The Russian defense ministry said on Wednesday it was conducting fresh military exercises in the south of the country as fighting intensified between rebels and government forces in Ukraine. On Tuesday, fighting erupted in the heart of major rebel stronghold Lugansk, as the bodies of 17 civilians fleeing the city were recovered from wreckage of […]

French President Francois Hollande called on Wednesday for an international conference to discuss ways of tackling “Islamic State” insurgents who have seized control of territory in Iraq and Syria.

The EU on Wednesday expressed deep concern over the current situation in Pakistan and said it is monitoring events closely. “We reiterate our conviction that the current impasse should be resolved peacefully through dialogue within the framework of the Constitution and we urge all parties to act responsibly and to refrain from using violence,”

Moroccan police say they have dismantled a nine-person cell recruiting volunteers to fight with the radical Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. The interior ministry statement on Thursday said the investigation into the network, based in the cities of Tetouan, Fez and Fnideq, was carried out in co-operation with Spanish authorities.

There is nothing that would stop France from delivering two Mistral helicopter carrier ships to Russia, French President Francois Hollande said Wednesday, Aug 20. “Today’s level of sanctions will not hamper deliveries … Should there be new tensions and it is difficult to find a way out, we will have to think of something. As […]

Germany is prepared to arm Kurdish fighters battling Sunni insurgents in northern Iraq, officials said Wednesday, Aug 20, according to the Associated Press. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier cited the “barbaric” actions of the Islamic State group that has taken control of large parts of Iraq in recent weeks, and the threat that their further advance […]

Thousands of supporters of two opposition parties, demanding resignation of Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, on Wednesday besieged the country’s parliament as its session is in process. The protesters who entered a high security area “Red Zone” in Islamabad late Tuesday night blocked the two main gates of the parliament to stop member of the […]

Ukrainian government troops pressed attacks Tuesday in the two largest cities held by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine, while Kiev also pursued diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict that has killed more than 2,000 and displaced another 300,000.

Russia and Ukraine said yesterday their presidents would meet together with top European Union officials in Belarus’s capital of Minsk on August 26 to discuss their confrontation over Ukraine which has plunged relations to an all-time low. The meeting will put Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko in the same room for the […]

As the U.S. military strikes the Islamic State group in Iraq, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces have significantly stepped up their own campaign against militant strongholds in Syria, carrying out dozens of airstrikes against the group’s headquarters in the past two days. While the government in Damascus has long turned a blind eye to the […]

 US President Barack Obama has lauded the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile, which was carried out on board a US Navy ship on the Mediterranean Sea, and urged Damascus to fulfil its commitment to destroy its remaining production facilities. “Today we mark an important achievement in our ongoing effort to counter the spread of weapons of mass […]

On August 19, Defense Minister of Azerbaijan Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov, Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania and Turkey’s National Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz held a trilateral meeting at the Headquarters of the Army Special Forces in Nakhchivan city.

The security of the Red Zone, having embassies, the parliament, and important government offices in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, has been handed over to the army on Tuesday, said the Interior Minister. The interior ministry decided to hand over the security to the army as the deadline given to the government to cross the red […]

An additional group of Egyptians in the Libyan-Tunisian border area have been evacuated, Egyptian Minister of Aviation Hossam Kamal said, adding that two flights transporting 500 Egyptians are slated to leave to Egypt on Monday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealed today for the two men vying to succeed him to end their dispute over election results and save the country from further violence and economic decline. Afghanistan has been paralysed for months after the first round of the presidential election failed to produce a clear winner and the second round […]

Moldova’s foreign ministry has called on Russia to withdraw soldiers from Trans-Dniester, a separatist pro-Russian enclave in the east part of the country. The ministry appealed to Russia on Tuesday to pull out some 1,500 troops and thousands of tons of weapons from Trans-Dniester in accordance with

Libya’s parliament on Wednesday voted to disband the country’s militia brigades and called on the United Nations to protect civilians in an effort to end the worst fighting between armed factions since the 2011 fall of Muammar Gaddafi.

An Egyptian court said it will deliver its verdict in the murder trial of Hosni Mubarak on 27 September, in a session on Wednesday in which the ousted strongman passionately defended his 30-year rule.

