Islamist fighters in Syria have taken over the ancient quarter of the Christian town of Maaloula and are holding several nuns in a monastery there, state news agency SANA said on Monday. Fighting for the town, about five km (three miles) from the main road linking Damascus to Homs, is...

The top UN official charged with destroying Syria's chemical weapons stockpile on Monday warned that the most difficult part of its mission in the conflict-ridden country still lay ahead. Meanwhile, a top Syrian official has urged countries "to start acting" to help Damascus comply...

Boko Haram militants launched a daring raid on the military in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri overnight, prompting a 24-hour curfew that shut airspace and cut off roads, the army, state government and eyewitnesses said. Local residents said that hundreds of heavily armed...

Evidence collected by U.N. investigators probing Syrian war crimes implicates President Bashar al-Assad, United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Monday.   Pillay later denied having direct knowledge of their secret list of suspects, but her revealing...