The Syrian government, preparing for peace talks with rebels next week, handed the Russian co-sponsors of the conference a proposal on Friday for a local ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners. There was no immediate response from President Bashar al-Assad's opponents, whose very...

  As Western countries display increasing alarm at the strength of multinational Islamist extremists among rebels in Syria opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, a Syrian official was quoted on Wednesday as saying Western intelligence agencies had sent representatives to Damascus...

The trial in absentia of four Hezbollah members accused of murdering former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri in 2005 opens at a UN-backed court on Thursday, with sectarian violence an undiminished threat at home. Nine years after the huge Beirut car bombing killed billionaire...

Donors meeting in Kuwait have pledged nearly $2.4bn in humanitarian aid for victims of the Syrian war, which the UN chief says has left half the population in need of urgent help. Millions of Syrians have been driven from their homes as a result of the crisis, now in its...