The Turkish army has dropped leaflets on the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab in Syria urging civilians to seek shelter, as rebels backed by Turkish tanks and warplanes close in on the city. More »
Air strikes killed at least 73 people in rebel-held Idlib province, including 38 in the city of Maarat al-Numan, on Sunday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group monitoring the war, reported. More »
Members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Special Action Force patrol after an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was found near the U.S Embassy in metro Manila, Philippines November 28, 2016. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco Philippine police conducted a controlled ... More »
New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. July 28, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday launched an initiative to combat hate... More »
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (L) and Vice President-elect Mike Pence (R) greet retired Marine General James Mattis in Bedminster, New Jersey, U.S., November 19, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday assessed several mo... More »
A wall along the border between Turkey and Syria is pictured near the southeastern town of Deliosman in Kilis province, Turkey, August 29, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo Turkey temporarily closed a border gate with Syria on Monday near its southeastern p... More »
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) meets with U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, September 5, 2016. Sputnik/Kremlin/Alexei Druzhinin/via REUTERS Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterpart Barack... More »
A boy holds a sign during a protest against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 13, 2016. REUTERS/Bria Webb Demonstrators in major U.S. cities took to the streets on Sunday for a fifth straight day to protest President-elec... More »
Musician Sting performs at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, France, November 12, 2016, one year after the deadly Paris attacks. REUTERS/David Wolff Patrick/Universal Music France via Reuters Rock star Sting headlined a concert in Paris’ Bataclan music hall ... More »
Posters of U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump are seen kept on a table during an event where members of Hindu Sena, a right-wing Hindu group, gather to symbolically celebrate his victory in the upcoming U.S. elections, in New Delhi, India, Novem... More »
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech during his meeting with mukhtars at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, October 19, 2016. Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday Germa... More »
Tribal fighters walk as fire and smoke rises from oil wells, set ablaze by Islamic State militants in the oil-producing region of Qayyara, Iraq. REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani With Iraqi troops battling inside Islamic State’s Iraqi bastion of Mosul, the militants’ le... More »
An employee works at an Israel Antiquities Authority laboratory in Jerusalem October 26, 2016. REUTERS/Ammar Awad Israeli archaeologists have made public a fragment of an ancient text which they say is the earliest Hebrew reference to Jerusalem outside the Bib... More »
A policewoman takes part in a police officers unauthorised protest against anti-police violence in front of the Police Prefecture in Paris, France, October 21, 2016. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen French police staged protests in Paris and other cities for a fifth nig... More »
Peshmerga forces gather on the east of Mosul during preparations to attack Mosul, Iraq, October 16, 2016. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari Iraqi government forces, with air and ground support from the U.S.-led coalition, launched an offensive on Monday to drive Islamic S... More »
A view shows an office that was used by Islamic State militants in Turkman Bareh village, after rebel fighters advanced in the area, in northern Aleppo Governorate, Syria, October 7, 2016. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi Syrian rebels said they captured the village of D... More »
German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives at the National Palace in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa October 11, 2016. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on a trip to Ethiopia, said she wanted the African Union to get involved in trying to solve... More »
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin (not pictured) following their meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, October 10, 2016. REUTERS/Osman Orsal Turkish President Erdogan told Iraqi Prime Minister H... More »
Indonesian police have arrested a man they suspect hacked into an advertising company’s computer system to show a pornographic video on an electronic billboard at a busy intersection of south Jakarta last week. More »
The Kremlin said on Monday it was gravely concerned by the situation in Syria where “terrorists” were using a ceasefire to regroup their forces and wage offensives against government troops. More »
