Rebels claim that at least one Russian helicopter was downed in Hama province on Thursday where a major Syrian regime offensive is underway. Fighting between Syrian regime forces and rebel factions continued on Thursday as a government offensive on opposition-held Hama and Idlib continued for a...

Four people, including an Israeli soldier, were stabbed and wounded near a military headquarters in Tel Aviv on Thursday, police and ambulance sources said, as a rash of such Palestinian attacks spread to Israel's commercial capital. The assailant was shot and killed by...

Belarussian author Svetlana Alexievich has won the Nobel Prize for Literature for her portrayal of life in the former Soviet Union which the Swedish Academy said was "a monument to suffering and courage in our time". Alexievich's work includes chronicles of the lives of Soviet...

Vladimir Putin turned 63 this week with his now traditional display of sporting prowess, and an announcement that Russian naval vessels had launched a wave of missiles against Islamic State in Syria. The Russian leader has never appeared more confident and his grip on power...