DOHUK, Iraq (Reuters) – United States troops have crossed into Iraq from Syria through the Sahela border crossing in the northern province of Dohuk, Reuters witnesses said on Monday. Reuters video images showed armored vehicles carrying troops into Iraq, part ... More »
BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) – The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Sunday said they had withdrawn from the border town of Ras al Ain under a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal, but a spokesman for Turkish-backed Syrian rebels said the withdrawal was not yet... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia hopes its coordination with the United States and Turkey in Syria will help security and stability in the region, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Monday, according to the RIA news agency. Speaking during a visit to China, Shoig... More »
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s cabinet will convene on Monday at the Baabda palace, the National News Agency said as protests grip the country in the biggest show of dissent against the ruling elite in decades. Officials told Reuters on Sunday that Prime Ministe... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior members of Congress held talks in Jordan on Saturday with King Abdullah II and other top Jordanian officials. Pelosi said in a statement the visit was at “a critical time for the security ... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – New Zealand movie director Taika Waititi says he likes a challenge and his satire of Adolf Hitler and Nazi culture may be his riskiest and most successful yet. “Jojo Rabbit,” which Waititi wrote, directed and in which he plays a ridicul... More »
SARAJEVO (Reuters) – Ajna Jusic, the first baby to be registered as born of rape during the Bosnian war in the 1990s, describes to a packed Sarajevo theatre the discrimination and bullying she endured as a child with an unknown father and a mother branded a “w... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday demanded Turkey stop its military incursion in Syria and imposed new sanctions on the NATO ally as Trump scrambled to limit the damage from his much-criticized decision to clear U.S. troops from Turk... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korean football fans will be left in the dark as their national team play in North Korea for the first time in 30 years on Tuesday, with Pyongyang refusing to broadcast the World Cup qualifier live amid a return of chilled relations wit... More »
MAPUTO (Reuters) – Mozambicans voted on Tuesday in an election that could test a fragile two-month-old peace deal between the ruling Frelimo party and its old civil war foe turned opposition rival Renamo. The presidential, legislative and provincial polls are ... More »
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) has postponed the final decision whether to build a car plant in Turkey, a company spokesman said, amid international criticism of the country’s military operation in Syria and concerns about potential reputational ... More »
WASHINGTON/BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) – President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Turkey on Monday and demanded the NATO ally stop a military incursion in northeast Syria that is rapidly reshaping the battlefield of the world’s deadliest ongoing war. Trump, who... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry urged Turkey on Tuesday to stop military action in Syria and “come back to the right track”. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang made the comments at a daily briefing in Beijing. Turkey launched a militar... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – The European Union aims to resume negotiations with Thailand on a free trade agreement (FTA), the Council of the European Union said in a statement, after suspending trade talks following a 2014 military coup. Thailand held general election... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Monday Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters had emptied a jail holding Islamic State prisoners in a part of Syria where Ankara is mounting an offensive, and that the prisoners there had been abducted. Turk... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who has been critical of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull American troops out of northeast Syria, said on Monday he strongly supports Trump’s decision to sanction Turkey over its invasion ... More »
(Reuters) – The United Kingdom is reviewing all weapons exports licenses to Turkey as it faces mounting pressure over its military offensive in northern Syria, the Financial Times reported on Monday. British ministers have suspended issuing new licenses for ar... More »
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan said on Monday China was practicing “authoritarian expansionism” in the Pacific, pointing to reports of plans for Chinese military presence in two Pacific countries that have recently switched diplomatic allegiance to Beijing from Tai... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The United States said it was pulling troops from northeast Syria, in a major shift which clears the way for a Turkish military offensive against Kurdish-led forces and hands Turkey responsibility for thousands of Islamic State captives. A... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that U.S. troops had started to withdraw from parts of northeast Syria after his phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, adding that talks between Turkish and U.S. officials on the matter ... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Oil prices slipped on Monday as China’s economic outlook remained weak even as manufacturing data improved as an ongoing trade war with the United States weighs on demand growth at the world’s largest crude importer. Brent crude LCOc1 fut... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s crown prince warned in an interview broadcast on Sunday that oil prices could spike to “unimaginably high numbers” if the world does not come together to deter Iran, but said he would prefer a political solution to a milit... More »
By Amanda Becker and Jonathan Landay DES MOINES, Iowa/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, a frontrunner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, on Saturday called for an investigation into reports that President Donald Trump p... More »
