Militants in Syria set off car bombs and used heavy gunfire to storm army positions in Idlib Thursday, state news agency SANA reported. The militant attack forced the army to redeploy and clashes were ongoing, SANA added. Idlib is the last rebel-held swathe of territory in the country...

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday that Russia's S-400 air defence system was compatible with NATO, which needed to set up a working group to study it. "The claim is that the S400 and F-35s are incompatible. That's the claim. Here is our proposal, let’s have a working...

Lebanon's Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said Thursday that foreign donors were waiting to see what reforms the new government would enact and whether it was ready for support. "The entire international community has its eye on what this government will do," he said in televised comments....

Russian lawmakers on Thursday unanimously approved a sweeping constitutional reform bill put forward by President Vladimir Putin in its first reading, after less than two hours of debate. All 432 lawmakers present in the lower house State Duma voted in favour of the bill, just three days...

An Iraqi demonstrator was shot dead in the southern city of Basra overnight, a security source and the human rights commission said Thursday, the latest in a string of protester deaths. The anti-government demonstrations rocking the Iraqi capital and the Shiite-majority south since October...

The U.S. special representative for Iran said the successor to Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. drone strike, would suffer the same fate if he followed a similar path of killing Americans, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported. Washington blamed Soleimani for masterminding attacks by...

Turkey does not plan to send more military advisers to Libya while a ceasefire is being observed, Russia’s RIA news agency cited Turkey’s foreign minister as saying on Thursday. A Libya peace conference will take place in Berlin at the start of February, but Germany has not yet named a date...

(Zaman Al Wasl)- As a result of the changing social conditions and the psychological pressure, as well as the difference in laws between Sweden and Syria, divorce rates among refugees have steadily increased. Iman Shahoud, Syrian legal advisor and former jurist in Aleppo courts,...

 Dozens of world leaders will convene in Jerusalem on Thursday to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, amid a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States. However, the president of Poland, where the Nazi concentration camp was built during the...

Iran welcomes dialogue with its Gulf neighbors, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday, amid heightened tension in the Middle East. “Iran remains open to dialogue with its neighbours and we announce our readiness to participate in any complementary work that is in...

 Lebanon is looking to secure $4 billion - $5 billion in soft loans from international donors to finance purchases of wheat, fuel and medicines, Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star cited finance minister Ghazi Wazni as saying on Thursday. Wazni, named minister in a new cabinet formed on...

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued “a very strong appeal” Wednesday for a political solution to Syria’s nearly nine-year conflict, and he called for a global “push-back against the push-back” on ensuring human rights. In a wide-ranging speech and question-and-answer session with...

A water-bombing plane was missing and feared to have crashed in Australia's southeast on Thursday, as firefighters battled a new outbreak of bushfires whipped up by scorching temperatures and strong winds. At least seven blazes were declared emergencies, including one in the Snowy Monaro...

“Sesame Street” in the past year has tackled everything from foster care to substance abuse. Now its latest effort is trying to help children suffering as a result of the Syrian civil war. Sesame Workshop — the nonprofit, educational organization behind “Sesame Street” — has launched a...

The UN's top court will announce Thursday if it will allow a case accusing Myanmar of genocide against Rohingya Muslims to go ahead and if it will impose emergency measures to stop further violence. The ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) comes days after a Myanmar commission...

Hong Kong will turn two holiday camps, including a former military barracks, into quarantine zones for people who may have come into contact with carriers of the Wuhan virus, officials announced Thursday. The international financial hub has been on high alert for the virus, which has killed...

Mexican migration authorities released Wednesday an official count of the number of people detained along the country's southern border two days before, estimating that more than 2,000 people were "rescued" after they crossed the border with Guatemala. National Institute of Migration (INM)...

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday his administration was preparing to add a "couple of countries" to the controversial list of states whose citizens are subject to travel bans or severe restrictions on entry to the United States. "We are adding a couple of countries to it. We have...

Saudi Arabia called on the United States Wednesday to remove Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, in a meeting with a visiting envoy. The U.S. last month lifted fast-changing Sudan from a blacklist for religious freedom violations, but Khartoum awaits the bigger prize of...

Iraq's president warned Wednesday against pushing the country to choose sides in escalating tensions between neighbouring Iran and the US, both allies of Baghdad. Addressing world leaders at the World Economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, Barham Saleh said a recent parliamentary vote to...