Zakaria al-Omar was walking through Beirut when a stranger robbed him at knifepoint, a desperate crime of a kind that has become increasingly common in crisis-torn Lebanon. The small Mediterranean country is mired in an economic crisis marked by a steep currency fall and runaway inflation...

One person was killed and four people wounded in a missile attack by regime forces on northern Idlib province, activists told Zaman al-Wasl.  The attack that targeted the town of Ariha has also wounded a woman and three children. In its turn, Russia's warplanes have pounded...

Daily new cases of the novel coronavirus in Turkey dropped below 1,000 for the first time since June 11, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Tuesday, with 992 cases identified. Koca said the total number of COVID-19 cases now stood at 214,993, while the death toll rose by 20 on Tuesday...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in a phone call to work more closely in Libya to ensure lasting stability in the country, the Turkish presidency said on Tuesday. Turkey supports the internationally recognised Government of National Accord in Libya,...

 Basra Children's Hospital which specializes in cancer treatment has cut admissions by half since May due to the novel coronavirus, its director said, and is battling to keep children safe from infection with a new isolation ward and testing of staff. Hospital director Ali Abulhussein...

Turkey's Hagia Sophia will open to visitors outside prayer times and its Christian icons will remain, religious officials said Tuesday, after a court ruling paved the way for it to become a mosque. The sixth-century Istanbul landmark's museum status -- in place for nearly a century -- was...

Fatma Youssef stuffs rice, chicken or meat and vegetables into boxes spread on her dining table -- tens of them in the last few weeks. On some, she scribbles "Be well" in Arabic; on others, she writes "Together, we will get through this." Youssef doesn’t know who will eat her food. Still,...

The wife of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has been named as the leader of a so-called "anti-corruption campaign" that saw the once influential tycoon Rami Makhlouf stripped of his assets and confined to his home. Asma Al-Assad has been at the head of the campaign to seize Makhlouf's...

A Tunisian court has sentenced blogger Emna Chargui to six months in prison and a $700 fine for reposting a Facebook joke about the coronavirus written as if it was a Quranic verse. "This is unfair and unjust ... this proves that there is no freedom here," Chargui, 27, told Reuters from...

 Israeli police and Jerusalem municipal officials scuffled with protesters demonstrating against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday as officers dismantled tents set up by the demonstrator's outside the premier's residence. The demonstrators have staged a sit-in outside...

Forces loyal to a Libyan commander said they will only allow the reopening of oil fields and terminals once a mechanism has been set up to fairly distribute revenue across the country, which is split between rival, warring factions. Powerful tribes in eastern Libya loyal to Khalifa Hifter...

France held a scaled-down annual Bastille Day celebration Tuesday, with none of the usual tanks and troops parading down Paris's Champs Elysees avenue, in a concession to the COVID-19 epidemic still stalking Europe. Instead, President Emmanuel Macron, standing in the back of a military...

The US presidential election pits a politician who supports environmental regulation and diplomacy to tackle climate change against another determined to dismantle such policies. President Donald Trump, a Republican, has focused on dismantling former President Barack Obama's climate agenda...

Libya's eastern-based parliament has called for Egypt to directly intervene in the country's civil war to counter Turkish support for the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), based in the capital Tripoli. In a statement late Monday, the House of Representatives...

Oman recorded 14 fatalities from coronavirus on Tuesday, the highest daily death toll since the pandemic hit the Gulf state in mid-February, according to the Health Ministry. A ministry statement said a further 1,389 new infections were registered over the past 24 hours, pushing...

Coronavirus outbreak continues to grow in Eurasia as many countries continue to confirm more cases and deaths. In Kazakhstan, the count of confirmed cases climbed to 61,755 with 1,856 new cases recorded in the past 24 hours, according to data shared by the Health Ministry. While...

Iran has executed a former defence ministry worker who sold information to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Iranian judiciary said Tuesday. Reza Asgari had linked up with the CIA during his last years serving at the defence ministry and sold the agency information about...

A roadside landmine hit a joint Russian-Turkish patrol in northwestern Syria Tuesday, leaving three Russian soldiers and an unspecified number of Turkish troops wounded. The Russian military said the attack happened while Russian and Turkish troops were patrolling the M4 highway in the...

Tunisia's Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh said Monday he will conduct a cabinet reshuffle in the coming days amid a row with the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, in what appears to be a step to remove Ennahda ministers in the government. Ennahda said Monday that it wants a new government,...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 18 people killed and dozens wounded in airstrikes pounded the eastern province of Deir Ezzor on Saturday, media activist told Zaman al-Wasl. 10 civilians were killed and 13 more were wounded in regime and Russia’s airstrikes on al-Salihiya town in the northern...