DUBAI/RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia will seek to make a case at a global gathering in New York this week for concerted action to punish and deter arch-foe Iran after strikes on Saudi oil plants rattled global markets and exposed the kingdom’s vulnerability t... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran will pursue any aggressor, even if it carries out a limited attack, and seek to destroy it, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday, after attacks on Saudi oil sites which Riyadh and U.S officials blamed on Tehran. “B... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday the United States was “locked and loaded” for a potential response to the attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities, after a senior U.S. administration official said Iran was to blame. Trump also ... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Pyongyang in a letter sent in August, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources. The letter, the second Trump received from Kim last mon... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly fired his national security adviser John Bolton amid disagreements with his hard-line aide over how to handle foreign policy challenges such as North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and Russia. “I informed J... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Having once branded John Bolton a “war maniac”, North Korean officials could see U.S. President Donald Trump’s removal of his national security adviser as a chance to resume denuclearization talks without facing an unyielding hawk on the... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday that Europe had decided to uphold the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and would keep trying to find solutions that averted escalation. “Step by step we will keep trying to find solutions with Iran that preve... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany will do its part to avoid a proxy war in Libya, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday, warning that the situation in the north African country risked destabilizing the whole of Africa. “In Libya, a situation is developing that c... More »
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada has sailed a warship through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, the Canadian government said, three months after a similar operation and amid strained ties between Beijing and Ottawa. Such passages typically upset China, which claims democr... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – John Bolton’s departure from the White House removes an obstacle to the possibility of U.S.-Iranian nuclear talks, but the odds of such a dialogue leading anywhere remain low, current and former U.S. officials said on Tuesday. President ... More »
CARACAS (Reuters) – The United States is not seeking a military intervention as a solution to the economic and political crisis in Venezuela, the U.S. envoy to the troubled South American nation said in an interview published by a Venezuelan online news site o... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – A recent remark by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about “North Korea’s rogue behavior” will make talks with the United States more difficult, the North’s KCNA news agency on Saturday quoted its vice foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, as say... More »
BIARRITZ, France (Reuters) – Iran has an opportunity to come back into compliance with the nuclear deal and resume dialogue about its nuclear activities, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier he would mee... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – An Iranian tanker sailed through the Mediterranean toward Greece on Monday after it was released from detention off Gibraltar, and Tehran said that any at U.S. move to seize the vessel again would have “heavy consequences”. The Grace 1, renam... More »
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey on Monday replaced mayors from a pro-Kurdish party with state officials in three cities and detained more than 400 people for suspected militant links, the Interior Ministry said, a move likely to fuel tensions in the main... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish police have detained 418 people in 29 provinces in an investigation targeting suspects with links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. The ministry announcement, made on Twitter... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran has warned the United States against any new attempt to seize an Iranian oil tanker in open seas after it left Gibraltar, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on state television on Monday. The Iranian tanker caught in a standoff ... More »
By Steve Holland and Jonathan Landay BRIDGEWATER, N.J./WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump was briefed on Friday by top national security advisers on the status of negotiations with the Taliban on a U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan and the potenti... More »
BRIDGEWATER, N.J. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump met with his national security team on Friday to discuss Afghan peace talks and the meeting went “very well, and negotiations are proceeding,” the White House said in a statement. Source: https://www.reuters... More »
(Reuters) – The Department of Defense (DOD) identified on Sunday the U.S. service member who died during an Iraqi Security Force (IFS) mission as Gunnery Sergeant Scott A. Koppenhafer, 35, of Mancos, Colorado. Koppenhafer was killed on Saturday by enemy small ... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected Saturday’s test of a new weapon, which was developed to suit the country’s terrain, state media KCNA said on Sunday. North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range missiles on Saturday, South K... More »
VIENNA (Reuters) – An emergency meeting with parties to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal was constructive but there are unresolved issues and Tehran will continue to reduce its nuclear commitments if Europeans fail to salvage the pact, Iranian official Abbas Araqchi s... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards published footage on Monday purportedly showing the Guards warning off a British warship during their July 19 seizure of a British-flagged oil tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, according to the Tasnim news a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would nominate Representative John Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican who strongly defended him at a recent congressional hearing, to replace Dan Coats as the U.S. spy chief. Coats, the current U.... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Sunday the nation’s top intelligence official, Dan Coats, would leave his post next month and that he would nominate Republican congressman John Ratcliffe to replace him. “I am pleased to announce that high... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European foreign ministers will seek to flesh out how to convince Iran and the United States to reduce tensions and initiate a dialogue when they meet in Brussels on Monday amid fears that the 2015 nuclear deal is close to collapse. U.S.-I... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday that Europe had to remain united in trying to preserve the Iran nuclear deal, and said Tehran should reverse its decision not to comply with parts of the accord. “The Europeans ha... More »
ISTANBUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Turkey began taking delivery of an advanced Russian missile defense system on Friday, a move expected to trigger U.S. sanctions against a NATO ally and drive a wedge into the heart of the Western military alliance. The first par... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Russia started delivering advanced missile defense equipment to NATO member Turkey on Friday, the Defense Ministry in Ankara said, setting the stage for likely U.S. sanctions on Ankara. The dispute over the S-400 air defense missiles, whic... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey took its first deliveries of the Russian S-400 air defense system on Friday, a development likely to trigger U.S. sanctions on Ankara and escalate tensions between Turkey and its Western partners in the NATO military alliance. Why d... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation confirmed on Friday it had started delivering S-400 missile defense systems to Turkey and that the deliveries would continue as per an agreed schedule, the RIA news agency reported.... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – Britain’s seizing of an Iranian oil tanker last week was a threatening act that will not be tolerated, Iran’s Defence Minister Amir Hatami said on Monday in a speech broadcast live on state television. Royal Marines impounded the tanker in G... More »
CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday announced he will maintain Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino in his post, following months of rumors that top military brass would be replaced after a failed uprising in April. The Trump adminis... More »
TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) – Japan will tighten curbs on exports of high-tech materials used in smartphone displays and chips to South Korea amid a growing dispute over South Koreans forced to work for Japanese firms during World War Two, the industry ministry said... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan security forces on Monday were battling Taliban gunmen who stormed a building in the capital, Kabul, after a bomb-laden truck exploded near the defense ministry at rush hour, injuring at least 100 people, including 35 children, officia... More »
ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the first delivery of the Russian S-400 missile defense system would take place within 10 days, Turkish media reported on Sunday, a day after he said there would be no U.S. sanctions over the deal. Turke... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran will never succumb to U.S. pressure and if Washington wants talks with Tehran it should show respect, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday. Tension between Tehran and Washington have risen sharply in recent weeks, a year ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. candidates running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Sunday criticized President Donald Trump’s latest overture to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying the leaders’ meeting lacked substance and elevated a ruthles... More »
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan plans to tighten restrictions on the export of high-tech material used in smartphones and chips to South Korea from July 4 in connection with a dispute over a South Korean ruling on war-time forced labor, the Sankei newspaper reported o... More »
BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Scores of Asia specialists, including former U.S. diplomats and military officers, want President Donald Trump to rethink policies that “treat China as an enemy,” warning the approach could hurt U.S. interests and the global econ... More »
DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he was not seeking war with Tehran after a senior Iranian military commander warned any conflict in the Gulf region could spread uncontrollably and threaten the lives of U.S. troops. Tensi... More »
RIYADH/AMMAN/CAIRO (Reuters) – Arab politicians and commentators greeted U.S. President Donald Trump’s $50 billion Middle East economic vision with a mixture of derision and exasperation, although some in the Gulf called for it to be given a chance. In Israel,... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump will visit South Korea this week to discuss ways to revive nuclear talks with North Korea, the South’s presidential Blue House said on Monday. Trump is set to start his two-day visit on Saturday, and hold a summit ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that he hopes a letter sent by President Donald Trump to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un can pave the way for new talks aimed at ending North Korea’s nuclear program. Pompeo, who confirm... More »
AZAZ, Syria (Reuters) – The Syrian war has inflicted all kinds of hardships on Najwa Abdelaziz but she still manages to make light of one of them. “The uprising ruined my teeth,” she jokes while getting dental care for the first time in years in the back of a ... More »
WASHINGTON/DUBAI (Reuters) – Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced on Monday the deployment of about 1,000 more troops to the Middle East for what he said were defensive purposes, citing concerns about a threat from Iran. Fears of a confront... More »
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – Opening arguments are set to begin on Tuesday in the trial of a U.S. Navy SEAL court-martialed on charges of murdering a wounded Iraqi prisoner and shooting unarmed civilians, a war crimes case that has drawn the attention of U.S. Preside... More »
(Reuters) – Saudi air defenses intercepted two Houthi drones, one of them targeting a residential area in the southern city of Abha, the Saudi press agency said on Tuesday, citing the Saudi-led coalition. Al Masirah TV, citing a military spokesman, said on Mon... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House will not invite Israeli government officials to a Bahrain conference devoted to gaining support for a Palestinian economic plan in order to keep the event apolitical, a senior administration official said on Monday. The o... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is preparing to send additional troops to the Middle East in response to mounting concerns over Iran, which Washington blames for attacks on oil tankers last week, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, speaking on ... More »
DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran will quit a treaty against the spread of nuclear weapons unless European powers save a separate 2015 atomic deal that Washington abandoned last year, a senior Iranian lawmaker told the semi-official Fars news agency on Monday. “There is ... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he regretted Iran’s announcement that it would exceed the allowed enriched uranium limit, but that Paris would hold talks with Iran and its partners to avoid any further escalation in the region... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka’s battered tourism industry is trying to woo visitors back to beaches deserted after deadly Easter bombings, slashing hotel rates and pushing promotions in key markets like Russia. Tourism, which accounts for 5% of Sri Lanka’s gro... More »
