Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says all US-backed Kurdish armed militants are “traitors” to the Syrian nation, ramping up the rhetoric particularly against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which are mainly active in northeastern areas of the Arab country through receiving vital substantial air and armament support from Washington.  The Syrian leader made the remarks in […]

The United States is set to spend about $214 million on upgrading military airbases in Eastern Europe, Norway and Iceland. The US is planning to spend approximately $214 million on upgrading and building military structures and installations on its airbases in Eastern Europe, Norway and Iceland as part of a deterrence initiative against Russia, local […]

The top UN human rights official has said he would not be surprised if a court one day ruled that acts of genocide had been committed against the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar, according to a television interview to be shown on Monday. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra‘ad al-Hussein told the BBC […]

North Koreans enjoyed the fastest improvement in their incomes for five years in 2016, Seoul’s statistics agency has said — but Southerners are still more than 20 times better off. Per capita incomes averaged 1.46 million won ($1,340) in the North last year, Statistics Korea said in statement, up five per cent. It was the […]

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez was declared on Sunday the winner of a heavily disputed presidential election held three weeks ago, despite mounting protests and opposition claims of fraud. Electoral authorities made the announcement the day that Hernandez’s leftist opponent, Salvador Nasralla, departed for the United States to highlight what he said was ballot tampering […]

The congress of Ecuador voted Sunday to open proceedings on whether to fire Vice President Jorge Glas, who has been convicted of corruption. A planning committee called the Legislative Administrative Council voted 4-3 to put Glas on trial in the congress. The case now goes to the Constitutional Court and if it agrees, another panel […]

A law firm representing US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law is suing him for lack of payment. Corcnicello, Tendler & Baumel-Cornicello filed a lawsuit earlier this month seeking $102,000 for its services in 2014 and 2015, The New York Daily News initially reported Sunday. The company, meanwhile, is “working to resolve this matter,” according to a spokeswoman for […]

Finally accepting the facts on the ground in Syria, France’s Macron said France would now push for peace talks involving all parties in the six-year-old Syrian conflict, including President Bashar al-Assad. “On December 9, Iraqi Prime Minister (Haider al-) Abadi announced the end of the war and the victory over Daesh, and I think that […]

TEHRAN– Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Dec. 17 said Turkey wants to open an embassy in East ai-Quds (Jerusalem), following a decision by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to recognize East al-Quds the capital of the Palestinian state. “We have already declared East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state but we […]

TEHRAN – The number of new asylum seekers in Germany has fallen for a second year in a row following the mass influx that peaked in 2015, the government said Sunday. For all of 2017, “I presume a total of fewer than 200,000 migrants,” Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere was quoted as saying by the […]