ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday made his first public appearance since major intestinal surgery last week, greeting well-wishers as he stood for 10 minutes on a hospital balcony, offering hearty thanks for the prayers for his recovery and calling health care for all a “precious” good....

Fatima Umm Hassan, a displaced Syrian from the town of Kafruma, has four children, two girls and two sons. She lost her husband 10 years ago. She tells MEE: "My husband took my son to Maarat al-Numan to run some errands. The regime then arrested him from there. It was the second month...

 Bashar al-Assad issued a decree Sunday giving hundreds of thousands of civil servants and military members a 50% salary increase amid a harsh economic and financial crisis and price increases for vital products. Assad’s decision came a day after the state doubled the price of...

"It is a month of grief, I have lost 10 members of my family, including my father, brother and sister," Hasan al-Assi, a father of three from Syria's Idlib, said days after Russian-backed bombardment of his town killed his relatives in a series of attacks since June. The air strikes by...