KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan launched a nationwide polio vaccination drive this week to reach 38.7 million children and eradicate the paralyzing and potentially deadly virus in one of the last countries where it is endemic. Nearly 260,000 volunteers ... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin will make a two-day visit to Turkey from Tuesday where he will meet his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the Kremlin said on Monday. Putin and Erdogan will also officia... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Two buses carrying the first group of Jeish al-Islam fighters and their families on Monday left the city of Douma, the last rebel bastion in eastern Ghouta, en route for northern Syria, Syrian state TV said. The two buses were due to head to... More »
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai left Pakistan for London on Monday after a four-day whirlwind visit back to her homeland, her first since militants nearly killed her in 2012, an official said. Yousafzai and her family were taken... More »
SRINAGAR (Reuters) – Indian security forces killed at least three civilians and wounded about 70 in restive Kashmir on Sunday when hundreds of people tried to prevent them from carrying out operations against suspected militants, police and residents said. At ... More »
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) – A suspected Boko Haram attack in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri killed 15 people and wounded 68, an emergency agency official said on Monday, in the biggest strike since the government said it was in talks with the Isla... More »
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump has told advisers he wants an early exit of U.S. troops from Syria, two senior administration officials said on Friday, a stance that may put him at odds with U.S. military officials who see the fight ag... More »
FILE PHOTO: A boy is seen in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh/File Photo AMMAN/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syria’s rebel-held city of Douma faces a “catastrophic” situation after becoming the main have... More »
People hold a warning leaflet dropped by plane entitled “Keep yourself and your family aware” in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, in Damascus, Syria March 11, 2018. REUTERS/ Bassam Khabieh BEIRUT (Reuters) – As the Syrian army pushes deeper into eas... More »
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson listens to a question during a news conference in Nairobi, Kenya, March 9, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst NAIROBI (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has cut short his first trip to Africa to return to Washingt... More »
A handicapped man rides a bicycle past damaged buildings in the besieged town of Douma in eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria, March 1, 2018. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Syrian army and its allies have captured more than a third of the rebel en... More »
Kachalla Bukar, father of Aisha Kachalla, a missing student of Government Girls Science and Technical College, holds a dress of her daughter in Dapchi, in the northeastern state of Yobe, Nigeria, February 23, 2018. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde DAPCHI, Nigeria (Reut... More »
A Russian soldier is seen at Wafideen camp in Damascus, Syria March 1, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Russian military said a five-hour truce had begun in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta on Friday, the fourth such truce in as many days, the Interfax... More »
A child and a man are seen in hospital in the besieged town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, Damascus, Syria February 25, 2018. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh BEIRUT (Reuters) – A family of nine was killed in Syrian government bombardment of the rebel enclave of eastern Ghou... More »
GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) – A landmine explosion killed four people, including an election candidate, in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya in an area where four militant groups are seeking independence, police said on Monday. The attack happened on Sunda... More »
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arrive to a meeting in Ankara, Turkey, February 16, 2018. REUTERS/Cem Ozdel ANKARA (Reuters) – The United States and Turkey agreed on Friday to try to rescue a strategic relati... More »
Dietrich Garstka, who fled former Communist East as a schoolboy and inspired the film ‘Das schweigende Klassenzimmer’ which is due to premiere at the Berlinale film festival, gesticulates during an interview with Reuters in Essen, Germany, February 9, 2018. RE... More »
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian security forces killed 12 Islamist militants in gun battles and arrested 92 suspects, while airstrikes destroyed dozens of militant targets in Sinai, the army said in a statement carried on state television on Monday. Based on army s... More »
UNHCR Special Envoy actor Angelina Jolie takes part in a news conference at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, January 31, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman BRUSSELS (Reuters) – U.N. refugee agency special envoy Angelina Jolie called on NATO on Wednesday to h... More »
An ambulance carries victims near the site of an attack at the Marshal Fahim military academy in Kabul, Afghanistan January 29, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail KABUL (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked an army outpost near one of Afghanistan’s main military academies on... More »
FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech while attending the Forum of Small Towns and Historical Settlements in the town of Kolomna, south of Moscow, Russia January 17, 2018. REUTERS/Alexander Nemenov/Pool MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Presi... More »
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters in Usak, Turkey January 20, 2018. Kayhan Ozer/Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday promised to sweep militants from the length of Turkey’s Syri... More »