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudanese forces entered the site of a sit-in in central Khartoum early on Monday amid gunfire, witnesses and Arab television stations said, in what activists described as an attempt to disperse protesters demanding civilian rule. A medical... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea’s former top nuclear envoy, Kim Yong Chol, accompanied leader Kim Jong Un to an art performance, state news agency KCNA said on Monday, signaling that the former spymaster is alive and remains a force in the power structure. Sunda... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – The Pentagon has told the White House that the U.S. military will not be politicized, a U.S. official said on Sunday, in response to a controversy after officials directed the United States Navy to keep the USS John S. McCain out of sight dur... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is “inordinately ignorant” to argue that North Korea’s recent missile tests violated United Nations resolutions, the North’s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state media on Monday. A s... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump, declaring a national emergency because of tensions with Iran, swept aside objections from Congress on Friday to complete the sale of over $8 billion worth of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he was considering pardons for “two or three” American soldiers charged with war crimes, a move he also said would be controversial but justified because they had been treated “unfairly.” Trump ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House will unveil the first part of President Donald Trump’s long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan when it holds an international conference in Bahrain in late June to encourage investment in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,... More »
DUSHANBE (Reuters) – Three prison guards and 29 inmates have been killed in a high-security prison in Tajikistan after convicted Islamic State militants started a riot, the Central Asian nation’s Justice Ministry said on Monday. The ministry said the riot brok... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – Minutes before Mena Mangal, a prominent Afghan journalist and parliamentary adviser, was shot dead by two men in Kabul, she had slammed the door of her parent’s home after reminding them to pay the neighborhood shopkeeper 15 Afghanis (20 cent... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Two Democrats with U.S. military experience who are vying for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination shifted the focus of the race to foreign policy on Sunday, criticizing Republican President Donald Trump for escalating tensions with ... More »
SANTANDER, Spain (Reuters) – A Saudi ship, prevented by rights groups from loading an arms cargo at the French port of Le Havre on Friday, arrived at the Spanish port of Santander early on Monday. It was not clear what the Saudi ship was doing in Santander or ... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lanka on Monday temporarily blocked some social media networks and messaging apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, after attacks on mosques and Muslim-owned businesses in the worst unrest since Easter bombings by Islamist militants. Th... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military said two of its warships sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Monday, a move that could anger Beijing at a time of tense relations between the world’s two biggest economies. The South China Sea... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China said on Monday its navy warned U.S. ships sailing near islands claimed by Beijing in the South China Sea to leave the area and that the U.S. should stop such provocative acts. Two U.S. guided-missile destroyers traveled within 12 naut... More »
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A deadly surge in violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel petered out overnight and Palestinian officials reported that Egypt had mediated a truce early on Monday. The latest round of fighting erupted three days ago, peaking o... More »
BATTICALOA/COLOMBO (Reuters) – State schools in Sri Lanka resumed classes on Monday amid tight security after the Easter Sunday bombings, but many anxious parents kept their children at home over fears of more attacks by Islamic militants. Two weeks after suic... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed on Friday the possibility of a new accord limiting nuclear arms that could eventually include China in what would be a major deal between the globe’s top ... More »
ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) – The pencil minaret of the Ottoman Adliyeh mosque in Syria’s Aleppo lists to one side and is scored by an ugly gash running down its flank, the result of bombing in the war. The sorry state of Aleppo’s Old City, a labyrinthine World He... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Authorities lifted a curfew in Sri Lanka on Monday, a day after a string of bombings at churches and luxury hotels across the Indian Ocean island killed 290 people and wounded about 500, but there were warnings more attacks could come. Ther... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said in a revised travel advisory ‘terrorist groups’ were continuing to plot possible attacks in Sri Lanka after 290 people were killed and about 500 wounded in blasts in churches and luxury hotels on Sunday. “Terrorists m... More »
(Reuters) – Bomb blasts ripped through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing 207 and injuring 450 people, in the first major attack on the Indian Ocean island since the end of a civil war 10 years ago. Here is a timeline of the expl... More »
COLOMBO (Reuters) – The death toll from attacks on churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka rose significantly to 290, and about 500 people were also wounded, police said on Monday. The death toll overnight had stood at 207. Police spokesman Ruwan Gunaseker... More »
MISHMERET, Israel (Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he will cut short his trip to the United States after a rocket attack near Tel Aviv wounded seven people. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said the projectile was fired... More »
NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – India and Pakistan are quarrelling over reports of an alleged kidnapping and religious conversion of two Hindu girls in mostly Muslim Pakistan last week. The spat began on Sunday when India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj tweet... More »
