Russian President Vladimir Putin is "open to dialogue" and to meeting with his US counterpart Barak Obama when he visits the UN headquarters later this month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Tuesday. "President Putin is always open to dialogue, especially with his colleague President...

Germany today threatened cash penalties for countries which refuse to support a compulsory quota system to distribute asylum seekers around EU nations. Thomas de Maiziere, the German interior minister, said he supported the idea of exerting pressure by cutting the funding reluctant nations...

Al-Shamiya Front said its air defense battalion in the northern province of Aleppo has downed early Tuesday a Syrian army helicopter near al-Nayrab airport, the key rebel group said in statement. Abu Hassan ,rebel commander told Zaman al-Wasl that the helicopter was filled by food and basic...

Israeli police armed with stun grenades and tear gas clashed with rock-throwing Palestinian youths who barricaded themselves inside Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque on Tuesday, police and witnesses said, in the third day of violence at the sacred site. Masked Palestinians hurled flares at the...

Images of a father struggling to hold his baby above the waves and of drowned Syrians washed ashore have not deterred Racha Sattout from gambling her life to seek sanctuary in Germany after fleeing a Syria ripped apart by war. For her and thousands of others waiting to cram onto rubber...

The numbers of Syrian refugees in Iraq and Lebanon fell in August, while the number in Turkey has risen to almost 2 million and asylum applications in Europe have leapt, the U.N. refugee agency said. The Syrian refugee count in Turkey has jumped by more than 200,000 since June,...

 A leading U.S. Congressional opponent to allowing Syrian refugees into the United States said that Middle Eastern nations have "more room" to take in the huge wave of people fleeing their war-torn homeland. The United States faces significant security risks by agreeing to accept 10,000...

Iran wants China's help to resolve tensions and unrest in the Middle East and is ready to play host to more Chinese firms once sanctions against it are lifted, Iran's foreign minister said on Tuesday China and Iran have close diplomatic, economic, trade and energy ties, and...

Thirteen Turkish soldiers were wounded when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb explosion in the largely Kurdish eastern province of Mus, security sources said on Tuesday. Turkey has been hit by waves of daily violence between Kurdish militants and security forces, with much...

(Translation by Yusra Ahmed) Local activists based in Tal-Tamer town in the western countryside of Hasaka city said Asayish, an armed group affiliated to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), had been looting  houses of the Arab villages in in the Kurdish predominantly region northeast Syria....

Around 200 protesters gathered near Beirut’s international airport Monday to warn the Lebanese government over allowing the body of the head of Israel's former proxy militia in south Lebanon to be buried in the country.

A U.S.-led coalition attacked Islamic State militants on Sunday with 18 air strikes in Iraq and four in Syria, the military said in a statement released on Monday. The Iraq attacks were concentrated near Baiji and near Kisik, the Combined Joint Task Force said in the statement. Four air...

President Francois Hollande said on Monday French airstrikes against ISIS militants in Syria would be necessary. "We are part of the coalition in Iraq (against ISIS)," Hollande said in a news conference with his Nigerian counterpart Muhammadu Buhari. "We started reconnaissance flights (in...

Russia has positioned about a half dozen tanks at an airfield at the center of a military buildup in Syria, two U.S. officials said on Monday, adding that the intentions of Moscow's latest deployment of heavy military equipment were unclear. Moscow has come under increased...

Two car bombs exploded in the eastern Syrian of city Hasaka on Monday, at least one of which targeted Kurdish fighters, causing an unknown number of casualties, a monitor said, with state television confirming the explosions. The first blast occurred in Khashman area in the...

Britain Monday announced it had appointed a minister to deal specifically with the 20,000 Syrian refugees that the country has agreed to resettle from camps bordering the war-torn country. "The queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of Richard Harrington MP as a Parliamentary...

Norwegian politicians are looking into sending refugees to Svalbard, an Atlantic archipelago that is one of the world’s most remote areas – and which is currently inhabited by more polar bears than people. Local representatives hope that Svalbard could receive and then home refugees. The...

Muslims and Israeli police clashed at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound for a second straight day Monday, prompting at least three arrests, police said. "As the police entered the compound masked youths fled inside the mosque and threw stones at the force," a police statement...

Egyptian security forces killed 12 Mexicans and Egyptians and injured 10 "by accident" on Monday, mistaking a tourist convoy for militants they were chasing in the country's western desert, the ministry of interior said. At least two Mexicans were killed, Mexico's foreign ministry said...

 Central bank Governor Chadli Ayari said Tunisia may sell U.S.-backed bonds this year to shore up public finances as militant attacks take a toll on the country. The U.S. has agreed “in principle” to guarantee the bonds, Ayari said in an interview in Cairo. Ayari added that he doesn’t...