Turkish soldiers stand on tanks in a village on the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep province, Turkey January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal HASSA, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey shelled targets in northern Syria on Monday and said its three-day-old operation agai... More »
Rohingya refugees stand in a queue to collect aid supplies in Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, January 21, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain PALONGKHALI, Bangladesh (Reuters) – Bangladesh has delayed the repatriation of Rohingya Muslim re... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Iranian warplanes warned off two “coalition vessels” during military drill in waters off the country’s southeast, an Iranian general was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency on Monday. “This morning and in the early hours of the military d... More »
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, January 10, 2018. Yasin Bulbul/Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS ISTANBUL (Reuters) – President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday the United States was try... More »
BELFAST (Reuters) – A British MP for the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein resigned on Monday in an outcry over a tweet he posted on the anniversary of a day in 1976 when 10 Protestant textile workers were shot dead, an act which police blamed on the IRA. Barr... More »
FILE PHOTO – Romanian Prime Minister Mihai Tudose addresses the Romanian Parliament before a no-confidence vote against Romania’s Social Democrat-led government, in Bucharest, Romania, November 23, 2017. Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea/via REUTERS BUDAPEST (Reuters)... More »
Pakistan’s Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Qamar Javed Bajwa arrives to attend the Pakistan Day military parade in Islamabad, Pakistan, March 23, 2017. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan’s army chief told a top U.S. general the nation... More »
FILE PHOTO: Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu attends a news conference in Goslar, Germany, January 6, 2018. REUTERS/Ralph Orlowski ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday that relations with the Unit... More »
A view of Mount Hermon as seen from Jubata al-Khashab in Quneitra province, Syria, November 3, 2017. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Faqir AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian army forces backed by Iranian-backed militias pushed deeper into the last rebel-held enclave near a strategic bo... More »
Afghan security forces keep watch at a check point close to the compound of Afghanistan’s national intelligence agency in Kabul, Afghanistan. December 25, 2017. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani KABUL (Reuters) – Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on... More »
Yazidi girls Bushra, 12, Suhayla, 7, and Rosa, 13, who were reunited with their family after being enslaved by Islamic State militants, pose for a photo at Sharya Camp in Duhuk, Iraq December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Ari Jalal SHARYA, Iraq (Reuters) – When Rosa, now ... More »
FILE PHOTO: Handout file picture shows Belgian-born Salah Abdeslam on a call for witnesses notice released by the French Police Nationale information services on their twitter account November 15, 2015. Police Nationale/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo BRUSSELS ... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack near a training facility of Afghanistan’s main intelligence agency in the capital, Kabul, on Monday as gunmen exchanged fire with security forces. Details of the attack remained unclear after... More »
U.S. President Donald Trump casts a shadow as he waves and approaches the press to make remarks as he returns from a weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David to the White House, Washington, U.S., December17, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Theiler WASHINGTON (Reut... More »
FILE PHOTO: Hezbollah and Syrian flags flutter on a military vehicle in Western Qalamoun, Syria August 28, 2017. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki/File Photo PARIS (Reuters) – Major powers will try to shore up Lebanon’s stability on Friday by pushing Saudi Arabia and Iran... More »
U.S. Secretary for Defense, Jim Mattis, sits opposite Britain’s Secretary of State for Defence, Gavin Williamson, before a meeting at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in central London, Britain November 10, 2017. REUTERS/Simon Dawson ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – U.S. De... More »
People are seen during shelling in the town of Hamoria, eastern Ghouta in Damascus, Syria, December 3, 2017. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh AMMAN (Reuters) – Jets believed to be Syrian and Russian struck heavily crowded residential areas in a besieged rebel enclave ne... More »
Afghan National Army (ANA) troops keep watch at a check point in Aqcha district of Jawzjan province, Afghanistan November 27, 2017. Picture taken November 27, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer JAWZJAN, Afghanistan/KABUL (Reuters) – When a Taliban commander defected to Is... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish counter-terror police detained 10 people including academic Fikret Baskaya early on Monday in an operation targeting members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, state-run Anadolu news agency reported. Baris Yarkada... More »
Rescue personnel inspect a vehicle damaged by a suicide bomber which killed a senior Pakistani police official on his way to work in Peshawar, Pakistan November 24, 2017. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed... More »
Hafiz Saeed is showered with flower petals as he walks to court before a Pakistani court ordered his release from house arrest in Lahore, Pakistan November 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza LAHORE/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – A firebrand Pakistani Islamist accused of mas... More »
