Inside a furniture-free caravan in the Jordanian desert, sixteen women and girls and a plump boy wedge themselves in a circle around a 15 -year-old girl and a woman doing her hair. The hairdresser combs through one-inch sections, spraying on a fixative before twisting...

The capture of Qusair by Syrian troops spearheaded by Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi'ite Islamist militia, risks turning the war in  Syria  into a wider sectarian battle between Sunni and Shi'ite forces that will sweep through the country's neighbors. The fall of the town after...

Now that President Barack Obama has decided that the war on terror has entered a new phase, he plans to devote a greater effort -- in the immortal words of John Lennon -- to giving peace a chance. That shift is already underway. The indefatigable John Kerry seems to be engaged...

The capture by Syrian pro-government forces of the strategic Qusayr region is a major victory for President Bashar al-Assad, who is now better placed than ever if a US-Russian plan for peace talks materialises. The nearly three-week battle for Qusayr in central Syria exposed the central role...