A general view shows Castello road in Aleppo, Syria September 16, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail Moscow stepped up its war of words with Washington on Sunday, saying air strikes by a U.S.-led coalition on the Syrian army threatened the implementation of a U.S... More »
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks during the opening of the first and second phases of the housing project ”Long Live Egypt”, which focuses on development in the country’s slums, at Al-Asmarat district in Al Mokattam area, east of Cairo, Egypt May... More »
A fighter from the Free Syrian Army’s Al Rahman legion walks past damaged buildings in the rebel held Jobar, a suburb of Damascus, Syria September 6, 2016. Picture taken September 6, 2016. REUTERS/Bassam Khabieh Government troops and insurgents fought in sever... More »
A cyclist passes presidential election campaign posters of Norbert Hofer (L) of the FPOe and Alexander Van der Bellen, who is supported by the Greens, in Vienna, Austria September 6, 2016. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader A re-run of Austria’s presidential election s... More »
A riot police officer stands guard in front of Sur municipality office, following the removal of the local mayor from office after he was deemed to support Kurdish militants, in Diyarbakir, Turkey, September 11, 2016. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar Turkey appointed new ... More »
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov talks during a news conference at the Foreign Ministry in Beirut December 5, 2014. REUTERS/Aziz Taher (LEBANON – Tags: POLITICS) A new round of talks between the Syrian government and opposition may be held in ... More »
An Australian teenager who planned a terror attack which involved beheading a policeman and attaching explosives to a kangaroo at commemorations of the World War One ANZAC landings at Gallipoli was sentenced on Monday to ten years in prison. More »
Members of Libyan forces allied with the UN-backed government fire a weapon towards Islamic State militants in neighbourhood Number One in central Sirte, Libya August 28, 2016. REUTERS/Ismail Zitouny At least 34 Libyan fighters were killed and more than 180 wo... More »
Turkish armoured personnel carriers drive towards the border in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 27, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas Turkey’s army and its allies thrust deeper into Syria on Sunday, seizing ... More »
Police are seen outside Saint Joseph catholic church after a suspected terror attack by a knife-wielding assailant on a priest during the Sunday service in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia August 28, 2016 in this photo taken by Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Irsan Mu... More »
A bomb exploded at the Brussels Institute of Criminology in the north of the Belgian capital on Monday but the building was empty and no one was wounded, broadcaster RTL said. More »
A Nigerian man is being charged for provoking people and “breach of peace” by naming his dog after President Muhammadu Buhari and painting the name twice on the pet, police said on Wednesday. More »
BEIRUT A suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest on a bus in Syria near the Atmeh border crossing with Turkey late on Sunday, killing at least 32 people, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The bus was carrying fighters from foreign-backed rebel f... More »
NEW DELHI Two armed militants attacked a police station in Indian-ruled Kashmir on Monday, police said, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his annual Independence Day speech in the national capital, New Delhi. The gunmen were unable to take control of t... More »
By Daren Butler | ISTANBUL ISTANBUL Turkish police raided offices at three Istanbul courthouses on Monday after detention warrants were issued for 173 judicial personnel as part of an investigation into last month’s failed coup attempt, the private Dogan news ... More »
ISTANBUL Turkish police detained 17 suspected militants in a sweep in Istanbul on Thursday that included a raid on offices of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), state media said, hours after twin bomb attacks hit the mainly Kurdish southeast. Sec... More »
WASHINGTON Donald Trump’s call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States does not tarnish the U.S. commitment to religious freedom in the eyes of foreigners, a State Department official said on Wednesday. On Dec. 7, the week after a Muslim coup... More »
BEIRUT A Russian military helicopter carrying five people was shot down in the north of Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province on Monday, the Russian defence ministry said. Russian air forces are supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s five-year-old civil w... More »
BEIRUT Syrian rebel fighters have launched a major assault on government-held southwestern parts of Aleppo to try to reopen supply lines after the army and its allies tightened their siege of opposition-held parts of the city last week. The rebels are trying t... More »
KABUL The Taliban claimed responsibility for a truck bomb attack on a military and logistics services compound, mainly used by foreigners, in Kabul early on Monday after a powerful explosion was heard all around the city. However, casualties appear to have bee... More »
CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump on Sunday of scapegoating the parents of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq, after the Republican nominee took issue with remarks the soldier’s father made at the ... More »
NEW YORK Donald Trump rejected criticism from the father of a soldier killed in Iraq who said the Republican presidential nominee had “sacrificed nothing and no one” and questioned whether the mother was allowed to speak during the couple’s appearance at the D... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, responding to remarks by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, said on Sunday said Muslim fallen Army Captain Humayun Khan made the ultimate sacrifice for his country. “His sacrifice – and t... More »
DUBAI Islamic State on Sunday condemned as an “apostate” a U.S. Muslim soldier killed in Iraq whose story has re-ignited debate in the 2016 presidential election on the role of Muslims in American life. Dabiq, the militant group’s online magazine, showed a pic... More »
ISTANBUL/ANKARA Turkey widened a crackdown on suspected supporters of a failed military coup on Sunday, taking the number of people rounded up in the armed forces and judiciary to 6,000, and the government said it was in control of the country and economy. Pre... More »
DUBAI Authorities in the Gulf Arab states of Kuwait and United Arab Emirates on Friday warned of security dangers to playing the wildly successful new smartphone app Pokemon GO. Users must resist the urge to point camera phones at Pikachu popping out in front ... More »
BEIRUT/AMMAN Rebel areas of Aleppo have stockpiled enough basic supplies to survive months of siege by Syrian pro-government forces that cut off their half of the city last week, even though some goods are running out, an opposition official said. Government f... More »
ANKARA Turkey aims to develop good relations with Syria and Iraq, and both countries need to be stable for counter-terrorism efforts to succeed, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Wednesday. Turkey has long been one of Syrian President Bashar al-As... More »
BRUSSELS Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BR), which will soon make almost 30 percent of the world’s beer, wants to serve more low and alcohol-free brews to drinkers trying to live a healthier lifestyle. The Belgium-based brewer, on the verge of buying its largest ri... More »
FALLUJA, Iraq Iraqi forces recaptured the last district held by Islamic State militants in the city of Falluja on Sunday and the general commanding the operation declared the battle complete after nearly five weeks of fighting. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi c... More »
BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq About 40,000 residents of Falluja, Islamic State’s besieged stronghold near Baghdad, have fled in the last three weeks, but a similar number are trapped despite the Iraqi army’s attempts to secure escape routes for them, officials said on T... More »
WASHINGTON Banning Muslims from entering the United States is not in the nation’s interest, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Tuesday, standing in stark contrast to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call to limit Muslim immigration. “I do not... More »
ORLANDO, Fla. Orlando nightclub killer Omar Mateen had expressed sympathy for a variety of Islamist extremists, including groups in the Middle East that are sworn enemies, the FBI said on Monday, as a picture began to emerge of the angry, violent man who carri... More »
FORT PIERCE, Fla. The photo from Omar Mateen’s high school yearbook is hardly remarkable – a toothy, dimpled smile with a peach-fuzz mustache below a mop of black hair. His transformation from high school football player to perpetrator of America’s worst mass ... More »
WASHINGTON Donald Trump on Monday said the United States needs to increase its military response against Islamic State in the wake of the Orlando nightclub shooting over the weekend, including additional bombings. The presumptive Republican nominee, in an inte... More »
MANCHESTER, N.H./WASHINGTON Republican Donald Trump on Monday placed responsibility for a mass shooting in Florida squarely at the feet of radical Muslims, who he said were entering the country amidst a flood of refugees and “trying to take over our children.”... More »
WASHINGTON Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on Monday that if elected, she would pressure U.S. technology companies to help intelligence agencies disrupt violent plots after a gunman inspired by radical Islamist groups killed 49... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump faulted the Muslim community on Monday for not reporting people like the man who carried out the Orlando gay nightclub attack, killing 49 people and wounding 53 others. Trump, the presumptive Republican... More »
WASHINGTON Accustomed to generating controversy in their native Middle East with lyrics tackling love, sex and political apathy, members of Lebanese alt-rock band Mashrou’ Leila thought a summer U.S. tour would bring them a welcome respite. Instead, as news sp... More »
BEIJING China hopes to establish counter-terrorism intelligence sharing with France as the Asian giant seeks greater international support for its anti-terror fight, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported citing an exchange between officials of the two ... More »
