A major thunderstorm hit the Gulf region on Thursday night with heavy rain lashing parts of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and the Saudi capital Riyadh, which was the scene of major flooding earlier this week.   Earlier climate forecasts compelled the...

Rebels in Syria seized a key town Friday in Qalamoun province that has been under army control since the outbreak of the conflict, a monitoring group and the opposition said. Hundreds of rebels now control most of Deir Attiyeh, with the exception of the Bassel hospital and a small...

Pope Francis on Thursday said the Catholic Church will not accept a Middle East without Christians, who often find themselves forced to flee areas of conflict and unrest in the region. "We will not resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christians," he said after meeting...

Divisions in rebel ranks and more committed loyalist fighters are helping the Syrian regime notch up military victories that would give it the upper hand at peace talks, analysts and rebels say. The army's capture this week of the strategic town of Qara, north of Damascus, followed...