Explore our coverage of World news, in articles, charts, podcasts, and video
News
Thousands of Syrians converged on a landmark Damascus mosque for Friday prayers, waving opposition flags and chanting — a sight unimaginable just days ago before rebels ousted president Bashar Assad. At the capital’s famed Umayyad Mosque, men, women and children gathered to celebrate on the first Friday prayers since Assad’
News
Russia has carried out a massive attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in retaliation for Kyiv’s use of US-supplied ATACMS missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday. The ministry said that air- and sea-based long-range precision weapons and drones were used against “critical facilities of Ukraine’s fuel
News
Chinese navy and coast guard ships have returned to China, signaling the end of a massive maritime exercise, Taiwanese authorities said Friday. Taiwan’s coast guard released images it said showed Chinese vessels sailing north in rough seas past the island on Thursday, on their way to China. “All the
News
President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the coronavirus pandemic and is pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. It’s the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The commutations announced Thursday
News
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies “stand ready to support a transition process that leads to credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance” in Syria, a statement said on Thursday. The G7 said a political transition after the end of Bashar Assad’s 24-year authoritarian rule had to ensure
News
South Korean police raided President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office on Wednesday as the investigation into his declaration of martial law gathered pace. Prison authorities, meanwhile, said the country’s former defense minister tried to kill himself shortly before his formal arrest over the events of the night of December
News
Pope Francis called Wednesday for “mutual respect” between religions in Syria, three days after the country’s longtime president Bashar Assad was toppled by rebels in a lightning offensive. “I pray... that the Syrian people may live in peace and security in their beloved land and the different religions may
News
French party leaders will gather at President Emmanuel Macron’s Elysee Palace office Tuesday afternoon in a bid to chart a route toward a new government, days after Prime Minister Michel Barnier was toppled in a confidence vote. Shutting out the far-right National Rally (RN) and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI)
News
Eight people were killed and three more injured when a six-story residential building collapsed in central Cairo on Tuesday, Egypt’s health ministry said. Nine ambulances were dispatched to the scene as rescuers continue to “lift rubble and search for any wounded or bodies,” health ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar
News
The Syrian militants now in power in Damascus appointed Mohammad Al-Bashir as head of a transitional government that will be in place until March 1, state media said Tuesday. On Sunday, the militants led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham seized the capital Damascus in a lightning offensive, toppling president Bashar Assad
News
Israel will step up airstrikes on Syrian stores of advanced weaponry, Israeli officials said on Monday, and keep a ‘limited’ troop presence on the ground, hoping to head off any threat that could emerge in the fallout of President Bashar Assad’s overthrow. Israel has watched the upheaval in Syria
News
Syrian rescuers searched a jail synonymous with the worst atrocities of ousted president Bashar Assad’s rule, as people in the capital flocked to a central square Monday to celebrate their country’s freedom. Assad fled Syria as militants swept into the capital, bringing to a spectacular end on Sunday
News
Germany has suspended decisions on asylum requests from Syrians amid the “unclear situation” in the war-torn country after the ouster of President Bashar Assad, the interior minister said Monday. Germany took in almost one million Syrians, Europe’s biggest diaspora from the war-ravaged country, with the bulk arriving in 2015-16
News
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that Syrian President Bashar Assad had left office and departed the country after giving orders there be a peaceful handover of power. In a statement, the ministry did not say where Assad was now and said Russia has not taken part in the
News
Syrian militants readied to press their lightning advance on Saturday as government forces buttressed collapsing frontlines and bombarded the insurgents’ positions around Homs, in a bid to save President Bashar Assad’s 24-year rule. Since the militants’ sweep into Aleppo a week ago, government defenses have crumbled across the country
News
France's iconic Notre Dame Cathedral is formally reopening its doors on Saturday for the first time since a devastating fire nearly destroyed the 861-year-old landmark in 2019. The restoration, a spectacular achievement in just five years for a structure that took nearly two centuries to build, is seen