Syrian rebels captured four Alawite villages on the country's mountainous Mediterranean coast on Monday as they battled government troops in one of President Bashar Assad's strongholds for the second straight day, activists said. Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, dominate...

Secretary of State John Kerry has recommended that Robert S. Ford serve as the next American ambassador to Egypt, American officials said Sunday, a critical role at a time of rising turmoil and anti-Americanism in the traditional Arab ally. Mr. Ford, a longtime Middle East hand and fluent...

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad described the main opposition National Coalition as a "failure", adding that it can have no role in ending the country's war. "This opposition is not reliable, it is a failure at the popular and moral levels, and it has no role in solving the...

Yemeni Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakul Karman has been denied entry into Egypt after she landed at Cairo airport "for security reasons", officials say. Ms Karman, the first Arab woman to win the prize, was held on arrival and reportedly told to fly on the same plane back to the United Arab...