A Russian-led Syrian regime offensive against the country's last rebel enclave has displaced more than half a million people in two months, the United Nations said Tuesday. "Since 1 December, some 520,000 people have been displaced from their homes, the vast majority - 80 percent - of...

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Problems with a mobile app appeared to force a delay in reporting the results of the Iowa caucuses Monday, leaving the campaigns, voters and the media in election limbo and pressing for an explanation.  The Iowa Democratic Party said it expects to release data...

Syrian state TV reported early on Tuesday that shelling hit a natural gas plant in the south-central area of the city of Homs as well as the Ebla gas plant there. Firefighting units are still trying to put out a fire at the south-central area gas plant while no damage was reported at the...

The death toll in China from the novel coronavirus outbreak climbed to 425, the country’s National Health Commission (NHC) said Tuesday. In a statement, the commission said it has so far received a total of 20,438 confirmed cases, adding a total of 64 people died over the last 24 hours....

America's divisions will enter into burning focus Tuesday when President Donald Trump delivers the annual State of the Union speech to Congress, just ahead of his expected acrimonious impeachment acquittal. The State of the Union is a grand set-piece in the US political calendar, a rare...

Coronavirus patients arrived Tuesday at a Chinese field hospital built from scratch in under two weeks at the frontline of the outbreak, state media said, following a round-the-clock construction marathon that became a national social media sensation. The 1,000-bed facility was built to...

An air defense system at Syria’s Hmeimim air base has downed two drones near the facility, Syria’s Ikhbariya state TV reported on Monday, citing its correspondent. It gave no further details. The air base is currently operated by Russia, which intervened in Syria’s war in 2015 in support of...

The ongoing attacks by Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria and its allies forced some 151,000 civilians to flee their homes in Idlib, a de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria, over the last week, according to sources on the ground. Mohammad Hallaj, director of Syria's Response Coordination...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Russia's airstrikes on Monday have killed eleven displaced people, including four children and three women, while they were fleeing the western region of Aleppo province. According to Zaman al-Wasl reporter, the Russian airstrikes have targeted a minibus carrying...

 (Zaman Al Wasl)- About 30,000 students have returned to classes in northeastern Syria after a shutdown followed the Turkish military operation last October, a local official told Zaman al-Wasl Monday. Yasser Shalit, director Education Office in Tel Abyad Council, said that 277...

Germany on Monday warned against a grave humanitarian catastrophe in northwestern Syria amid recent attacks by the regime and its allies. Addressing a conference in Berlin organized by the German armed forces, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer expressed deep concern over recent...

 Major banks in Lebanon began tightening banking controls this month, halving the amount of dollars depositors are allowed to withdraw every month, despite growing public anger. Faced with a dollar liquidity crunch, banks have imposed informal controls on dollar withdrawals and...

The United States has requested a closed door UN Security Council meeting Thursday for President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, to present the administration's new Mideast peace plan, diplomatic sources told AFP Monday. Kushner intends to set forth the plan that...

 Iran is ready to cooperate with the European Union on issues related to the nuclear deal it agreed with world powers in 2015, President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying on Monday by the ISNA news service. He made his comments at a meeting with Josep Borell, the head of the EU’s...

Thousands of Israeli Arabs, many waving Palestinian flags, demonstrated in this town in Israel at the weekend to voice their fear that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan could see them stripped of their rights as Israeli citizens. Trump’s proposal, disclosed last week, would see...

Turkey's defense minister arrived at the Syrian border on Monday in the wake of a deadly Assad regime attack on Turkish troops in Idlib, northwestern Syria. Hulusi Akar bowed out of accompanying the president on a scheduled official visit to Ukraine due to the shelling assault, which left...

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Monday for Russia to honour its pledges under a 2018 agreement after eight Turks were killed in shelling by Syrian government forces in northwestern Syria. "I hope that everyone will assume their obligations under the Astana and Sochi agreements,"...

Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday held talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and called for the opening of missions in each others' countries, during a visit aimed at boosting ties. Netanyahu last visited Uganda in July 2016 to mark the 40th anniversary of a hostage rescue at...

A month after a U.S. missile killed him, Qassem Soleimani looms as large over Iraq’s fractured democracy as he ever did alive. The death of the Iranian general removed a shrewd guiding hand on the pro-Tehran Shi’ite militias who revered him, setting off a menacing new instability in Iraq’s...

China accused the United States on Monday of whipping up panic over a fast-spreading coronavirus with travel restrictions and evacuations as Chinese stocks plunged on the first day back from the extended Lunar New Year holiday. The death toll in China from the newly identified virus, which...