AMMAN The Syrian army pushed into Raqqa province, home to the de facto capital of Islamic State, after a major Russian-backed offensive against the militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday. The offensive is the third big assault on t... More »
LONDON British Prime Minister David Cameron stands by his description of Donald Trump’s proposal for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States as “divisive, stupid and wrong”, a spokesman said on Monday. Trump, when asked about Cameron’s criticism,... More »
LONDON Donald Trump said he was unlikely to have a good relationship with David Cameron because the British prime minister cast the U.S. presidential candidate as “divisive, stupid and wrong” for proposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.... More »
ISTANBUL Turkish and U.S.-led coalition forces struck Islamic State targets north of the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, killing 27 fighters, state-run Anadolu Agency and other media reported. Turkish artillery and rocket launchers fired into Syria while warp... More »
MUNICH A German national stabbed four passengers at a train station near Munich early on Tuesday, killing one man and injuring three, in an attack police said appeared to have an Islamist motive. Witnesses said the assailant, a 27-year-old man, shouted “Allahu... More »
MOSCOW Russia and the United States have agreed to extend the “regime of calm” in Syria’s city of Aleppo for another 48 hours starting from May 10, RIA news agency on Tuesday quoted Russia’s Defence Ministry as saying. (Reporting by Lidia Kelly- Editing by Dmi... More »
WASHINGTON Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, suggested on Monday he would make an exception for London’s newly elected Muslim mayor, the New York Times reported. “There wil... More »
HANOVER, Germany/WASHINGTON President Barack Obama will announce on Monday he plans to send as many as 250 additional U.S. troops to Syria, a sharp increase in the American presence working with local Syrian forces fighting Islamic State militants, U.S. offici... More »
DUBAI Yemeni government forces and their allies killed more than 800 al Qaeda fighters when they advanced into the port city of Mukalla, the Saudi-led pro-government coalition said. Yemeni and Emirati soldiers seized the seaport on Sunday, depriving the group ... More »
LONDON A meticulous recreation of the 1,800-year-old Arch of Triumph in Palmyra, Syria, destroyed by Islamic State militants last year, has been erected in Trafalgar Square in what London Mayor Boris Johnson called an act of defiance. The 5.5-metre (20ft) mode... More »
BEIRUT Syrian rebel groups announced a new battle against government forces on Monday, a sign of escalating violence that has undermined a ceasefire deal and threatens to derail U.N.-led peace talks. The groups, which included factions fighting under the banne... More »
BEIRUT The Saudi-owned television news channel Al Arabiya shut its offices in Lebanon and dismissed 27 employees, two of its journalists said on Friday, in a sudden move that comes amid political tensions between Riyadh and Beirut. Protesters also attacked the... More »
DUBAI The secretary of the Iranian National Security Council has congratulated Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on regaining the city of Palmyra, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday. “The determination of the Syrian nation, government and army to eliminate t... More »
BEIRUT Syrian government forces backed by heavy Russian air support drove Islamic State out of Palmyra on Sunday, inflicting what the army called a mortal blow to militants who seized the city last year and dynamited its ancient temples. The loss of Palmyra re... More »
BRUSSELS Belgian police briefly used water cannon to control several hundred rowdy protesters in central Brussels on Sunday after they ignored an official call for marches to be postponed following Tuesday’s bombings. Amid fears of further attacks, officials w... More »
BRUSSELS Belgian police were hunting on Thursday for a “third man” filmed with two Islamic State suicide bombers at Brussels Airport as investigators accumulated evidence that the same jihadist network was involved in the deadly Paris attacks last November. As... More »
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday the attack in Brussels that killed more than 30 people is the “latest brutal reminder” that more must be done to defeat Islamic State militants, including by European Union member countries... More »
ANKARA The death toll in a car bomb attack in the Turkish capital Ankara has risen to 37 people, Health Minister Mehmet Muezzinoglu said on Monday, adding that 71 people were still being treated in hospital. Of those in hospital, 15 were in serious condition, ... More »
TUNIS/ALGIERS The signal to attack came from the mosque, sending dozens of Islamist fighters storming through the Tunisian town of Ben Guerdan to hit army and police posts in street battles that lit the dawn sky with tracer bullets. Militants used a megaphone ... More »
MOGADISHU Islamist militants in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, set off a vehicle packed with explosives next to a cafe near a police building on Wednesday, killing at least three police officers. The Islamist al Shabaab group, which wants to topple the Western... More »
