Internet is forbidden although the...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Russia's warplanes have carried out more than 20 raids on northern countryside of Homs city, activists told Zaman al Wasl on Thursday as the regime army backed by fighters from Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah launch a new offensive on embattled towns of the central province. A...

(Reuters)- A former German rapper who participated in propaganda videos for Islamic State and sought to lure foreigners to the militant group has been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Syria, two U.S. officials said on Thursday. Born in Berlin, Denis Cuspert was once a popular rapper...

(Reuters)- The deadly crush that occurred at the haj near Mecca last month killed at least 2,070 people, nearly triple the number accounted for in a death toll maintained by Saudi authorities, a Reuters tally indicated on Thursday. Saudi Arabia has come under heavy criticism for...

The United States has "operational information" that leads U.S. officials to believe Russian military aircraft hit a hospital while carrying out bombing raids in Syria, the State Department said on Thursday. Since the start of the Russian bombing campaign on Sept. 30, various...

The United States urged the Iraqi government to increase security at a camp near Baghdad airport holding Iranian dissidents after an attack on the facility on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement. Kerry also called on Iraqi officials to find those...

Around 15 rockets landed on Thursday near a camp next to Baghdad International Airport holding members of an exiled Iranian opposition group, an Iraqi military spokesman said. It was not immediately clear whether the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI), based in Iraq since the...

The foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia met Thursday in Vienna to work through their differences on the eve of talks on the war in Syria. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and ministers Sergei Lavrov, Feridun Sinirlioglu and Adel al-Jubeir form a core...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Syrian activists and state-owned media are saying that several mortar shells hit near the Russian Embassy in Damascus, but no injuries were recorded, AP reported. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 shells struck in the vicinity of the...

Britain's domestic spy service chief said extremists militants pose the biggest threat to the country that he had seen in his 32 years in intelligence, as he called for new digital surveillance powers to keep Britons safe. Andrew Parker, head of MI5, said again that militants are planning mass...

A number of leaders in the first row of the Islamic Movement Ahrar al-Sham denied media allegations that talked about a meeting of the leaders of the Movement with Russia in the Turkish city of Istanbul. "Labib Nahhas" head of foreign relations in the political wing of Ahrar al-Sham in a tweet...

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed on Thursday that there must be a political solution to the crisis in Syria. China has repeatedly expressed opposition to the use of force to resolve the crisis in Syria, saying that a political solution was the only way out....

An Israeli paramilitary policeman shot dead a Palestinian who had stabbed a soldier in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, police and the army said, as a month-long spate of attacks showed no signs of abating. The latest assault, like other recent stabbings, took place in the West Bank city of...