Visiting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed here on Thursday the significance of creating a new Iraqi government as a gateway to rebuilding Iraq. Speaking at a short news conference following a just-one-hour meeting with top Shi’ite cleric Ayatollah Al-Sistani in Najaf for the first time, Ban said the formation of …

At least 11 people, including three children and a woman, were killed and eight others wounded when a mortar shell fell on a district of Aleppo city, north Syria, on Thursday. The area is controlled by the regular forces, according to a statement by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights …

The US welcomed the decision by all parties to end the violence in the Central African Republic after they signed a “Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.”