After Syria's war whisked away the silkworms from his mulberry trees, 65-year-old Mohammed Saud instead turned his idle home workshop into a silk museum to celebrate the ancient craft. In the green hills of Deir Mama, Saud, his wife and three sons have been making silk for decades. They...

US coronavirus cases shot past 3 million on Wednesday, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. The Maryland university's tally counted 3,009,611 confirmed infections and 131,594 fatalities in the US, while 936,476 people have recovered from the disease since it first...

A powerful Iran-backed militia said Wednesday there would be "escalation" if Iraq's prime minister continues to clamp down on armed groups, as tensions spiked following the killing of a prominent analyst, pitting the state against rogue elements. Hostilities have flared as Iraq reels...

Iran has said it will strengthen Syria's air defenses as part of a bilateral military deal aiming to "fight terrorism" and counter American pressure. Key US ally Israel, Iran's arch-enemy, has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of a civil war there in 2011, including...

Steve, a German Shepherd, used to get his morning exercise by frolicking on Gaza's Mediterranean beaches. But since the Palestinian enclave's Islamist rulers Hamas imposed a ban on exercising pet dogs in public in mid-June, owner Ossama Al-Dahdouh has to walk Steve on the roof of his...

One of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top defence lawyers dropped his client Wednesday, sources said, after the premier was denied permission to receive private funding for his legal team. Netanyahu, who is standing trial over corruption allegations, which he denies, had...

France's new Prime Minister Jean Castex has said he will take a targeted approach with the onset of further COVID-19 outbreaks, with a nationwide confinement however to be avoided at all costs. In a Wednesday morning interview with French broadcaster BFMTV, Castex pledged to continue...

Forest fires in eastern Ukraine that have killed five people and left dozens homeless are being brought under control by firefighters, officials said on Wednesday. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said the situation was improving and he had seen no new fires during a fly-over with...

War-torn Yemen is once again on the brink of famine as donor funds that averted catastrophe just 18 months ago have dried up, the country's UN humanitarian coordinator told AFP. With much of the country dependent on aid, a coronavirus pandemic raging unchecked, and countless children...

Zaman al-Wasl publishes an exclusive report revealing the crimes of Mouwafak al-Dawah, the Syrian-Palestinian militant who applied for asylum in Germany after fighting for pro-Syrian regime militia in southern Damascus suburbs. Al-Dawah had committed more crimes during his fight for...

Pope Francis Wednesday compared migrant detention centers in Libya to concentration camps, saying the world was being given only a diluted version of how hellish life really was for the people living there. The pope, who has in the past called for the camps to be closed, made his...

In recent remarks, the UN's former Libya envoy denied any involvement of his mission in supporting an attack by renegade general Khalifa Haftar on the war-torn North African country's capital, accusing instead members of the UN Security Council of backing the campaign on Tripoli. UN...

Jobless and broke, Sudanese electrician Hatem is stranded in limbo in Riyadh like countless other illegal workers, but he hopes the fast-spreading coronavirus will offer a chance for escape. While coronavirus drives a huge exodus of expatriates, campaigners say potentially hundreds of...

The killing of jihadism expert Hisham al-Hashemi has stirred fears Iraq is entering a dark and violent phase, as boiling tensions between pro-Iran factions and the government reach new heights. Hashemi, 47, was gunned down outside his home in east Baghdad late Monday by masked assailants on...

US Deputy Secretary of State and North Korea envoy Stephen Biegun on Wednesday poured cold water on reports Washington had sought a meeting with Pyongyang officials, with nuclear discussions at a standstill. Biegun is on a four-day trip to Seoul and Tokyo to discuss North Korea's...

Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution Tuesday that would have extended cross-border humanitarian aid to three million Syrians for a year.  The authorization, which has been in effect since 2014, is set to expire Friday. The resolution was drafted by...

Western countries pushed members of the global chemical weapons watchdog Tuesday to formally condemn Syria after a probe explicitly blamed Damascus for nerve gas attacks for the first time. A report in April by a new investigations team at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical...

Turkish parliament on Tuesday reelected Mustafa Sentop as its speaker. A ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party lawmaker hailing from the northwestern Tekirdag province, Sentop gained 328 votes in the third round of voting in the Turkish Grand National Assembly with 600 seats. In the...

Donald Trump's niece describes the US president as a lying narcissist who was shaped by his domineering father, according to excerpts of her eagerly anticipated memoir carried in US media Tuesday. Mary Trump's "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man"...

Venezuela's Supreme Court, stacked with loyalists of the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, on Tuesday ordered Juan Guaido to relinquish his position as leader of one of the main opposition parties, giving the position to one of his rivals instead. Guaido, who is recognized by the United...