BEIJING China is taking a “distinctly Chinese approach” to national security with a raft of new laws, including one on counterterrorism, the third-ranked leader said on Wednesday, offering a strong rebuttal to Western criticism. The U.S., Canadian, German and ... More »
Amid Yemen’s misery, two young women living in the war-damaged cities of Aden and Sanaa know they are among the relatively fortunate. They are not starving, their homes have not been destroyed and they have survived bombs and bullets unscathed. But both long t... More »
ISTANBUL A day after Turkey’s top-selling newspaper Zaman was taken over by the state, it dropped its criticisms of the government on Sunday and published flattering stories on President Tayyip Erdogan. The episode is the latest twist in a long-running conflic... More »
MOSCOW Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke on the phone on Sunday about closer cooperation between their countries’ militaries on the Syria ceasefire plan, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The conversati... More »
BENGHAZI, Libya Military forces loyal to Libya’s eastern government said on Tuesday they had taken control of two key neighbourhoods in Benghazi, building on gains made against Islamist fighters over the previous three days. The military said it had full contr... More »
BEIRUT The Syrian army advanced toward the Turkish border on Monday in a major offensive backed by Russia and Iran that rebels say now threatens the future of their nearly five-year-old insurrection against President Bashar al-Assad. Iranian backed-militias pl... More »
BEIRUT The death toll from a suicide attack in Damascus on Sunday that was claimed by the Islamic State 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 distri... More »
NAYPYITAW Hundreds of lawmakers from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy were sworn into Myanmar’s parliament on Monday, with enough seats to choose the country’s first democratically elected government since the military took power in 1962. The NL... More »
GENEVA Syria’s main opposition group is considering a proposal by U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura that could pave the way to the delegation pressing ahead with talks after holding their first meeting with him on Sunday, a Western diplomatic source said. ... More »
BEIJING The different ethnic groups who live in China’s violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang should make friends with each other to improve trust between them, the Chinese government’s top official there was quoted as saying on Monday. Hundreds of peo... More »
ISLAMABAD A Pakistani man has been arrested for hoisting the flag of arch rival India on his roof, an act police described as “anti-state” but which the accused says was a tribute to Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli, officials said on Wednesday. Umar Draz, f... More »
ISLAMABAD Pakistan said on Monday it had removed a three-year ban on YouTube after the Google-owned video-sharing website launched a local version that allows the government to demand removal of material it considers offensive. Pakistan banned access to YouTub... More »
LONDON British lawmakers on Monday debated a petition to ban U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump from Britain over remarks on Muslims, but while describing his comments as “crazy” and “offensive”, most said the ban would go against free speech.... More »
ANKARA Turkey is unsettled by “anti-Islamic” messages in the U.S. presidential race, in which the Republican front runner called for a ban on foreign Muslims, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday. Donald Trump last month advocated banning all forei... More »
BERLIN The fact that people of foreign descent were behind much of the violence in Cologne on New Year’s Eve should not be kept quiet but neither should it lead people to general suspicion toward all refugees and migrants, the German interior minister said on ... More »
WASHINGTON As Barack Obama prepares to deliver his final State of the Union address on Tuesday night, the U.S. president and his aides have insisted he will not be content simply to run out the clock on foreign policy and is acting decisively to tackle crises ... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Sunday that Democrat Hillary Clinton was a “liar” for claiming that his proposal to ban entry of all foreign Muslims into the United States has aided Islamic State’s propaganda efforts. Spe... More »
MANCHESTER, N.H. U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton backed elements of President Barack Obama’s strategy to fight Islamic State militants in a debate on Saturday, drawing criticism from all sides for saying “we now finally are where we n... More »
WASHINGTON U.S. presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump said separately on Sunday that the United States should not try to topple dictators such as Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, highlighting a skepticism over foreign wars that transcends party lines... More »
MINNEAPOLIS The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday approved a resolution condemning Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. The council voted 6-1 for the resolution which said the city “condemns an... More »