The United States on Wednesday called the Myanmar military operation against the Rohingya population "ethnic cleansing" and threatened targeted sanctions against those responsible for what it called "horrendous atrocities." More »
FILE PHOTO: An unidentified voter casts his ballot at a local polling station in Miami November 2, 2010. REUTERS/Hans Deryk SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A bipartisan Harvard University project aimed at protecting elections from hacking and propaganda will release... More »
A series of Taliban attacks over six hours on more than a dozen Afghan checkpoints killed 22 police and wounded 15 in the southern province of Kandahar, police said on Tuesday. More »
The Indonesian unit of Freeport-McMoRan Inc closed the main access road to its giant copper mine in the eastern province of Papua on Tuesday for the second time in three days after another shooting incident. More »
Irish musician and activist Bob Geldof called Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi "a hand maiden to genocide" on Monday as he returned his Freedom of the City of Dublin award in protest over his fellow recipient's response to the repression of Rohingya Muslims. More »
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's recent political purge raises concerns and remains unclear but does not appear to amount to mass arrests, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters on Friday. More »
Indonesia's military said on Friday it was prepared to take tough measures against rebels who have threatened to "destroy" the mining operations of Freeport-McMoRan Inc in the eastern province of Papua in their independence struggle. More »
Yemen's stocks of fuel will last until the end of November and stocks of vaccines run out in one month if a Saudi-led military coalition does not allow aid into Hodeidah port and the Sanaa airport, UNICEF's representative in the country said on Friday. More »
A Saudi-led military coalition said it will temporarily close all air, land and sea ports to Yemen to stem the flow of arms to Houthi rebels from Iran, said a statement on Monday on state news agency SPA. More »
Iraqi Kurdish political parties opposed to Masoud Barzani, the outgoing Kurdistan region leader, reported attacks on their offices in several cities overnight hours after Barzani announced his resignation. More »
U.S. lawmakers will grill top Trump administration officials on Monday about a new authorization for the use of military force for the campaign against Islamic State and other militant groups, Congress' most significant step in years toward taking back control... More »
Philippine security forces have arrested a mobile phone trader suspected of collecting funds to help finance pro-Islamic State militants who took over a southern city for five months, police said on Friday. More »
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke on Thursday with Myanmar's army chief and expressed concern over reported atrocities against Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state, the U.S. State Department said in a statement. More »
President Bashar al-Assad and his family have no role in the future of Syria, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday ahead of peace talks aiming at a political transition scheduled to resume next month. More »
Nearly one million Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in Myanmar are now in Bangladesh, which is an "untenable situation", Bangladesh told a U.N. meeting on Monday. More »
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that Islamic State killed at least 128 people in a Syrian town in central Homs over a three-week period before the Syrian army recaptured it on Saturday. More »
The U.N. refugee agency urged Bangladesh on Tuesday to speed up vetting of up to 15,000 Rohingya refugees "stranded" near the border after crossing into the country from Myanmar and move them further inland to safety and better conditions. More »
U.S.-backed militias will capture Islamic State's last foothold in the jihadists' former Syrian capital of Raqqa within hours, a militia spokesman said on Tuesday. More »
U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) raised a militia flag inside Raqqa stadium on Tuesday, one of the last remaining areas that were held by Islamic State in its former capital, a Reuters witness said. More »
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared the southern city of Marawi liberated from pro-Islamic State militants on Tuesday, although the military said 20-30 rebels were holding about 20 hostages and still fighting it out. More »
Iraqi forces completed an operation to take control of all oil fields operated by state-owned North Oil Company in the Kirkuk region on Tuesday, a senior military officer said. More »
Kurdish Peshmerga forces pulled out from the area of Khanaqin, on the border with Iran as Iraqi forces prepared to take over their positions, security sources said. More »
Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi is "appalled" at the Rohingya refugee crisis in her country and is determined to fix it, but needs to be careful not to inflame the situation further, an adviser to Suu Kyi told reporters on Friday. More »
Turkey's military has begun setting up observation posts in northwest Syria's Idlib province, its General Staff said on Friday, part of a deployment that appears partly aimed at containing a Kurdish militia. More »
The Israeli military said on Sunday it destroyed an outpost belonging to the Islamist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after Gaza militants fired a rocket toward Israel. More »
The International Committee of the Red Cross will "drastically" cut back its operations in Afghanistan following attacks that have killed seven of its staff this year, the aid group said on Monday. More »
A boat carrying Rohingya Muslim refugees to Bangladesh capsized and at least 12 people, most of them children, drowned, police said on Monday, the latest victims of violence in Myanmar that has forced more than half a million people to flee. More »
The U.S. mission in Turkey and subsequently the Turkish mission in Washington mutually scaled back visa services after a U.S. consulate employee was arrested in Turkey, in the latest sign of fraying diplomatic relations between the NATO allies. More »
