Western nations have indicated to the Syrian opposition that peace next month talks may not lead to the removal of President Bashar al-Assad and that his Alawite minority will remain key in any transitional administration, opposition sources said. The message, delivered to...

An unknown number of casualties have been reported after a car bomb exploded at a Hezbollah position near the town of Labweh in eastern Lebanon at dawn on Tuesday. "A blast went off at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT) ... causing deaths and injuries," a security source told Agence...

The Syrian government excluded the largely rebel-held province of Deir al-Zor - where polio broke out this year - from a 2012 vaccination campaign, arguing that most residents had fled although hundreds of thousands were still there, a Reuters investigation shows. Public health...

The United Nations has appealed for a record $6.5 billion for Syria and its neighbours to help 16 million people, many of them hungry or homeless victims of a conflict that has lasted 33 months with no end in sight. The Syrian appeal accounted for half of an overall...