Syrian authorities will attend talks in January aimed at resolving the civil war but will not succumb to Western demands for President Bashar al-Assad to step aside, a Foreign Ministry source said on Wednesday. It was the first formal response from Damascus to this week's...

Attacks in Iraq, including suicide bombings against police and the killing of a family, left 11 people dead Wednesday, part of a surge in violence authorities have struggled to stem. The bloodshed, which has left nearly 6,000 people dead so far this year in the worst violence to hit...

When he was agitating for revolution, urging fellow Syrians to rise up against President Bashar al-Assad, Abdullah dreaded the midnight knock at the door from the secret police. Now that the uprising has succeeded in his home town near Aleppo, pro-democracy activists are living in fear...

A newly formed rebel alliance said Tuesday it wants to replace Syria's regime with an "Islamic state," but insisted it would protect minorities and not create an "oppressive, authoritarian system". The covenant of the Islamic Front, Syria's largest armed opposition grouping with tens of...