At least 70 civilians were killed in clashes between government forces and independence-seeking insurgents in Ukraine’s Donetsk region over the past three days, authorities said Thursday. According to the press service of Donetsk City Council, another 116 people were wounded as a result of fighting since Monday.

Syrian government troops captured a fiercely contested suburb of the capital Thursday after five months of heavy fighting, flushing rebels from their last hideouts and quickly moving to crush pockets of resistance in the surrounding countryside, activists and state media said. The fall of Mleiha, located some 10 km southeast of downtown Damascus, marks the […]

A massive Russian “humanitarian” convoy closed in on Ukraine’s border today despite doubts over whether the trucks would be allowed across, and as deadly fighting rocked rebel-held strongholds. The nearly 300 vehicles headed towards southeastern Ukraine, even as intense shelling there in the insurgent bastions of Donetsk and Lugansk ~ where the trucks appear headed […]

Clashes between Iraqi troops and Sunni militants west of Baghdad killed at least four children today as the United Nations announced its highest level of emergency for the Arab country’s humanitarian crisis in the wake of the onslaught by the extremist Islamic State group. Since their blitz offensive in June, the al-Qaeda breakaway group has […]

A Russian convoy carrying food, water and other aid set off yesterday for eastern Ukraine, where government forces are closing in on pro-Russian rebels, but Kiev said it would not allow the vehicles to cross onto its territory. Kiev and Western governments warned Moscow against any attempt to turn the operation into a military intervention […]

The Turkish government welcomed Tuesday Iraq’s advancement to the phase of forming a government. Iraqi President Fuad Massoum’s commissioning to form a government in the country is “an important and positive step,” Turkish foreign ministry said in a statement, wishing Massoum success during this “difficult task,”

Ministers of planning, finance and investment discussed on Monday alternative funding sources for the new Suez Canal project in a joint meeting with the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority. The new channel, part of a larger project to expand port and shipping facilities around the canal, aims to raise Egypt’s international profile and establish […]

Tunisia refuses any foreign intervention in Libya, Foreign Affairs Minister Mongi Hamdi said Monday at the opening of the Annual Conference of Heads of Diplomatic Missions. He expressed wish that all Libyans would reach an internal political solution preserving sovereignty of the Libyan territory.

Heavy shelling resumed in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Sunday after three days of relative calm following more than a month of street fighting between rival armed factions battling for control of the city’s airport. The North African OPEC oil producer is facing the worst violence since the 2011 war that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, with […]

A series of U.S. airstrikes since last week has slowed the operational tempo of the Islamic State, the terrorist group that has seized large parts of northern Iraq, but is unlikely to substantially weaken the group, the Pentagon said on Aug. 11. 

Iraq’s outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ordered security forces not to intervene in the political crisis over who will form the next government. “I want you to stay away from the political crisis and to carry out your security duties to protect the country. Do not intervene and let the people, politicians and the judiciary […]

Russia and Egypt pledged Tuesday to expand cooperation in various spheres as top leaders of the countries met in Sochi. After talks with visiting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al- Sisi, Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters that the Customs Union, a trade bloc grouping Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, was mulling over the creation of a […]

Iraq needs a “broad unity government” if it is to combat Islamist militants who have seized swathes of territory and are threatening minorities, says French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. He is in Iraq for crisis talks on the rapid advance of Islamic State (IS). His visit comes after the US launched a new round of […]

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius urged Iraq’s bickering leaders on Sunday to form an inclusive government capable of countering Islamic State militants advancing through the north of the country.

Egypt stressed its rejection of any foreign intervention in its neighbour Libya, during a visit by top Egyptian officials on Sunday. The delegation was headed by Assistant Foreign Minister for Neighbouring Countries Mohamed Badr El-Din Zayed and included the Egyptian Ambassador to Libya Mohamed Abu Bakr and representatives of several ministries, according to a statement […]

Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Kabul Thursday in a surprise visit to meet with the country’s two presidential candidates to help accelerate the ballot auditing process and build upon the political framework for Afghanistan’s future government. A Senior State Department Official told reporters, “We really want to see it (the audit) moving faster, […]

Pro-Russian separatists have claimed to have shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 military aircraft east of the country on Thursday. The fighter jet was shot down near the village of Zhdanivka, some 40kms northeast of the city of Donetsk, Russian-owned news agency Interfax-Ukraine reported quoting separatist sources.