The death toll in China from the novel coronavirus outbreak has climbed to 259, the National Health Commission said Saturday. A total of 11,791 confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) have been reported in China. It was reported that 46 people have died in the...

   (Zaman Al Wasl)- The French authorities have arrested the former spokesman for the Jaysh al-Islam group in Marseille over torture and war crimes charges, judicial sources told Le Figaro on Friday. Majdi Mustafa Ne’ma (nom de guerre: Islam Alloush), 32, who was in...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Turkish-backed Syrian National Army captured three villages from Russian-backed regime forces in the eastern region of Aleppo province, following surprise attacks in east and west Aleppo killed at least 30 elite troops and destroyed 7 tanks, rebel sources told Zaman al-Wasl...

China has flown two planeloads of its citizens back home to Hubei, the locked-down province at the centre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak where they were greeted by authorities in full-body protective suits. A Xiamen Airlines charter flight from Bangkok touched down late Friday in...

LONDON (AP) — Britons counted down the hours Friday to their country’s departure from the European Union — some joyous, some sad, many just hopeful the divorce would mark the end of an anguished chapter in their country’s history. The U.K. officially departs the EU at 11 p.m. local time,...

New American sanctions against Iran's nuclear programme will have "no effect", Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Friday. Washington announced new sanctions on Thursday against the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran and its head Ali Akbar Salehi. Brian Hook,...

 Syrian regime forces were poised Friday to retake the rebel-held town of Saraqeb in the country's northwest where battles this week killed more than 400 combatants, a monitor said. Russian-backed regime forces have advanced with a double-pronged push in the Idlib region, home to...

Canada's top diplomat has gotten a nod from his Chinese counterpart to bring home nearly 200 Canadians from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, his office said Friday. In a rare telephone call with Foreign Minister Wang Yi Thursday night, Canada's Foreign Minister...

President Donald Trump on Friday lifted US restrictions on deployment of landmines, saying a new generation of high-tech explosives would improve security for US forces. In the latest reversal of a policy of his predecessor Barack Obama, Trump gave the green light to so-called...

For months, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been relatively silent or evasive over Russia's role in the humanitarian catastrophe playing out in northern Syria's Idlib province, even when directly challenged. If pushed, he would repeatedly say that his trust in his personal...

In Belgium's version of the Oscars this weekend, a film about Guatemala's civil war is an unusual nominee -- telling a story set more than two decades ago and 9,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) away. But, explained director Cesar Diaz, "the distance is essential" to his movie, "Our Mothers"...

Dominic Thiem  booked his place in his third Grand Slam championship final on Friday with a hard-fought win at the  Australian Open . The fourth seed battled back from losing the first set, and saved two set points in the third set of a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(4) victory over...

Once the throbbing heart of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime, Maaret al-Numan is an eerie ghost town where few buildings have been spared by nine years of war. Following a major ground offensive, the Syrian army captured the town in the northwestern province of Idlib on...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 87 civilians have been killed since the start of the Russian-Turkish ceasefire agreement on January 12 in northwestern Idlib province, a monitoring group said on Friday. The death toll included 33 children and 11 women, according to the Syrian Network for Human...

Iraq's leading Shi'ite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, condemned Friday the use of force to disperse protest camps across the country, as security forces stepped up a crackdown against demonstrators. Protesters across Iraq are seeking the removal of what they see as a corrupt...

The Kremlin said Friday that Russia was fully compliant with its obligations in Syria's Idlib region, but that it was deeply concerned about what it said were aggressive militant attacks on Syrian regime forces and Russia's Hmeimim air base. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday...

LONDON (AP) — So this is the way Britain’s European Union membership ends: Not with Big Ben’s bong, but with a whimper. The bell won't toll when the moment finally comes ; Parliament's famous clock tower is undergoing repairs because it is crumbling and age-worn. At this point, who isn’t?...

Turkey may launch a military operation into Syria's northwestern Idlib province if the situation is not resolved immediately, President Tayyip Erdogan said Friday as attacks by Russia-backed Syrian regime forces risked a new wave of refugees. Bashar al-Assad's forces, backed by Russian...

Turkey will never recognize and accept the U.S.’ so-called peace plan, the country’s president said on Friday. “This plan aims annexation of the occupied Palestine territories,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a meeting of provincial heads of his ruling Justice and Development (AK)...

Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee will oppose calling more witnesses in  President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial,  all but dashing Democratic efforts to hear more testimony and boosting odds the Senate will vote imminently to acquit without new testimony, in a matter...