Breaking News, Latest Philippines Headlines, World, Entertainment, Politics, Weather & Video News
(Reuters) — Travellers were greeted with hugs and tears by family and friends at Washington Dulles Airport in Virginia late on Saturday (January 28) after being detained for hours because they were arriving on flights from one of the seven predominantly-Muslim countries that U.S. President Donald Trump has put on a restricted arrivals list. In his most sweeping decision since taking office a week ago, Trump, a Republican, put a four-month hold on allowing […]
PALMYRA, Syria (Reuters) — Islamic State militants have destroyed one of the most famous monuments in the ancient city of Palmyra, the Tetrapylon, and the facade of its Roman Theater, Syrian antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim told Reuters on Friday (January 20). The Syrian government lost control of Palmyra to Islamic State in December, the second time the jihadist group had overrun the UNESCO world heritage site in the six-year-long Syrian conflict. The Tetrapylon, marking a […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Barack Obama says he does not regret his speech drawing a “red line” over Syria’s use of chemical weapons, a phrase critics say symbolizes the US failure to act over the country’s conflict. Obama made the comment in 2012 about possible US military action in Syria, saying “a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized.” In […]
by Layal Abou Rahal with Rim Haddad in Damascus Agence France-Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) – The United Nations warned Thursday that sabotaging water supplies was a war crime after the main source for Syria’s capital was cut, leaving more than five million people facing shortages. Water supplies from the rebel-held area of Wadi Barada near Damascus have been severed since December 22, with the regime and rebels trading blame. The head of a UN-backed humanitarian […]
by Sara Hussein Agence France-Presse BEIRUt, Lebanon (AFP) – A dozen Syrian rebel factions have suspended talks on new peace negotiations, accusing President Bashar al-Assad’s regime of violating a four-day-old ceasefire with attacks near Damascus that continued Tuesday. The decision threatens the process sponsored by regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey, which began with a truce and is meant to lead to negotiations in the Kazakh capital Astana this month. The ceasefire has brought […]
by Frankie TAGGART Agence France Presse LOA ANGELES, United States (AFP) — It’s an all-too-familiar Hollywood story: the out-of-work actor eking out an existence in cheap housing, earning minimum wage delivering pizzas, desperate for his big break. But for Jay Abdo — one of the Arab world’s biggest stars before the conflict in Syria made him just another anonymous refugee on the mean streets of Los Angeles — it has been particularly tough. Just a […]
by Layal Abou Rahal Agence France-Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) – A fragile calm was holding across Syria on Friday after a truce brokered by Russia and Turkey came into effect, a potentially major breakthrough after nearly six years of conflict. There were reports of isolated violence, including clashes in central Hama province between government forces and jihadist factions, a monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were casualties among regime forces in […]
LISBON, Portugal (AFP) — The Syrian conflict “has become a cancer on a global scale”, incoming UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said, while hoping Washington and Moscow overcome their differences to help end the crisis. The war has caused “not only the suffering of the Syrian people” but also sparks “violent reactions which in some cases lead to terrorist acts”, the former Portuguese premier told Portugal’s SIC television channel in an interview broadcast Wednesday. […]
by Stuart WILLIAMS Agence France-Presse ISTANBUL, Turkey (AFP) – Turkish state media Wednesday said Turkey and Russia had agreed a nationwide truce plan for Syria but none of the key players in the conflict offered an immediate confirmation. The state-run Anadolu news agency said the plan aims to expand a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo — brokered by Turkey and Russia earlier this month to allow the evacuation of civilians — to the whole […]
by Maher al-Mounes and Rim Haddad ALEPPO, Syria (AFP) — Midnight means lights out in Syria’s Aleppo: as the clock strikes 12, overworked power generators shut off across the city, plunging war-ravaged neighborhoods and heritage sites into darkness. It will take many months and millions of dollars to breathe life back into Aleppo’s devastated water, electricity, and transportation networks. Four years of fighting have transformed it from Syria’s industrial and commercial powerhouse to a divided […]
by Maria ANTONOVA and Gabrielle TETRAULT-FARBER Agence France Presse MOSCOW, United States (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday appeared to cosy up to US President-elect Donald Trump while asserting his authority as the key power broker in Syria. At his annual end-of-year press conference, the confident Kremlin strongman praised Trump for tapping into the public mood in the US to claim his surprise win in November. “He went to the end, though nobody believed […]
MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin called Syria’s Bashar al-Assad Friday to congratulate him on completing the “liberation” of Aleppo, the Kremlin said. “Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and congratulated him with the end of the operation of liberation of Aleppo from fighters,” it said in a statement. “This success was possible thanks to mutual efforts of all who came together in the fight with international terrorism in […]
