Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in Syria’s Idlib region with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a telephone call, the RIA news agency cited the Kremlin as saying on Tuesday. Putin and Merkel expressed hopes that the upcoming meeting between Putin and his Turkish...

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday barred citizens and residents of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries from entering the kingdom for 14 days after returning from outside the region due to coronavirus concerns, state news agency SPA reported. Travelers coming from any fellow GCC state - the...

At least 12 civilians were killed when the Assad regime and Russian assaults targeted Idlib, a de-escalation zone in northern Syria, local sources said on Tuesday.  Russian and regime fighter jets hit Idlib city center, Binnish town and Sahil Roj region, the White Helmets, a civil...

The U.N. watchdog policing Iran's nuclear deal with major powers admonished Tehran Tuesday for failing to provide access to two undeclared locations or fully answer its questions about past activities there. Reuters first reported Monday that the IAEA planned to issue a second report in...

The United States will send $108 million in humanitarian aid to the people of Syria, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Tuesday. The United States also said Tuesday it was willing to provide ammunition to Turkey, according to U.S. special representative for the region James...

Turkey’s Operation Spring Shield in northwestern Syria hit 82 Assad regime targets, destroyed nine tanks, two howitzers, six rockets, and two vehicles, and neutralized 299 regime elements, said the National Defense Ministry late Tuesday.  Turkish authorities often use the word...

China began censoring online discussions on the new coronavirus weeks before officially acknowledging the scope of the disease, according to a report published Tuesday. Although Chinese authorities did not publicly acknowledge the severity of the virus until January 20, censorship began as...

The International Olympic Committee said Tuesday it was busy with preparations for a "successful" Summer Games in Tokyo in less than five months and at a time when the coronavirus outbreak is widening. IOC president Thomas Bach, speaking at the opening of the Olympic body's two-day...

The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected allegations by the United Nations that Russia may have committed war crimes in Syria last year, saying the U.N. investigators are in no position to know what is happening on the ground. "We strongly reject these claims," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov....

An Iranian lawmaker reportedly has told colleagues to stop their contact with public as there are 23 cases of the new coronavirus among parliament members. That’s according to lawmaker Abdolreza Mesri, who was quoted by Iranian state television’s Young Journalists Club program. The...

Chile's capital has been rocked by its worst anti-government violence in weeks after stone-throwing protesters clashed with police in running battles across the city. Demonstrators returned to Santiago's Plaza Italia on Monday to rally against economic inequality and condemn the government...

 The Kremlin said on Tuesday Russia was hoping to minimize the risk of a direct clash with Turkey in Syria even though soldiers from both countries were in close proximity in Idlib region on different sides of a live conflict. Moscow was commenting a day after Syrian government forces...

A Turkish fighter jet downed a Syrian regime warplane over the northwestern Idlib province Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said after nine civilians were killed in regime airstrikes, in the third such downing in three days. Turkey on Sunday confirmed it had...

French officials have closed about 120 schools in areas that have reported the largest numbers of coronavirus infections, and more could be shuttered in the coming days, Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said Tuesday. Both primary and secondary schools have been shut in the Oise...

The EU's top diplomat and its crisis-management chief set off for Turkey Tuesday after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned he could allow millions of refugees to head for Europe. EU High Representative Josep Borrell and Commissioner Janez Lenarcic will spend two days in the country for...

A senior Mexican official in charge of one of the government’s signature social programs resigned on Monday in a sharply-worded letter that marked the latest bust-up within President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration. Javier May was the deputy welfare minister in charge of...

Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano erupted on Tuesday morning, sending a 6-km (3.7 mile) column of ash into the air and triggering the closure of the airport in the nearby city of Solo on the densely populated Java island, authorities said. The volcano, located near the cities of Yogyakarta...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led on Tuesday in a cliffhanger election in Israel, but was still short of a governing majority in a third national ballot in less than a year, exit polls showed. On the basis of initial projections by Israel’s three main television channels, Netanyahu,...

The death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak in China rose to 2,945 Tuesday, according to the country's National Health Commission. The commission said 31 more people died in the last 24 hours while 125 new cases were detected by authorities, with the total number of confirmed cases...

At a maternity hospital in northwest Syria, an alarm flashes at the main entrance to alert staff. It’s not patients en route to the hospital. It’s warplanes. Doctors at the hospital face a daily struggle to care for expectant mothers amid a Syrian government assault that has driven deep...