World News

The International Monetary Fund is expected to approve inclusion of China’s yuan in its SDR basket of elite currencies on Monday, rewarding Beijing’s strong pursuit of the global status.

The Russian military has deployed its sophisticated S-400 missile battery and radar array in Syria, a Russian state-run media outlet claimed Thursday.

Fourteen air forces have begun operating in Syrian airspace as a result of Operation Inherent Resolve, the air coaliton against ISIS. The air arms of the Syrian, Russian, Israeli, American, Jordanian, Australian, French, British, Turkish. Saudi, Canadian, Qatari, French and Bahraini armed forces have all operated within the Syrian airspace since the operation’s onset.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will hold an emergency meeting Tuesday after Turkey’s military shot down a Russian jet fighter, and defended its action as one that fell “within the framework of engagement rules.”

President Vladimir Putin has eased an export ban on nuclear equipment and technology to Iran, a Kremlin decree published on Monday showed, after Tehran struck a deal with world powers on its nuclear program in July.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin approved a plan on Monday to begin the transfer of the advanced S300 anti-aircraft system to Iran as he attended talks with leaders in Tehran.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was in Tehran on Monday for talks with Iranian leaders expected to focus on the Syrian crisis and an international peace plan intended to end the conflict.

The Islamic State is using a variety of new tactics, including encryption and control of local resources in Iraq and Syria, that make it more difficult to defeat without a greater U.S. presence in the Middle East, analysts said on Friday.

U.S. actions in the Middle East helped Islamic State to gain influence, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said, according to Interfax.

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.