This is Beirut 18/12 16:05 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
A Syrian civil defence official said Wednesday that White Helmets rescuers discovered unidentified bodies and remains in a medicine warehouse in Damascus southern suburb, 10 days after Bashar al-Assad's ouster. An AFP video journalist at the scene said the warehouse strewn with medicine boxes was located just around 50 metres (yards) from the ...
This is Beirut 18/12 14:15 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Damascus Emmanuel Macron Turkey
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed France's decision to send diplomats to Damascus after the fall of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in a phone call with President Emmanuel Macron, the presidency said Wednesday. A French delegation arrived Tuesday at the country's embassy in Damascus, the first visit of diplomats from France since ...
This is Beirut 18/12 14:10 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
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United Nations special envoy Geir Pedersen called Wednesday for "free and fair elections" in Syria and urged humanitarian assistance to the war-torn country after Bashar al-Assad's ouster this month. Addressing reporters in Damascus, Pedersen said, "There is a lot of hope that we can now see the beginning of a new Syria," which he expressed hope ...
This is Beirut 18/12 13:20 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
Iranian lawmakers have asked to amend a bill that would impose tougher penalties on women who refuse to wear the mandatory hijab, local media reported on Wednesday. The bill, already approved in parliament but not yet submitted to the government for final confirmation, has stirred a heated debate in Iran more than two years since nationwide ...
This is Beirut 18/12 12:08 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Russia has detained a suspect in the killing of the head of the army's chemical weapons division, investigators said Wednesday, a day after the general and his aide were killed in a brazen blast in Moscow claimed by Ukraine. Igor Kirillov and his assistant were killed when an explosive device attached to a scooter went off Tuesday morning ...
This is Beirut 18/12 12:00 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Damascus Donald Trump USA Turkey
Bashar al-Assad's overthrow has cleared the way for US strikes against the Islamic State group in areas previously shielded by Syrian and Russian air defenses – but the jihadists may also try to exploit the vacuum left by his fall. The militant group,often referred to as ISIS or IS, rose out of the chaos of the Syrian civil war to seize swathes ...
This is Beirut 18/12 11:20 - Reading : 1 minute(s)
Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes Monday across the territory killed at least 12 people, the majority displaced Palestinians taking shelter in a house in the north. More than 14 months into the Israel-Hamas war, the violence continued even as the United States expressed "cautious optimism" about the prospects of reaching a ...
This is Beirut 18/12 11:00 - Reading : less than a minute
The first flight since the ouster of Syria's president Bashar al-Assad took off on Wednesday from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country's north, AFP journalists saw. Forty-three people including journalists were on board the Syrian Air Airbus plane. Assad fled Syria as a lightning rebel offensive launched on November 27 wrested from his ...
This is Beirut 18/12 10:50 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Rescuers searched desperately for survivors as they sought to assess the full scale of devastation wrought by Cyclone Chido on the French overseas territory of Mayotte, which emerged on Wednesday from a first night spent under curfew. French President Emmanuel Macron "will be in Mayotte on Thursday", his office announced late on Tuesday, as ...
This is Beirut 18/12 09:30 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Donald Trump European Union Kyiv Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets Wednesday with NATO chief Mark Rutte and key European leaders in Brussels to discuss "next steps" on Russia's war as Donald Trump prepares to take office in the United States. The gathering due in the evening was set to bring together German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Polish leader Donald Tusk, Italian ...
This is Beirut 18/12 09:25 - Reading : 3 minute(s)
Damascus Israel UN Security Council
A UN envoy has warned that Syria's protracted conflict "has not ended yet", even as victorious Islamist-led rebels stepped up contacts with governments that deemed ousted president Bashar al-Assad a pariah. The United Nations' special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, said on Tuesday "there have been significant hostilities in the last two weeks, ...
This is Beirut 17/12 22:50 - Reading : 2 minute(s)
The United States said Tuesday it felt "cautious optimism" on the prospects of reaching a ceasefire in the 14-month war in Gaza, although it acknowledged that similar hopes had been dashed before. Hamas on Tuesday said that talks mediated by Qatar were "serious and positive," a day after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz described the two ...