Rafael Nadal began his bid for a record-setting 21st Grand Slam title with a straight sets win at the French Open on Tuesday as the fallout from Naomi Osaka's revelations over depression and anxiety sent shockwaves through Roland Garros. Nadal, the 13-time champion in Paris, defeated...

A decade of war in Syria has left nearly half a million people dead, a war monitor said Tuesday, in a new toll that includes 100,000 recently confirmed deaths. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the conflict has claimed 494,438 lives since it erupted in 2011 with...

 The latest Gaza war is over, but its wreckage still litters the purple bedroom of 9-year-old Shrouq al-Masri and her 4-year-old sister, Razan. Their toys are coated with gray dust, the ceiling is bent and buckled, and the cracks in the walls slice through the cartoons that decorated...

For decades, Syria’s Republican Guard forces have been the last frontline of defence for the ruling Assad family in Damascus.  The Republican Guard forces, or the Presidential Guard, were founded in the early 1970s by Hafez al-Assad, as the first shield of his regime in...