Angela Merkel may not personally like Vladimir Putin very much, but the German chancellor is surely pleased the Russian president’s diplomatic efforts have temporarily averted U.S. plans for a military strike against Syria. Constrained by Germany’s jingoistic past and a looming...

A first group of 107 highly vulnerable Syrian refugees arrived by plane in the northern German city of Hanover today from Lebanon under a special humanitarian programme announced by the German government earlier this year. "The airplane just landed and the families are getting off," UNHCR...

A week of gains for world  stocks  petered out on Wednesday and a sell-off in oil and core government debt eased, as talks began on trying to avert a U.S. military strike on  Syria  against a broadly calm market backdrop. The safe-haven yen was at a seven-week low...

With his truck fully laden with vegetable oil, driver Mustafa Demir makes his regular trip to the Syrian border from  Turkey  to sell to rebels desperate for provisions as war closes off normal trade channels. "There is so much demand from the Syrian side. There is demand for...