Syria's Kurds Thursday handed over 35 Russian orphans linked to the Islamic State group to their home country in the latest such repatriation of parentless children, an AFP correspondent said. The boys and girls were handed over to a Russian delegation in the town of Qamishli, he said....

Lebanon's new cabinet Thursday approved a policy statement expected to outline a broad action plan to save the protest-hit country from one of its worst economic crises in decades. Information minister Manal Abdel Samad said the document was backed unanimously during a cabinet meeting at...

Russia on Thursday rejected proposals to slash crude output at an OPEC+ meeting, media reported, and asked for more time to assess the impact of a new coronavirus on crude prices. Delegates of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-member Russia -- together known as...

 Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Thursday pardoned more than 6,000 prisoners, extending a process of clemency that has outdone in scale similar conciliatory gestures by his predecessors. Tebboune, elected in December in a vote rejected by a mass protest movement seeking the...

The world’s biggest humanitarian aid operation will be scaled-down next month in Houthi-controled Yemen, because donors and aid workers say they can no longer ensure that food for millions of people is reaching those who need it. Humanitarian sector sources told Reuters Houthi authorities...

At least two Palestinians were killed and 16 Israelis hurt on Thursday in a surge of violence in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, where Palestinian anger at a U.S. peace plan is high. The proposal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump would give Israel most of what it has sought...

Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called for a session to be held next week, on Tuesday and Wednesday, to vote on the new government and its policy statement. The cabinet on Thursday approved a plan to tackle the country’s severe economic and financial crisis, which it must now...

Large and small municipalities across France will see demonstrations later on Thursday as French citizens continue to protest the government reforms in the pension system. Mobilizations are set to take place in the capital as well as major cities of France from the east-central region of...

Young Iraqi protesters pushed on with anti-government rallies across the country on Thursday as they buried seven fellow activists killed overnight in violence blamed on supporters of powerful cleric Moqtada Sadr. Sadr -- a militiaman-turned-politician with a cult-like following -- had...

Aided by sniffer dogs, Turkish rescue workers scanned an avalanche field in eastern Turkey Thursday, searching for a final missing person after two avalanches that killed dozens, Turkish news agencies reported. The private DHA news agency said two more bodies were recovered Thursday,...

The death toll in China from the novel coronavirus outbreak has climbed to 564, the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) said Thursday. In a statement, the commission said 28,018 confirmed cases have been reported so far and 73 people have died in the last 24 hours. The number of...

Turkey sent more reinforcements into northwestern Syria Thursday, setting up new positions in an attempt to stop a Syrian regime offensive on the last rebel stronghold in the war-torn country, the media and opposition activists said. The move came after a rare confrontation between...

 Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes early Thursday near Damascus, wounding eight soldiers, Syrian state media said, while an opposition war monitoring group said the strikes targeted army positions as well as Iran-backed fighters, killing 12. The state news agency SANA said the...

After 10 months of fighting that has torn their country apart, exhausted Libyans voice deep fears and say their fate is no longer in their own hands. The oil-rich North African country has been mired in chaos since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising that killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi,...

Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas hailed a car-ramming in Jerusalem that wounded 12 Israeli troops on Thursday as a "practical response" to US President Donald Trump's controversial Middle East peace plan. In a statement, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said the attack was part of...

Sudan's cabinet said Thursday that the country's leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had made no promise to Israel's prime minister of "normalising ties" between the two countries. Burhan, who heads Sudan's ruling sovereign council, met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for...

  Syrian air defences intercepted Israeli missiles over the capital Damascus, state media said early on Thursday without specifying the nature of the targets. Syrian state run Ikhbariyah TV said the attack was launched from over the Golan Heights as well as through Lebanese...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The military pilot who carried out the deadly Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack in April 2017 has been appointed by Bashar al-Assad as the commander of the 70th Brigade that affiliated to the military T-4 airbase east of Homs province. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Yousef...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Turkish artillery fire hit regime outposts near the town of Sarqeb late on Wednesday as eye witnesses confirmed that the Russian-led forces entered the strategic town in northwestern Idlib province. More than 100 shells pounded regime forces, leaving dozen killed and...

Eight humanitarian aid organisations on Wednesday called for an immediate ceasefire in northwestern Syria, where hostilities have displaced half a million people in the past two months. Russia-backed forces of the Syrian regime have upped their deadly bombardment of the last major rebel...