Syrian regime President Bashar al-Assad's mother, Anisa Makhlouf, has died at the age of 86, state-run media said on Saturday. Makhlouf was married to the late president Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria from 1971 until his death in 2000. They married in 1957 and had five children:...

Syrian government forces have tightened a three-year siege on two rebel-held suburbs southwest of Damascus by capturing land between the two and choking off their supply route, state media, a monitoring group and a rebel spokesman said on Saturday. The suburbs of Daraya and Mouadamiya were...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Saturday for better protection at the European Union's external borders in order to maintain the passport-free Schengen zone. Merkel, who opened her country's borders to Syrians fleeing civil war last summer, is under increasing pressure...

The head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard said on Saturday Saudi Arabia lacked the courage to go through with a plan to send ground troops to Syria, and warned they would be wiped out if they went in. Mohammad Ali Jafari's blunt words on the Fars news agency were Iran's first...