Turkish embassy in Washington said on Sunday it suspended all non-immigrant visa services at all Turkish diplomatic facilities in the United States, after U.S. missions reduced visa services in Turkey. More »
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said "only one thing will work" in dealing with North Korea after previous administrations had talked to Pyongyang without results. More »
Islamic State said three of its fighters carried out an attack on a Damascus police station on Monday in which 17 people were reportedly killed. More »
French counter-terrorism investigators questioned five people on Tuesday after police over the weekend found what appeared to be a ready-to-detonate bomb at an apartment building in one of Paris's poshest neighborhoods. More »
Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh were skeptical on Tuesday about their chances of ever going home to Myanmar, even though the government there has given an assurance it would accept people verified as refugees. More »
A explosion was reported on Friday in the Afghan capital of Kabul, a spokesman for the interior ministry said. More »
Voting started on Monday in an independence referendum organized by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, ignoring the threats of the Kurds' neighbors and fears of further instability and violence across the Middle East. More »
France on Monday gave a staunch defense of the Iran nuclear deal, saying there could be talks to strengthen the agreement from 2025 but that allowing it to collapse could lead Iran's neighbors to seek atomic weapons. More »
An Egyptian court on Monday acquitted Irish citizen Ibrahim Halawa and his three sisters of charges including murder in a mass trial that has been going on for over four years, during which he was in jail. More »
Long associated with pirates, famine and bombs, Somalia showed a different face to the world this week as it welcomed foreign writers for the first time to its annual book fair. More »
Communal tensions appeared to be rising across Myanmar on Monday after two weeks of violence in Rakhine state that have triggered an exodus of about 300,000 Rohingya Muslims, prompting the government to tighten security at Buddhist pagodas. More »
The top U.N. human rights official on Monday denounced Myanmar's "brutal security operation" against Muslim Rohingyas in Rakhine state which he said was "clearly disproportionate" to insurgent attacks carried out last month. More »
Gunmen in southwestern Pakistan killed four members of a Shi'ite Muslim Hazara family, including a 12-year-old boy, on Sunday, in the latest sectarian attack on the minority community, a senior police official said. More »
More than 500 people have died so far in a cholera epidemic that is sweeping the Democratic Republic of Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. More »
Nancy Hatch Dupree, a historian from the United States who helped set up the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University, has died in the country whose culture she worked for more than five decades to preserve, the university said on Sunday. She was 89. More »
The United Nations is preparing to deploy up to 250 peacekeepers to Libya to guard its base in the capital as part of a plan to return its operations to the country, the head of the organization's mission there said on Friday. More »
Warplanes attacked a checkpoint outside the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday, killing five civilians in a taxi and two armed personnel manning the site, witnesses said. More »
Nearly 9,000 Rohingya Muslims, many sick and fearing for their lives, have fled the worst violence to grip northwest Myanmar in at least five years, while thousands more are stuck at the Bangladesh border or preparing to reach it in coming days. More »
About 18,000 Rohingya Muslims are estimated to have crossed into Bangladesh in the last week, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday, seeking to escape the worst violence in Myanmar's northwest in at least five years. More »
Bangladesh border guards on Monday moved to push back thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing the worst violence in Myanmar in five years, with 104 people killed and the United Nations and aid groups forced to pull out some staff. More »
U.S. Air Force pilot Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Renken knew that whatever happened next might escalate the war in Syria. More »
Russia's air force has destroyed a large column of Islamic State fighters on their way to the Syrian city of Deir al-Zor, killing over 200 militants, Russian news agencies cited Russia's Defence Ministry as saying on Monday. More »
Separatists calling for the breakup of Nigeria have crossed a red line and the country's unity is not negotiable, President Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday in his first speech since returning home after three months of medical leave in Britain. More »
It will be President Donald Trump's turn on Monday to address a problem that vexed his two predecessors when he details his strategy for the war in Afghanistan, America's longest military conflict. More »
U.S. President Donald Trump is eyeing Afghanistan's mineral wealth to help pay for a 16-year war and reconstruction efforts that have already cost $117 billion. Investors who have studied the country, one of the world's most dangerous, say that is a pipe dream... More »
Suspected jihadists killed at least 18 people and wounded several during a raid on a restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital overnight but security forces shot dead both attackers and freed people trapped inside the building. More »
A French citizen was killed during an attack by suspected jihadists on a restaurant in Burkina Faso's capital, said a statement issued on behalf of French Foreign Affairs minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. More »
A member of Afghanistan’s Special Forces unit jumps from a wall during patrol in Pandola village near the site of a U.S. bombing in the Achin district of Nangarhar, eastern Afghanistan, April 14, 2017. A total of 2,531 Afghan security forces were killed and 4,... More »
