The United States could start injecting the first Americans with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine by Monday, the country's health secretary said Friday. Alex Azar told news channels that final details were being ironed out, after an expert committee convened by regulators voted to grant...

Turkey is planning to withdraw from more military positions in Syria's north-west province of Idlib, citing the need to avoid "potential risks". According to sources who informed the news outlet Middle East Eye, Turkish forces will soon be evacuated from two military positions in the areas...

, the Interior Ministry announced on Friday. The ministry decided not to renew a ban on deportations to Syria that has been in place since 2012, when the United Nations formally declared Syria had entered a civil war. The prohibition sought to protect failed asylum seekers from being...

Last month, Iraqi authorities gave families displaced by the war against Islamic State just 48 hours to pack up and leave the Al-Ishaki camp before it was closed. When the deadline expired, pick-up trucks and military vehicles arrived to take about 200 people back to their hometown....

Turkmen families displaced due to attacks by the Syrian Bashar al-Assad regime are facing hardship in trying to provide winter clothes for their children and fuel for heating as the freezing weather sets in. Families who left the predominantly Turkmen Bayirbucak region, located north of...

EU leaders plan to discuss arm exports to Turkey with NATO allies and Washington, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday, after Greece pushed for an arms embargo on Ankara. Merkel spoke after a summit where the bloc’s 27 leaders agreed to prepare limited sanctions on Turkish...

In a development the United Nations calls "disturbing," Ethiopia Friday said it is returning thousands of refugees who ran from camps in its Tigray region as war swept through, putting them on buses back to the border area with Eritrea, the country the refugees originally fled. The news...

Fans of an Israeli soccer club long associated with anti-Arab racism gathered Friday in a show of support for an Emirati businessman's purchase of a stake in the organization, welcoming it as a sign of change even as a smaller number of fans protested the move. Beitar Jerusalem is the only...

Russia’s military will set up positions around the northeast Syrian town of Ain Issa as part of an agreement with the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to reduce attacks from Turkish-controlled areas nearby. Riyadh al-Khalaf, the military council leader for Tal Abyad...

The Interior Ministry has announced that Syrians convicted of serious crimes can be deported for the first time since 2012. The change, from January, won't affect the vast majority of refugees who have made Germany home. Germany will not renew the ban on deportations to war-ravaged...

A group of Syrian refugees took the Canadian citizenship oath in an online ceremony Thursday, the fifth anniversary of when the first plane carrying Syrian refugees arrived in Canada as part of the Liberal government's promise to resettle tens of thousands. Ibrahim Nafash, who was one...

Pro-government Sham FM radio has turned into a platform for state officials to deny corruption claims amid deteriorating economic hardships. The Minister of Agriculture Mohamed Hassan Qatana went on Sham FM to deny his previous suggestion that Syrians should start making their own bread...

Britain is more likely to leave the European Union’s orbit on Dec. 31 without a trade deal than with an agreement, an EU official quoted the head of the European Commission as telling the bloc’s 27 national leaders on Friday. Britain quit the EU in January but remains an informal member...

 President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday U.S. sanctions over Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 missiles would be disrespectful of a NATO ally, after sources said Washington was poised to take the step likely to worsen bilateral relations. Turkey’s lira tumbled nearly 2% after Reuters,...

Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah said on Friday charges brought against the prime minister and three former ministers over the Beirut port explosion smacked of “political targeting”. The statement from the heavily armed, Iran-backed group is part of a wider pushback by some influential parties...

Oman welcomed Morocco’s announcement it was establishing diplomatic ties with Israel, hoping the move will strengthen efforts towards a lasting and just peace in the Middle East, the Gulf state’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Israel and Morocco agreed on Thursday to normalise relations...

Hezbollah said Friday recently filed charges were politically targeting the caretaker prime minister and three allied former ministers over this summer’s massive explosion in Beirut. The group called on the investigating judge to reconsider his decision, saying it lacked a legal and...

US President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were named Time magazine's 2020 "Person of the Year" on Thursday for their election victory over Donald Trump. "For changing the American story, for showing that the forces of empathy are greater than the furies of...

Neymar played a leading part in the unprecedented anti-racism protest which saw Paris Saint-Germain and Istanbul Basaksehir players leave the field in their Champions League match this week, and the Brazilian has also been living up to his status as the world's most expensive player in recent...

Hong Kong media tycoon and Beijing critic Jimmy Lai was charged under a new national security law Friday, accused of colluding with foreign forces, the latest pro-democracy figure targeted under the legislation. The city's new national security unit charged him "with one count of 'collusion...