(Zaman Al Wasl)-  Assef Shawkat, once Syria's most powerful man and ruling family's son-in-law, remained hostage to the Assad family’s decision till his death in Damascus bomb attack on July 18, 2012. Shawkat is one of the few figures in Syrian contemporary history whose life as an...

 Chancellor Angela Merkel said refugees in Germany must respect tolerance, openness and freedom of religion, while senior members of her party called for a ban on foreign funding of mosques. Merkel, who will seek a fourth term as chancellor in what is expected to be a tight election in...

By Jesse Rosenfeld (The Nation)-  The rattle of tracer fire jolts a cellphone camera resting in the gun hole of an upper-level apartment on a shelled-out east Aleppo street. Moments after the Hezbollah fighter has fired incendiary ammunition into the neighborhood below, it’s enveloped...

U.S. backed Syrian forces repelled a major counter-attack by ISIS militants holding out at the country's largest dam and in the nearby town of Tabqa, the group and activists said Sunday. The dam is a key strategic target in the military campaign to isolate and capture the Syrian city of...