A cement plant in Syria at the centre of a terror financing investigation in France was used by western intelligence agencies to gather information on hostages held by Islamic State, sources connected to the operation have said. A Jordanian intelligence officer who was central to the spying...

After a lull in violence in northwest rural Hama, since last year people began returning to their homes, including As-suqaylabiyah city, to rebuild their lives following years of displacement. With the current economic downturn, families, who have lived through a decade of violence, struggle...

The Paris appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that found an uncle of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad guilty of acquiring millions of euros' worth of French property using funds diverted from the Syrian state, the AFP news agency reported on Thursday. The court also confirmed a...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities will allow between 100 and 150 Westerners, including Americans, to fly out from Kabul in the coming hours, Qatari officials said Thursday, marking the airport’s first such flight since U.S. forces withdrew from the country. The...

JERUSALEM (AP) — For nearly two decades, Zakaria Zubeidi has been an object of fascination for Israelis and Palestinians alike, who have seen his progression from a child actor to a swaggering militant, to the scarred face of a West Bank theater promoting “cultural resistance” to Israeli...

Morocco's long-ruling Islamists have suffered a crushing defeat to liberal parties seen as close to the palace in parliamentary elections, according to provisional results announced early Thursday. The Justice and Development Party (PJD) which headed the ruling coalition for a decade saw its...

Lebanon will not deport six men from Deraa in Syria after they were arrested last month for illegally crossing the border, the country’s top intelligence official has said. “General Security will not deport the six Syrians and will work to regularise their legal status,” Abbas Ibrahim, who...

GENEVA (AP) — Rich countries with large supplies of coronavirus vaccines should refrain from offering booster shots through the end of the year and make the doses available for poorer countries, the head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday, doubling down on an earlier appeal for a...

Syrian regime troops entered Deraa al Balaad, the birthplace of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s rule, for the first time since it lost control over the area a decade ago, residents, the army and former rebels said. Army units set up at least nine checkpoints across the city under a...

After France’s top court ruled that cement giant Lafarge should face investigation on charges of complicity in crimes against humanity for financing the terrorist group Daesh/ISIS, representatives of civil groups involved with the case spoke to Anadolu Agency. The civil parties in the...

 Technology companies that led the charge into remote work as the pandemic unfurled are confronting a new challenge: how, when and even whether they should bring long-isolated employees back to offices that have been designed for teamwork. “I thought this period of remote work would be...

France's top court on Thursday overturned a decision by a lower court to dismiss charges brought against cement giant Lafarge for complicity in crimes against humanity in Syria's civil war. The ruling by the Court of Cassation marks a major setback for Lafarge, which is accused of...

At least four people, including a child and a woman, were killed and fifteen more wounded in Syrian artillery attacks on the rebel-held areas in northwestern Syria, opposition activists said. The  Tuesday's night  shelling of the city of Idlib came after several airstrikes...

Syrian refugees who returned home were subjected to torture, detention and disappearance by security forces, Amnesty International has said, urging foreign governments to protect them from deportation and forcible return. In a report, titled “You’re going to your death”, the...

Swedish authorities arrested two women from Sweden suspected of committing war crimes in Syria, the prosecutors office and local media said Tuesday, the first such arrests in the Scandinavian country. According to a statement from the prosecutor's office , three women from the territories...

A car passed, the driver’s window rolled down and the man spat an epithet at two little girls wearing their hijabs: “Terrorist!” It was 2001, mere weeks after the World Trade Center fell, and 10-year-old Shahana Hanif and her younger sister were walking to the local mosque from their...

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban on Tuesday announced a caretaker Cabinet that paid homage to the old guard of the group, giving top posts to Taliban personalities who dominated the 20-year battle against the U.S.-led coalition and its Afghan government allies. Interim Prime Minister...

BANGKOK (AP) — The main underground group coordinating resistance to Myanmar’s military government issued a sweeping call for a nationwide uprising on Tuesday, raising the prospect of spiraling unrest. The National Unity Government, which views itself as a shadow government, was established...

With COVID-19 cases rising and hospitals in parts of war-torn Syria struggling to cope, there has been an urgent need to speed up the vaccination programme. This weekend over 358,000 doses were delivered cross-border by WHO Turkey into northwest Syria. WHO is pleased to announce that this is the...

A precarious ceasefire held in the city of Deraa on Monday after negotiators for rebel forces and the Syrian government tried to close to a comprehensive peace agreement to end a three-month siege. The tense negotiations to finalise the deal came after new government demands to deploy nine...