Designed by celebrated architect Kenzō Tange, what does the Syrian presidential palace say about the Assad regime? You can learn a lot about a dictator from their domestic decor. Saddam Hussein had a thing for gold loos and  erotic fantasy murals . Blonde beefcakes...

An Iranian war veteran fell into a coma in a Tehran hospital last week after suffering respiratory failure, his lungs ravaged by mustard gas during the  Iran -Iraq war 30 years ago. Hadi Kazemnejad is one of up to 1,000,000 Iranians who were exposed to chemical weapons by Saddam...

Jihadists and members of hardline Islamist groups make up almost half of forces fighting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to extracts from a British defence study published in Monday's Daily Telegraph. The analysis by defence consultancy IHS Jane's, due to be published in...

Ban Ki-moon to present report to UN Security Council on Monday after it was submitted to him by UN team. UN chemical weapons inspectors have handed their report into an alleged gas attack in Syria to Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general. The report into the incident, in which more...