World News

Russia has started to build a huge military base housing ammunition depots and barracks for several thousand soldiers near the Ukrainian border, a project that suggests the Kremlin is digging in for a prolonged stand-off with Kiev.

Russia and Iran are coordinating the dispatch of military forces to Syria in an effort to save the regime of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Russian forces have begun participating in military operations in Syria in support of government troops, three Lebanese sources familiar with the political and military situation there said on Wednesday.

Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri dismissed Islamic State and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as illegitimate but said his followers would join them in fighting the Western-led coalition in Iraq and Syria if possible.

Russia is building a drone submarine to deliver large-scale nuclear weapons against U.S. harbors and coastal cities, according to Pentagon officials.

Pope Francis is expected to focus on the need for peace in a conflict-torn world facing the biggest refugee crisis since World War II when he addresses the United Nations later this month, the Holy See said Wednesday.

At least 850,000 people are expected to cross the Mediterranean seeking refuge in Europe this year and next, the United Nations said on Tuesday, giving estimates that already look conservative.

China’s foreign exchange reserves posted their biggest monthly fall on record in August, reflecting Beijing’s attempts to halt a slide in the yuan and stabilize financial markets following its surprise move to devalue the currency last month.

Islamic State fighters have seized the last major oilfield under Syrian government control during battles over a vast central desert zone, a group monitoring the conflict said on Monday.

The euro’s founding father has warned that Europe’s latest plan for an EMU-wide finance ministry is a dangerous attempt to smuggle through political union, and breaches the basic tenets of modern democracy.

Iran will launch war games Saturday involving a range of aircraft, in which the primary functions are air combat and destroying targets in the air and on the ground, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Friday.

Iran’s defense minister hailed the nuclear accord struck with world powers as a ‘surrender’ by ‘the superpowers’ to ‘the majesty’ of Iran, a watchdog group said. The website of Iran’s leader, meanwhile, published a poster hailing Iran as the region’s ‘foremost military power.’

Russia is building a military base in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s heartland, according to American intelligence officials, in the clearest indication yet of deepening Russian support for the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad.

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander (IRGC) stated Wednesday that Iran will not stop building up its military until Israel is annihilated.

U.S. intelligence ships, aircraft, and satellites are closely watching a Russian military vessel in the Atlantic that has been sailing near a U.S. nuclear missile submarine base and underwater transit routes, according to Pentagon officials.

Even as President Obama was securing the Senate support necessary to assure passage of the nuclear deal with Iran, Tehran’s top defense officials were scoffing at U.S. claims the pact will restrict the Islamic Republic’s military ambitions.

Russia is holding up Security Council approval to establish a new international body to assign blame for chemical attacks in Syria’s deadly conflict for the first time.

Europe has been flooded by over 350,000 Middle East migrants in 2015.

Five Chinese navy ships are currently operating in the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska, Pentagon officials said Wednesday, marking the first time the U.S. military has seen them in the area.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed that the Islamic Republic would violate outstanding United Nations restrictions governing the country’s ballistic missile program and that the behavior would not violate the recent nuclear accord, according to a translation of the leader’s remarks performed by the CIA’s Open Source Center.