Iran on Saturday dismissed as meddling in its internal affairs criticism by the United Nations’ human rights boss of the shooting deaths of protesters during demonstrations over water shortages. Meanwhile, rallies in support of the protests in the southwestern province of...

Two Turkish soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an attack on their armoured vehicle in northern Syria, and Turkish forces immediately launched retaliatory fire, Turkey’s defence ministry said on Saturday. “Our punitive fire against terrorist positions is continuing,” the...

 Russia plans to airlift over 160 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Syria and sign 10 agreements within the next seven days on the sidelines of a bilateral forum in Damascus, the Russian defense ministry said Saturday. The forum for Russian and Syrian interdepartmental groups on...

The United Nations has voiced deep concern over the escalating violence in northwestern Syria, which poses an increasing risk to civilians. Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the ongoing fighting caused the death and injury to dozens of...

Iran has slashed its gas supply to Iraq’s electric power stations feeding the country’s southern and central parts by 19 million cubic meters per day, cutting down 1,000 megawatts of electricity, according to the Iraqi government. "The rates of Iranian gas being supplied to the production...

Customs officials at the Al-Haditha Port, located near Saudi Arabia's border with Jordan, managed to thwart an attempt to smuggle about 2.1 million Captagon pills into the Kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Friday. In a statement carried by the SPA, the Zakat, Taxation...

The shortages and currency crunch in Lebanon could lead to a collapse of the mains water supply in Lebanon within a month, the UN's Children Fund warned Friday. "More than four million people, including one million refugees, are at immediate risk of losing access to safe water in Lebanon,"...

Syria's Hend Zaza was just five when she first picked up a table tennis paddle, and now the 12-year-old is the youngest person to compete at the Tokyo Olympics. Zaza shot to fame overnight in her war-torn country last year after beating a Lebanese rival in her forties to win the West Asia...

TOKYO (AP) — There's a phenomenon that happens every time Simone Biles appears on a screen inside Power Moves Gymnastics & Fitness. As if flipping a switch, the young women of color on the gym's competitive team spring to life, fueled by the jolt of adrenaline that comes watching the...

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Thousands of Eritrean refugees are increasingly caught in the middle of the conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where witnesses and U.N. officials say forces have attacked their camps, abducted or killed some of the residents, and stolen their food and possessions....

TOKYO (AP) — Belated and beleaguered, the virus-delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics finally opened Friday night with a dazzling display of fireworks and soaring, made-for-TV choreography that unfolded in a near-empty stadium, a strangely subdued ceremony that set a striking tone to match a unique...

Far right activist Tommy Robinson has lost a libel case brought against him by a Syrian schoolboy who was filmed being attacked at school. The English Defence League founder – real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon – was sued by Jamal Hijazi after he posted two videos containing false slurs on...

Syrian regime artillery shells struck a village in the last rebel enclave in the country's northwest on Thursday, killing seven members of the same family, including four children, rescue workers and a war monitor said.   The shelling is part of an ongoing military escalation...

In a strategic move to neutralize the impact of US sanctions on oil shipments overseas, Iran on Thursday inaugurated an oil terminal in the Sea of Oman, bypassing the restive Strait of Hormuz. The long-awaited $2 billion project, which will allow Iran to export oil directly from the Sea...

Human rights groups on Thursday accused Israeli authorities of torturing a Palestinian detainee to death. Abdu al-Khatib, 43, lost his life during interrogation at al-Moscobiyeh interrogation center in occupied East Jerusalem. “Testimonies gathered from his families and other detainees...

Iranians are marking a quiet Eid al-Adha on Wednesday amid a stringent lockdown in the capital Tehran and adjoining provinces over a fresh wave of the pandemic. The six-day lockdown, announced on Tuesday, came ahead of the Eid holiday as the Delta variant of the COVID-19 is driving the fifth...

 Syrian regime artillery shells struck a village in the last rebel enclave in the country on Thursday, killing seven members of the same family, including four children, rescue workers and a war monitor said. The shelling is part of an ongoing military escalation in the area in...

Syria accused Israel Thursday of carrying out an airstrike in a central province, the second time in as many days, saying the aerial attack caused material damage. An unidentified Syrian military official quoted by the state news agency said air defenses shot down most of the missiles in the...

Reports of athletes, lawmakers and others getting the coronavirus despite vaccination may sound alarming but top health experts point to overwhelming evidence that the shots are doing exactly what they are supposed to: dramatically reducing severe illness and death. The best indicator: U.S....

(CNN)In the central Syrian desert, an oil field has become a makeshift torture chamber. An unarmed man writhes in the dust, howling in pain. Four men in military fatigues pin him down and smash his hands and feet with a sledgehammer. As he cries out for help, they taunt him in Russian,...