World News

The Islamic State group is aggressively pursuing development of chemical weapons, setting up a branch dedicated to research and experiments with the help of scientists from Iraq, Syria and elsewhere in the region, according to Iraqi and U.S. intelligence officials.

The world is facing another global conflict and a fast response is needed to deal with the threat, Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Tuesday.

Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium has grown in the past three months, the United Nations nuclear watchdog reported on Wednesday. The stockpile is supposed to be slashed as a result of the agreement the regime reached this summer with the United States and other world powers.

French warplanes pounded Islamic State positions in Syria on Sunday as police in Europe widened their investigations into coordinated attacks in Paris that killed more than 130 people.

President Obama said Sunday at an international summit that America stands with France in its pursuit of those who committed the ‘horrific’ terror attacks in Paris and met informally with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

China’s yuan is poised to enter the big leagues of global currencies, according to the judgment of the International Monetary Fund.

Two weeks after they jointly called for a political solution to Syria’s civil war, foreign ministers and senior officials from Russia, the United States, Europe and the Middle East struggled on Friday to turn that idea into a more concrete plan.

The Eiffel Tower stood dark in a symbol of mourning Saturday night as France struggled to absorb the deadliest violence on its soil since World War II: coordinated gun-and-suicide bombing attacks across Paris that left at least 129 people dead and 352 injured.

The target of Israel’s alleged airstrikes in Syria on Wednesday evening were Hezbollah weapons warehouses, Arab media affiliated with the opposition to Syrian Preisdent Basher Assad reported Thursday.

Iran has threatened to walk away from the recently inked nuclear deal and stop rolling back its nuclear enrichment program, according to recent comments by Hassan Rouhani, the Islamic Republic’s president.

Humans who have had their DNA genetically modified could exist within two years after a private biotech company announced plans to start the first trials into a ground-breaking new technique.

Syria’s army has broken Isil’s two-year siege on an airbase in eastern Aleppo, marking the first major success for a military campaign backed by Russia and Iran.

A Russian document shown on state-run television confirmed that Moscow is developing a high-speed drone submarine capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

Russia will counter NATO’s U.S.-led missile defense program by deploying new strike weapons capable of piercing the shield, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday.

The United States and other global powers are helping Iran to update and reconstruct a nuclear reactor that has been suspected of helping the Islamic Republic produce enough material for a potential nuclear weapon, according to regional reports and statements from the State Department.

The Russian government is preparing to begin deliveries of S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran by the end of of 2016.

In the fight against the Islamic State group, members of Congress talk tough against extremism, but many want to run for cover when it comes to voting on new war powers to fight the militants, preferring to let the president own the battle.

Investigators of the Russian plane crash in Egypt are “90 percent sure” the noise heard in the final second of a cockpit recording was an explosion caused by a bomb, a member of the investigation team told Reuters on Sunday.

S and coalition forces are likely to increase air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria in coming weeks after a lull in September and October, the head of US Air Forces Central Command said Saturday.

Russia and Iran have signed a contract on Moscow’s delivery of the advanced S-300 missile defense system to the Islamic Republic, Sergei Chemezov, chief executive of Russian state-owned defense conglomerate Rostec, said Monday.