President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday urged Russians to take part in a nationwide vote on constitutional reforms to ensure "stability, security and prosperity". In a televised address before the week-long ballot ends on Wednesday, Putin said Russians should vote for the country "we want to...

The Lebanese army has scrapped meat from all meals it offers to soldiers on duty as food prices skyrocket because of a deepening economic crisis, state media said Tuesday. Lebanon is in the throes of its worst economic downturn since the 1975-1990 civil war, with poverty surging to now...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears determined to carry out his pledge to begin annexing parts of the occupied West Bank, possibly as soon as Wednesday. His vision of redrawing the map of the Holy Land, in line with President Donald Trump’s Mideast plan, has been welcomed by...

The presidents of Russia, Iran and Turkey will hold a video conference on Wednesday to discuss the conflict in Syria, the Kremlin said on Tuesday. In Syria's nine-year war, Russia and Iran are the main foreign supporters of President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Turkey backs opposition...

India’s first COVID-19 vaccine got the approval for human trials from the country’s drug regulator, as number of coronavirus-related cases and deaths continues upward, a drug company announced. The vaccine, named COVAXIN, has been developed by Bharat Biotech compnay, in collaboration with...

China’s president on Tuesday signed a decree imposing a controversial new security law on Hong Kong, local media reported. Xi Jinping signed the decree after the Standing Committee of China’s 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China’s top legislative body, unanimously voted to pass the...

The United Nations pushed governments at a virtual conference on Tuesday for nearly $10 billion in aid for Syria, where nine years of war has displaced millions in a humanitarian crisis exacerbated by soaring food prices and the coronavirus crisis. The now annual fund-raising round for...

Oil prices will consolidate at around $40 a barrel this year, with a recovery gaining steam in the fourth quarter and into 2021 on OPEC-led production cuts and as economies limp back from coronavirus lockdowns, a Reuters poll showed Tuesday. The survey of 45 analysts forecast benchmark...

A Yemeni rights group Tuesday accused both sides in the country’s civil war of arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and torture of hundreds of people in the past four years in unofficial detention centers across war-torn Yemen. The Mwatana Organization for Human Rights said it...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Tuesday he would be "risking the future" of his regime if he allowed Iran to be entrenched militarily in his country. "We will not allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria," he told reporters...

A video of three men in Lebanon sexually assaulting a Syrian child who is estimated to be under the age of 13 has gone viral on social media, infuriating the local population. The video showed the three young men kidnapping the child, beating him, and forcing him to engage in sexual...

At least one soldier was killed and three more wounded in attack by unknown assailants in the western Qalamoun region near Damascus, residents told Zaman al-Wasl Tuesday. The armed group opened fire on the army's checkpoint in the town of Talfita early morning, leaving four killed...

Iran's coronavirus epidemic is still in its first wave, the health ministry said Tuesday, a day after reporting the highest single-day death toll since the country's outbreak began in February. "The coronavirus is currently peaking in border provinces or cities which did not experience a...

France's president Monday accused Turkey of importing Islamic militants into Libya, labeling Ankara's intervention "criminal" and he lambasted Russian President Vladimir Putin's ambivalence towards his country's mercenaries operating in the North African state. Ties between NATO allies...

For years, social media platforms have fueled political polarization and hosted an explosion of hate speech. Now, with four months until the US presidential election and the country’s divisions reaching a boiling point, these companies are upping their game against bigotry and threats of...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Monday labeled as "shocking" and "disturbing" reports that China's ruling Communist Party is using forced sterilization, forced abortion and coercive family planning against minority Muslims. Pompeo highlighted a report about the situation in China's...

Unpaid salaries, mask shortages, threats from patients' families -- doctors across Iraq are cracking under such conditions, just as they face a long-feared spike in coronavirus cases. "We're collapsing," said Mohammed, a doctor at a COVID-19 ward in Baghdad who declined to use his full name...

Leaders from five West African countries and their ally France meet Tuesday to confer over their troubled efforts to stem a jihadist offensive unfolding in the Sahel. Meeting in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott, presidents will take stock nearly six months after rebooting their campaign...

Since the beginning of peaceful demonstrations in Mach 2011, the Syrian regime has used all brutal and inhumane means to silence the voice of the revolution, randomly arresting thousands of civilians and detaining them in Assad’s prisons and security branches to be experience the most horrific...

The US pointman on North Korea voiced doubt Monday that President Donald Trump and leader Kim Jong Un would meet again before US elections, although he held out hope for progress in nuclear negotiations. Deputy Secretary of State Steve Biegun pointed to the global COVID-19 pandemic as a...