A Lebanese army officer was shot dead in the country’s second city of Tripoli during fighting between rival sects on Thursday, a security source and state media said. Lebanon’s National News Agency said masked men on a motorcycle had opened fire on the officer, Fadi...

Syria has sent 49 percent of the raw materials used for its poison gas and nerve agent programme abroad for destruction, according to the chemical weapons watchdog overseeing the removal of the country's stockpiles. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said...

US President Barack Obama has met Pope Francis for the first time to discuss how to fight global inequality and poverty, calling himself a "great admirer" of the pontiff. Obama arrived at the Vatican on Thursday amid the pomp and tradition of the Catholic Church, making his way to...

  Turkey has said it is ready to take any measures against threats to its national security from war-torn Syria, its foreign minister warned. "The Turkish republic is a powerful state and never hesitates to take any measures to protect its national security if need...