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...

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday he hoped that a U.S. promise to pursue diplomacy to remove the threat of chemical weapons in  Syria  was "serious", the state news agency IRNA reported. "I am hopeful that the United States new attitude to ...

President  Barack Obama  pledged on Tuesday to explore a diplomatic plan from  Russia  to take away Syria's chemical weapons, but voiced skepticism about it and urged Americans to support his threat to use military force if needed. Faced with resistance in polls and...

Sixty-one percent of Americans polled, who watched President Obama's prime-time speech, told CNN that they support his policy towards Syria. Since some surveys showed as much as two-thirds opposition to military action against Syria in the days before the speech, the poll...