The Israeli army on Thursday said it has returned two shepherds who crossed into Israeli territory back to Syria, a development that an Israeli official said was part of an impending prisoner swap Syria had reported the previous day. Syria’s official news agency SANA said Wednesday that...

 A hardline organization running Syria's last major opposition bastion released on Wednesday an American self-described journalist accused of having ties to jihadists, a war monitor said. "The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) alliance has released Bilal Abdul Kareem, who has American...

United Arab Emirates-based carrier Flydubai is preparing for the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to rejoin its fleet, the Dubai government's media office said on Twitter on Thursday. The UAE civil aviation authority announced on Wednesday it was lifting the safety ban on the aircraft, which was...

The Lebanese pound fell sharply on the black market Wednesday, trading over 9,000 to the dollar for the first time in months

U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone Wednesday after a month of silence that raised concerns in Israel about a frostier relationship between the two allies. Netanyahu's office was first to announce the conversation, releasing a photo of a...

The United Arab Emirates is dismantling parts of a military base it runs in the East African nation of Eritrea after it pulled back from the grinding war in nearby Yemen, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show. The UAE built a port and expanded an airstrip in Assab beginning...

NATO has just under 10,000 troops in the war-ravaged country helping to train and advise the Afghan security forces. Most of them are not U.S. forces, but the allies could not continue the NATO operation if American transport, logistics and other support are withdrawn. President Joe Biden...

Saudi Arabia wants to mediate between the parties in a longstanding dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam project and hold talks with their leaders, Sudan’s Council of Ministers said Wednesday.  Saudi Minister of State for African Affairs Ahmed Bin Abdul Aziz Kattan has...

The deaths stacked up: a policeman shot dead with a pistol equipped with a silencer, a local official gunned down, his son wounded, an Iraqi man beheaded. In total, 20 men and women were killed last month in the sprawling camp in northeastern Syria housing families of the Islamic State group....

The United States has officially held the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) responsible for the killing of 13 kidnapped Turkish citizens in northern Iraq. US State Department spokesman, Ned Price, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken had spoken to his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut...

A court in Jerusalem on Monday ordered six Palestinian families to vacate the homes they have lived in for nearly 70 years to make way for Jewish settlers. Israeli NGO Peace Now said in a statement yesterday that the Jerusalemite families, comprised of 27 people living in four houses,...

The terrorism trial of the man who inspired the film “Hotel Rwanda” began on Wednesday with his argument that a Rwandan court cannot try him because he is no longer a citizen and his assertion that he was kidnapped and is being held hostage. The world has heard little from Paul...

The United Nations’ human rights body said Wednesday it will seek information from the United Arab Emirates about a daughter of Dubai’s powerful ruler after she said in video messages that she was being imprisoned in a heavily guarded villa. Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum tried...

The Palestinian Authority sent the first shipment of coronavirus vaccines to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Wednesday, two days after accusing Israel of preventing it from dispatching the doses amid objections from some Israeli lawmakers. Palestinian Health Minister Mai Alkaila said in a...

The United Arab Emirates, a key international travel hub, announced on Wednesday it has lifted its ban on Boeing’s 737 Max, allowing the plane to return to its skies after being grounded for nearly two years following a pair of deadly crashes. Saif al-Suwaidi, director general of the...

With the help of Russian mediation, Damascus is securing the release of two Syrians held in Israel in exchange for releasing an Israeli woman that entered Syria by mistake, Syria’s official news agency reported Wednesday. The report did not provide details on when the Syrians were taken...

The Palestinian Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, had planned to send the Russian Sputnik V doses through Israel to Gaza, a separate territory run by Islamist movement Hamas. But on Monday evening, the PA health ministry said Israel had blocked the delivery. But on Monday...

 The leaders of New Zealand and Australia were engaged in a bitter fight Tuesday over which country will inherit an alleged Islamic State militant who at one point held citizenship in both nations. The 26-year-old woman and two children were detained when they tried to illegally...

UNITED NATIONS -- British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says he will urge the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution calling for cease-fires in conflict zones to allow the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. Britain holds the council presidency this month and Raab is chairing a virtual...

Libyans on Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of their 2011 uprising that led to the overthrow and eventual killing of longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi. The day comes as Libyans have their eyes on a recently appointed government tasked with leading the country through elections late...