Pope Francis on Thursday said the Catholic Church will not accept a Middle East without Christians, who often find themselves forced to flee areas of conflict and unrest in the region. "We will not resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christians," he said after meeting...

Al-Qaeda extremists chops down 150-year-old tree in Syria because people would go to it for blessings. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has chopped down a long-lived tree in Otmeh border area near Turkey over people belief its blessed which is a...

Divisions in rebel ranks and more committed loyalist fighters are helping the Syrian regime notch up military victories that would give it the upper hand at peace talks, analysts and rebels say. The army's capture this week of the strategic town of Qara, north of Damascus, followed...