Sanctions-hit Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf Sunday said that security forces are arresting employees at his diversified companies in what he said were "mounting pressures" on him days after Syrian authorities asked him to repay hefty taxes. "Today pressures began in an unacceptable ways and...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said mosques would reopen across large parts of the country Monday, after they were closed in early March amid the Middle East's deadliest novel coronavirus outbreak. Rouhani said 132 counties, around one third of the country's administrative divisions,...

Bushy moustaches, thick Syrian accents, fistfights in 1930s Damascus and... medical masks? A parody of a popular Syrian television show is raising awareness on curbing the coronavirus outbreak in neighbouring Iraq. Artists in Iraq's southern port city of Basra have adapted the beloved...

It is not the first catastrophe they have faced. But while today's global pandemic bears no resemblance to Syria's almost decade-long civil war, some refugees believe their experience of violence and exile helps them deal with the anxiety sparked by the novel coronavirus. AFP...