Syria's Hend Zaza was just five when she first picked up a table tennis paddle, and now the 12-year-old is the youngest person to compete at the Tokyo Olympics. Zaza shot to fame overnight in her war-torn country last year after beating a Lebanese rival in her forties to win the West Asia...

(CNN)In the central Syrian desert, an oil field has become a makeshift torture chamber. An unarmed man writhes in the dust, howling in pain. Four men in military fatigues pin him down and smash his hands and feet with a sledgehammer. As he cries out for help, they taunt him in Russian,...

Standing on a podium on Saturday to take an oath of office, Bashar al-Assad declared himself the only man who could rebuild Syria. His first foreign guest, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, seemed to enhance his claim, endorsing the president’s win in a May poll described by...

Syrians are the main beneficiaries of refugee protection in Germany, yet many are still forced to rely on state welfare to survive. New figures show that only around 35% of Syrians of working age are able to make a living. After a decade of conflict in Syria it seems unlikely that the...