By Denis Dyomkin and John Irish | ASTANA ASTANA Syria’s warring sides met for their first talks in nine months on Monday, with their Russian and Turkish backers pushing to cement a ceasefire that could pave the way for political talks. The meeting in the Kazakh capital comes at a time when Turkey, which backs the rebels, and Russia, which supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, each want […]
ASTANA, KAZAKHSTAN: Syrian opposition vowed Monday to keep fighting if the peace talks fail with the war-torn country’s government in Kazakhstan, as the two sides opened indirect negotiations.The talks had been billed as the first time armed opposition groups would negotiate directly with President Bashar Assad’s regime since the conflict erupted in 2011.“If the negotiations succeed, then we are with the negotiations,” opposition spokesman Osama Abu Zeid […]
The proliferation of fake news on social media, particularly Facebook, and some websites on the internet is a growing concern. In an attempt to solve this problem, researchers developed a “vaccine” that can immunize people against fake news. Inspired By Vaccines Vaccinating a person against a virus exposes the body to a weakened version of the threat. The exposure is just enough to help build the body’s […]
The 2019 Asian Cup will begin on Jan. 5 and will be played over 28 days across eight stadiums in the United Arab Emirates, the continent’s soccer governing body said on Monday. The Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi will play host to the opening game and the final on Feb. 1 in the region’s premier tournament for the member nations, the Asian Football Confederation said in […]
By Maher Chmaytelli and Saif Hameed | BAGHDAD BAGHDAD Iraqi officials said on Monday government forces had taken complete control of eastern Mosul, 100 days after the start of their U.S.-backed campaign to dislodge Islamic State militants from the city. The deputy parliament speaker announced the capture of the east of the city, Islamic State’s last major stronghold in Iraq, after a meeting with Prime Minister Haider […]
The lead government negotiator, Bashar al-Jaafari, speaking to reporters after the opening session, responded by calling the opposition delegation “armed terrorist groups,” and accused them of “impertinent” and “provocative” behavior. Continue reading the main story The tension demonstrated the challenges that remain for Russia, the Syrian government’s most powerful backer, as the Russian government tries to show its approach can accomplish more than the largely fruitless efforts […]
By Michael Georgy | MOSUL, Iraq MOSUL, Iraq Mohamed Mahmoud is relieved he no longer has to watch Islamic State militants hang corpses from electricity poles, now that Iraqi forces have cleared the group from his east Mosul district. But he still fears for his safety. Like other Iraqis, he worries that destructive forces like sectarianism, which already provoked one civil war since the fall of Saddam […]
Photo The Roman amphitheater, left, in Palmyra, Syria, in 2016. Satellite pictures on the right show the structure before it was damaged, above, and after. Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times Islamic State militants have destroyed the facade of a second-century Roman amphitheater and another ancient monument in the historic city of Palmyra, Syria, the Syrian state-run news agency reported on Friday. The news agency, […]
The Syrian government and rebels opened talks in Kazakhstan on Monday as part of a Turkish and Russian-backed effort to end the Arab state’s near six-year civil war. It is the first time the warring parties have held negotiations in a year, and if successful could mark a turning point in a conflict that has killed an estimated 400,000 people, while also underlining the increasing roles of […]
ANKARA Sixty-five Islamic State militants were killed in operations by the Turkish army in support of rebels in northern Syria on Sunday, the Turkish military said on Monday. Turkey launched an operation to drive the jihadists away from the Syrian border five months ago and have been besieging the Islamic State controlled town of al-Bab for weeks. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by […]
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi | ASTANA ASTANA A Syrian opposition delegation to peace talks set to open in the Kazakh capital on Monday said it would only discuss ways to salvage a fragile Russian-Turkish ceasefire it sees as having been violated chiefly by Iranian-backed militias in Syria. The Syrian government considers most of the rebel groups attending the conference to be foreign-backed “terrorists”, but says it is ready […]
By Maayan Lubell | JERUSALEM JERUSALEM Israel approved building permits on Sunday for hundreds of homes in three East Jerusalem settlements in expectation that U.S. President Donald Trump will row back on the previous administration’s criticism of such projects. The housing projects, on land that the Palestinians seek as part of a future state, had been taken off the Jerusalem municipality’s agenda in December at the request […]
