A coalition official reported that President Barack Obama’s envoy to the U.S.-led coalition against the ISIS visited northern Syria over the weekend, marking the first known visit by a senior U.S. official to Syria ever since the beginning of the U.S.-led campaign against ISIS in August 2014.
Official have said that the European Union is set to commit some 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in Syrian refugee aid at an international donor conference on Thursday, although a considerable amount of it will be spent outside Syria securing an end to its civil war. European governments and EU insti
BERLIN – Syrians Hiba Albassir and her husband Khaled arrived in Germany two years ago with only the bags they could carry. But that didn’t stop them from setting up their own business. For them it was natural to rebuild the company they had left behind, whereas among many Germans this e
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko pressed the West, on Monday, to preserve sanctions against Russia over its support to militants in the east of the country. At a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, Poroshenko said that “sanctions against Russia must stay i
Britain has given scientists the green light to edit the genes of human embryos for research, by means of a technique that, according to some, could eventually be used to create “designer babies”. Less than a year after Chinese scientists triggered an international controversy by saying
Khartoum- Sudan’s declaration on the Iranian embassy staff officially leaving Khartoum cannot alone remove impact left by the long and intertwined relationship between Khartoum and Tehran, nor remove the implications of the great efforts made by the latter to spread Shi’ism in Sudan. Mainly, e
WASHINGTON – The United States and its allies conducted 13 air strikes against ISIS in Iraq and five in Syria on Sunday, the coalition leading the operations said. In Iraq, six of the strikes were near the contested city of Ramadi, where they hit three tactical units, five staging areas, two r
GENEVA/BEIRUT – Syrian rebels fought back against an offensive by government forces near a supply route into the city of Aleppo on Monday and said there had been no letup in Russian air strikes, despite a promise of goodwill moves by Damascus to spur peace talks. U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura
Dozens of al Qaeda militants reclaimed the town of Azzan in Yemen’s Shabwa province on Monday, residents said, exploiting a security vacuum in the country’s south as a civil war rages, Reuters reported. Azzan is a major commercial center for about 70,000 people in a parched and mountaino
LONDON – Spaniard Pep Guardiola has signed a three-year contract to take over as Manchester City manager in July, the Premier League club said on Monday. Manuel Pellegrini will leave the job on June 30 to make way for Guardiola, who joins after three seasons at Bayern Munich in Germany. Guardi
CAIRO – Egypt plans to launch an agricultural-focused commodities trading exchange, the first of its kind in the Middle East, by the end of 2016, Supplies Minister Khaled Hanafi said on Monday. Speaking at a press conference announcing the completion of a feasibility study on the new bourse, H
GENEVA – The United Nations’ top human rights official urged Turkey on Monday to investigate the shooting of unarmed people 10 days ago in its largely Kurdish southeast and said any members of the security forces committing rights abuses should be prosecuted. Southeastern Turkey has seen
BEIRUT – The death toll from a suicide attack in Damascus on Sunday that was claimed by the ISIS militant group has risen to more than 70, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A car bomb and two suicide bombers attacked the Sayeda Zeinab district, home to Syria’s holiest ShiR
ISTANBUL – More than 3,000 Turkmens and Arabs fleeing advances by pro-government Syrian forces in the north of Latakia province have crossed into Turkey over the past three days, Turkish disaster agency AFAD said on Monday. A Turkmen official said several thousand more migrants were expected a
Women in the epicenter of the Zika outbreak in Brazil, the joy of pregnancy has given way to fear, Reuters reported. In the sprawling coastal city of Recife, panic has struck maternity wards since Zika – a mosquito-borne virus first detected in the Americas last year – was linked to a wa
Whilst the UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura is supposed to begin indirect negotiations between the regime’s delegation and that of the Syrian opposition in Geneva today, an exchange of accusations between the two sides has created tension. The spokesman for the opposition’s delegation Salem Al-M
Khobar- Oil rates have recently witnessed fluctuations after reported intentions of Saudi Arabia and Russia cutting back their production to support oil prices. Rates increased after OPEC announced collaboration supporting oil prices side by side with extra-OPEC producers. London and New York based
The Saudi-led coalition said Sunday it has formed a new independent team to investigate charges of possible abuses against civilians in the conflict. Moreover, coalition command said in a brief statement published by the official Saudi Press Agency that it had formed “an independent team of experts
The Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir revealed yesterday that the talks held by the Saudi and Turkish delegations during the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Davutoglu’s visit to Saudi Arabia touched on addressing Iran’s aggression towards countries in the region and its lack of respect for the prin
A boy was killed and nine others from the same family were injured when a rocket fired from Yemeni territories hit their house in the Saudi southern city of Najran on Sunday, the civil defense said. Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense spokesman, Lt. Colonel Ali Al-Shahrani, said, on Sunday, in a stat
