( The Guardian )- Syrian families are naming their children Putin as a mark of gratitude for the Russian president’s support for his Syrian counterpart in the six-year war, a government official has said. The Syrian ambassador in Moscow, Riyad Haddad, said Bashar al-Assad had also made...

  (Zaman Al Wasl)- The deputy commander of Ahrar Al-Sham Movement told Zaman al-Wasl that most the freed detainees due to the four-town evacuation deal were employees and civilians and no activists or political detainees had been released. Anas Najib said the first batch of released...

 Prominent Kuwaiti opposition leader Mussallam al-Barrak was released from prison Friday after serving a two-year sentence for insulting the emir in public. Barrak, 61, walked out of Kuwait's central prison to a frenzied reception by hundreds of his relatives and supporters who broke...

( New York Times )- The world seems awash in chaos and uncertainty, perhaps more so than at any point since the end of the Cold War. Authoritarian-leaning leaders are on the rise, and liberal democracy itself seems under siege. The post-World War II order is fraying as fighting spills across...