BAGHDAD Islamic State blew up a landmark hotel in western Mosul on Friday in an apparent attempt to prevent advancing Iraqi forces from using it as a base in their offensive to capture the city, witnesses said on Sunday. The Mosul Hotel, shaped as a stepped pyramid, appeared to be leaning to one side after the explosions, two witnesses said by phone. They requested anonymity, saying the […]
In one of the first international phone conversations by the new US president since his inauguration, Israel PM Netanyahu is set to call Trump on Sunday afternoon: the civil war in Syria, the Palestinians and the nuclear agreement with Iran will be on the agenda Netanyahu told his weekly Cabinet meeting. PM Netanyahu: This evening there will be a telephone conversation between President Trump and myself. — […]
JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would later in the day hold his first conversation with Donald Trump since his inauguration as U.S. president. The White House later said the conversation would take place at 1830 GMT (13:30 ET). “A telephone conversation will be held this evening between President Trump and me. Many matters face us, the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the situation in Syria, […]
BEIRUT The Syrian army and its allies on Sunday drove Islamic State from several villages east of Aleppo, a military media unit run by Hezbollah and a war monitor reported, bringing them closer to territory held by Turkey-backed rebels. Several overlapping conflicts are being fought in Syria, dragging in regional and global powers as well as the government and local groups, complicating the battlefield in the north […]
But by April, protests against Mr. Assad had spread throughout Syria. One summer day I joined a group of young women in an upscale neighborhood of western Aleppo. We walked through a market carrying banners critical of the regime. A few minutes later, pro-Assad militiamen arrived in several cars and began circling us. We ran. A girl and I who sought refuge in a house in an […]
Submitted by Robert Parry via The Strategic Culture Foundation, Whenever The New York Times or some other mainstream news outlet holds itself out as a paragon of professional journalism – by wagging a finger at some pro-Trump “fake news” or some Internet “conspiracy theory” – I cringe at the self-delusion and hypocrisy. No one hates fake news and fact-free conspiracy theories more than I do, but the […]
BEIRUT The Syrian army and its allies on Sunday drove Islamic State from the village of Soran, east of Aleppo, state media and a military media unit run by Hezbollah reported, bringing them closer to territory held by Turkey-backed rebels. Several overlapping conflicts are being fought in Syria, dragging in regional and global powers as well as the government and local groups, complicating the battlefield in the […]
By Tom Perry and Laila Bassam | BEIRUT BEIRUT Islamic State is fighting hard to reinforce its presence in Syria as it loses ground in Iraq, deploying fighters to seize full control of a government-held city in the east while at the same time battling enemies on three other fronts. It underlines the residual strength of Islamic State even after its loss of a cluster of cities […]
“I’m sorry,” said Ms. Najjar, 26, wiping her eyes. Hisham, who is shy and has large dark brown eyes, left the room to play with balloons. “It’s just that I almost lost him, not to violence or to war, but to diabetes.” A few birds singing in their cages brighten the grim space where Hisham’s family lives. But they also remind the family of what it left […]
ASTANA, Kazakhstan: Syria’s government and opposition fighters will on Monday sit down at the negotiating table for the first time in nearly six years of war, the latest diplomatic push to end hostilities. Hosted in the Kazakh capital Astana, the talks will see an opposition delegation composed exclusively of opposition groups negotiating with the regime of Bashar Assad in an initiative sponsored by opposition backer Turkey […]
By Michael Georgy | MOSUL MOSUL Residents of east Mosul held up their children and took selfies with Iraqi counter-terrorism commander Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi after his men cleared Islamic State fighters from their neighbourhoods. But his tour on Saturday of homes once occupied by the militants was a reminder of the dangers ahead as security forces prepare to expand their offensive against the Sunni militants into […]
If you thought Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has an innately charming persona — simply by looking at his posts on Facebook — then you might be surprised to know that there’s a science behind that appeal. Yes, even the founder of the most popular social networking site needs professional help in keeping his Facebook profile squeaky clean. Zuckerberg is making sure his social media presence is […]
