US vetoes a UN resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza because it fails to link a hostage release

Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — US vetoes a UN resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza because it fails to link a hostage release.

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    Hamas has reportedly agreed to allow Israeli troops to remain in Gaza in a major about-turn that could unblock a hostage deal.

  • Bloody siege ends Myanmar army control of western border

    Insurgents seized Myanmar's border with Bangladesh in one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war.

  • Battered corpses show the horrors of life and death under Syria’s Assad

    The 35 or so bodies were found in a military hospital in the Syrian capital of Damascus, days after the regime fell. They are believed to be among the last victims of Assad.

  • Syrian rebel leader says he will dissolve toppled regime forces, close prisons

    Syrian rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa - better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani - told Reuters in a written statement on Wednesday that he would dissolve the security forces of the toppled regime of Bashar al-Assad. His forces swept across Syria in a lightning offensive that overthrew 50 years of Assad family rule, replacing it with a three-month transitional government of ministers that had been ruling a rebel enclave in Syria's northwest. The military command affiliated with his group, which is known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, already said they would grant an amnesty to military conscripts.

  • Syria - live: Mass rallies celebrate fall of Assad amid fears chemical weapons ‘may be smuggled abroad’

    Fears are growing that terrorist groups may get hold of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile

  • Russia ‘close to’ deal with rebels to retain military bases in Syria

    Russia is close to securing a deal to retain control of two military bases in Syria following talks with rebels who overthrew dictator Bashar al-Assad last week, officials close to the Kremlin believe.

  • Demoralised and abandoned by allies: why Assad’s army failed to fight in Syria

    Twenty-three-year-old Syrian military conscript Farhan al-Khouli was badly paid and demoralized. For years, the Islamist rebels of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) had sat behind the nearby frontline, with Syria's long civil war frozen.

  • Netanyahu releases video message to the Iranian people saying that the regime's allies are falling

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a video message addressed to the Iranian people Thursday celebrating the weakening of the "Iranian regime's axis of terror." Speaking in English in a video with Farsi subtitles, Netanyahu said that Israeli attacks on Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon had set off a "chain reaction" in the Middle East.

  • China FM says 'deeply concerned' about Syria in talks with Egypt counterpart

    China's foreign minister Wang Yi told his Egyptian counterpart on Friday that Beijing is "deeply concerned" about the situation in Syria, as the two top diplomats met in the Chinese capital."The two sides are deeply concerned about the current situation in Syria and call for respect for Syria's sovereignty," Wang told journalists, urging the prevention of "terrorist and extremist forces from taking advantage of the chaos".

  • Fear of the unknown or unique chance? How Israel plays its cards in the Syrian crisis

    Israel has moved to prevent the emergence of new threats from Syria. Lebanon, meanwhile, is worried about becoming the future battlefield of the regionView on euronews

  • Taliban minister killed in Islamic State suicide attack

    The Taliban’s minister for refugees has been killed in a suicide bomb attack believed to have been carried out by the Islamic State.

  • US general monitors first withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon

    A top U.S. military officer visited Beirut on Wednesday to monitor the withdrawal of the first Israeli troops from Lebanon under a ceasefire agreement reached last month, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said. Army General Michael Kurilla, CENTCOM's commander, visited the monitoring headquarters in Beirut for the ceasefire and met with the commander of Lebanon's armed forces, General Joseph Aoun, CENTCOM said in a post on X.

  • Syrian rebels ‘received drones from Ukrainian operatives’

    Ukraine supplied Syrian rebels with drones and experienced operators in the weeks before they defeated Bashar al-Assad’s army, The Washington Post has reported.

  • G7 to meet on Syria, government pledges 'rule of law'

    G7 leaders will attempt Friday to forge a common approach to the new government of Syria, which has pledged to protect the rule of law after years of abuses under ousted president Bashar al-Assad."A judicial and human rights committee will be established to examine the constitution and then introduce amendments," he said, pledging that "rule of law" would be instituted.

  • Topless women protesting the Ukraine war are detained for vandalizing sculpture near UN building

    At least three feminist activists were detained on Friday after vandalizing a monument outside the United Nations complex in Geneva to protest Russia's war against Ukraine and what they see as the U.N.'s failure to stop the conflict. Two topless women with the group FEMEN, which is known for its provocative protests, used a chainsaw to cut into the wooden sculpture known as the “Broken Chair.” One woman with white flowers in her hair left several large gashes in a leg of the sculpture, a 12-meter (40-foot) tall giant chair with a broken leg.

  • After Assad's ouster, Syrian rebel leader tightens his grip on the state

    DAMASCUS/BEIRUT (Reuters) -Rebel leader Ahmad al-Sharaa's Islamist group is stamping its authority on Syria's state with the same lightning speed that it seized the country, deploying police, installing an interim government and meeting foreign envoys - raising concerns over how inclusive Damascus' new rulers intend to be. Since Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group swept Bashar al-Assad from power on Sunday at the head of a rebel alliance, its bureaucrats - who until last week were running an Islamist administration in a remote corner of Syria's northwest - have moved into government headquarters in Damascus. The appointment of Mohammed al-Bashir, the head of the regional government in HTS' enclave of Idlib, as Syria's new interim prime minister on Monday underlined the group's status as the most powerful of the armed groups that battled for more than 13 years to end Assad's iron-fisted rule.

  • Syria Kurds warm up to new leaders but fear for hard-won gains

    Kurdish authorities have made overtures to Islamist-led rebels who seized power in Syria last week, but the long-oppressed community fears it could lose hard-won gains it made during the war, including limited self-rule.As rebels led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) seized power, ousting president Bashar al-Assad, the Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria have multiplied overtures to the new leaders, like adopting the three-starred flag used by the opposition.

  • Thousands attend the funeral of a Taliban minister killed by an Islamic State suicide bomber

    Thousands of people attended the funeral on Thursday of a Taliban minister killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, the day before that was claimed by the Islamic State group. The funeral for Khalil Haqqani, the minister for refugees and repatriation, was held in the eastern Paktia province. The Cabinet member was the most high-profile casualty of an assault in the country since the Taliban seized power three years ago.

  • Syrian insurgency leader al-Golani calls for people to take to streets in celebration

    The leader of the Syrian opposition forces that stormed into Damascus and ousted president Bashar Assad urged people to celebrate peacefully. Thousands are expected to head to the streets on the first weekend since the fall of Assad's government.

  • Hong Kong court convicts 7 men, including ex-lawmaker, of rioting during 2019 protests

    A Hong Kong judge on Thursday convicted seven people, including a pro-democracy former lawmaker, of rioting during mob violence at a subway station at the height of the city’s anti-government protests in July 2019. Prosecutors accused former legislator Lam Cheuk-ting and the six other defendants of provoking members of a group of about 100 men armed with wooden poles and metal rods who attacked protesters and bystanders at a train station.