A successful peace process with the Taliban will allow the government to focus its resources on countering the Islamic State group and its attacks on soft targets, Afghanistan's national security adviser said Saturday. Afghanistan is grappling with a surge in violence that has worsened...

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine within weeks, after UK regulators granted emergency approval and the world's first roll-out begins next week, reports late Saturday said. The monarch, 94, and her 99-year-old husband Prince Philip are in...

Under-pressure Zinedine Zidane said Real Madrid's 1-0 win at Sevilla on Saturday, their first in La Liga since October, was significant after a testing run of games. Sevilla goalkeeper Bono guided Vinicius Junior's effort into his own net in the second half, allowing Zidane's side to...

Jailed Saudi activist Loujain al-Hathloul is accused of contacting "unfriendly" states and providing classified information, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister told AFP Saturday, after the campaigner's trial was transferred to a terrorism court. Hathloul, 31, was arrested in May 2018 with...

In 30 October, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement expressing its deep pain and regret for the dozens of deaths and injuries in Izmir following an earthquake in western Turkey. Most observers paid little attention to the statement and considered it a customary...

A landmine explosion Friday killed a civilian in northern Syria.  The landmine planted by the Kurdish YPG militia in a village in Ayn al-Arab district, detonated Nov. 13 when a farmer was reportedly working in the field, according to sources. Sheikh Nabi Hamo Bozi was...

Mohamed Nasser Al-Hussein, 16, faces great difficulties in his day-to-day life after losing both his legs in a landmine explosion, which makes it harder for him to get to school in his deserted village in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. Al-Hussein  said that...

The UN special envoy for Syria announced Friday that a new round of talks to discuss constitutional principles for a peaceful Syria will begin next month in Geneva   Geir Pedersen told reporters at the UN that there was "some common ground" after five days of talks. "So,...

 The Iranian Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) said on Saturday that the recent bill to increase nuclear enrichment "is not in contradiction with the [Iranian] national interests." Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had objected to the Strategic Act to Revoke Sanctions bill...

 A cargo ship traveling past Yemen in the Gulf of Aden came under attack in unclear circumstances, maritime authorities said Saturday. The Gulf of Aden is a crucial route for global trade and has seen attacks attributed to Yemen’s Houthi rebels as its civil war rages on. A number of...

Thousands of doctors, teachers and others in high-risk groups have signed up for COVID-19 vaccinations in Moscow starting Saturday, a precursor to a sweeping Russia-wide immunization effort. The vaccinations come three days after President Vladimir Putin ordered the launch of a “large-scale”...

President Emmanuel Macron hosts Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi from Sunday for a three-day state visit with France facing calls from activists that Egypt should not be "indulged" despite the close alliance between Cairo and Paris. Egypt and France have enjoyed an increasingly...

The Pentagon said Friday it is pulling most US troops out of Somalia on President Donald Trump's orders, continuing a post-election push by Trump to shrink US involvement in counterterrorism missions abroad. Without providing details, the Pentagon said in a short statement that "a...

With the imminent arrival of coronavirus vaccines that will need to be stored at ultra-low temperatures, US companies are gearing up for a massive logistical effort to aid their distribution. Automaker Ford has ordered its own freezers while meat processing giant Smithfield said it is...

In 2014, the remaining staff of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, or ICARDA, fled their beloved gene bank in Tel Hadia, 20 miles south of Aleppo. Syria’s civil war, which had broken out three years earlier, had finally made the staffing of the facility...

Next year is shaping up to be a humanitarian catastrophe and rich countries must not trample poor countries in a “stampede for vaccines” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, top U.N. officials told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly on Friday. World Food Programme (WFP) chief David Beasley...

   Russia seeks to broker a new reconciliation deal in southern Daraa province as the former deal that reached 30 months ago has come under constant violations by regime forces threatening to renew fighting in the cradle of the Syrian revolution. Sources told Zaman al-Wasl that...

Israeli police on Friday arrested a man for trying to set fire to an east Jerusalem church by the Garden of Gethsemane, the site revered by Christians as the place where Jesus prayed before he was crucified. The 49-year-old Israeli suspect poured flammable liquid inside the Church of All...

Violence in Afghanistan is “unacceptably high” as delayed peace negotiations get underway, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday, adding that Washington has asked the warring parties to “stand back and indeed stand down.” Pompeo’s comments, made in a virtual address to the IISS...

Recent progress on COVID-19 vaccines is positive but the World Health Organization is concerned this has led to a growing perception that the pandemic has come to an end, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday. "Progress on vaccines gives us all a lift and we can now...