Fighters from an al Qaeda-linked rebel group killed 12 members of the minority Alawite sect in central  Syria  after seizing their village, an opposition monitoring group said on Wednesday. Alawites are an offshoot sect of Shi'ite Islam and have been increasingly targeted by...

A week of gains for world  stocks  petered out on Wednesday and a sell-off in oil and core government debt eased, as talks began on trying to avert a U.S. military strike on  Syria  against a broadly calm market backdrop. The safe-haven yen was at a seven-week low...

President  Barack Obama  pledged on Tuesday to explore a diplomatic plan from  Russia  to take away Syria's chemical weapons, but voiced skepticism about it and urged Americans to support his threat to use military force if needed. Faced with resistance in polls and...

A suicide bomber on Wednesday rammed his explosives-laden car into the military intelligence headquarters in a border town in Egypt's volatile Sinai, killing at least three soldiers and wounding 10, security officials said. The bomber drove into the one-story building at high speed,...