Russia on Thursday blocked a UN Security Council demand that Syria allow immediate access to thousands of civilians trapped by a government offensive on the city of Homs, diplomats said. Diplomats said Russia’s opposition to the statement proposed by council members Australia and...

 Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview published Thursday that his government had fended off everything his enemies had thrown at him and that the only remaining threat to his rule was a far-off – and improbable – foreign intervention. In comments to the state-run...

  Canada will accept as many as 1,300 Syrian refugees by the end of 2014, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Wednesday in Edmonton.   But the government is relying on private sponsors for the vast majority of those cases.   The federal...

Egypt's armed forces overthrew Islamist President Mohamed Mursi on Wednesday, sparking wild rejoicing in the streets at the prospect of new elections as a range of political leaders backed a new political transition. Mursi was sequestered in a Republican Guard barracks after denouncing a...