Bashar al-Assad won 88.7 percent of the vote in Syria's presidential election, parliament speaker Mohammad al-Laham said on Wednesday, securing a third term in office despite a raging civil war which grew out of protests against his rule. Assad's foes had dismissed the...

The global media headlined on June 3 a political exercise conducted in Assad regime-controlled areas of Syria. Most reports described it as Syrian presidential elections with three candidates and a likely winner, the incumbent Bashar al-Assad. The exercise was illustrated with...

BEIRUT - John Kerry arrived in Beirut on Wednesday, beginning an unannounced visit that is the first by a US secretary of state to Lebanon in five years, an AFP journalist said.   Kerry is in Beirut to announce $290 million in aid to boost UN efforts in Syria and neighboring...

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Against a backdrop of civil war, tens of thousands of Syrians voted in government-controlled cities and towns Tuesday to give President Bashar Assad a new seven-year mandate, with some even marking the ballots with their own blood. The carefully...