BEIRUT (AP) — He began as a local hero on the soccer field, playing for the most popular team of his home city Homs and rising toward national stardom across Syria. But when the uprising against President Bashar Assad began, Abdelbasit Sarout left all of it to lead peaceful...

By Humeyra Pamuk SOMA, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish police put the mining town of Soma on virtual lockdown on Saturday, setting up checkpoints and detaining dozens of people to enforce a ban on protests as rescue efforts following the country's worst industrial disaster ended....

(Reuters) - Heavily armed gunmen stormed Libya's parliament with anti-aircraft weapons on Sunday in an assault claimed by forces loyal to a renegade ex-general who has vowed to purge the country of Islamist militants. In a confusing, chaotic attack, heavy smoke rose from the...

(Al Jazeera) The chief of Syria's air defence forces, General Hussein Ishaq, has been killed in combat near Damascus, a security official has told news agencies. The general died on Saturday of wounds suffered when rebels attacked Syrian air defence headquarters near the town...