Syrian rebels have agreed to free 1,500 families in exchange for food and the release of jailed opponents of President Bashar al-Assad, a newspaper close to his regime said Monday. The reported agreement involves the release of families held by rebels in Adra, a flashpoint town...

CAIRO (AP) — The official spokesman of an al-Qaida-breakaway group has strongly criticized its parent organization's head, Ayman al-Zawahri, for siding with a rival jihadi group in Syria. In an audio message posted on militant websites late Sunday, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani,...

War and drought have crippled Syria's wheat crop, with some experts now forecasting output of the staple food could fall to around a third of pre-war levels, and possibly even below 1 million metric tons ( 1 metric ton = 1.1023 tons) for the first time in 40 years, Reuters said in an...

Kuwait's ruler has accepted the resignation of Islamic Affairs Minister Nayef al-Ajmi who was accused by a senior US official of promoting "jihad" in Syria. "I thank the emir for accepting my resignation and understanding its reasons," Ajmi, who also holds the justice portfolio,...

To protect the innocent and to defeat the Assad dictatorship, Syrians should work with Israel to create a safe haven. I spent more than a decade in Syrian prisons and therefore know what kind of regime this is. It is one which believes that torture is a form of dialogue. This was...

  The US is sending missiles to Syrian rebels as part of a “pilot program” to strengthen the opposition, American media reveals. Washington’s new initiative aims to find out whether it can supply opposition forces in Syria with weapons without them falling into...

Allegations are mounting that chemical weapons attacks in Syria last year have caused newborns to suffer from birth defects. Syrian doctors and activists have circulated a picture of a severely deformed baby girl, reportedly named Fatima Abdulghafar, who was recently born in...

The United Nations' atomic watchdog said Sunday it would hold talks with Iran to discuss its long-stalled probe into Tehran's alleged past efforts to develop nuclear weapons. "IAEA and Iranian officials will meet on Monday in Vienna for further discussions within the Framework...

Israel's army on Sunday declared part of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights a closed military zone, fearing battles on the Syrian side would spill over the ceasefire line. An army spokeswoman told AFP the area around the Quneitra crossing was closed "for security reasons."...

Four Palestinian refugees have been detained in Sri Lanka for more than two weeks and risk being expelled back to Syria, according to a human rights group. The Palestinian League for Human Rights - Syria says the four men were stopped at Sri Lanka's international airport on...

Translation by Dani Murad With great resentment, people of Nubul and Zahra, the Shiite villages in northern Aleppo, which were rumored to be under tight siege by rebels, have expressed their anger of the relief aid sent by regime forces recently....

(Reuters) - An al Qaeda splinter group has wrested control of key parts of the eastern Syrian province of Deir al-Zor from other rebel groups, activists said on Sunday, worsening infighting that has handicapped the insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad. More than 100,000...

Zaman Alwasl- Translation by Yusra Ahmed From the leaked documents Zaman Alwasl obtained, in which "Shabiha" reported crimes to other "Shabiha", maybe to get benefits or to elevate their positions. Reports described the community from insiders’ eyes and their...

(Reuters) - A top U.N. aid official, frustrated by obstacles to humanitarian aid in Syria , asked on Friday if a million people needed to be killed and neighboring states collapse before the world would take action to stop the conflict. John Ging, director of operations at...

 As the Egyptian state presses its crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, the man expected to become president has deployed a new weapon in the battle with the Islamists: his own vision of Islam. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former army chief who deposed the Brotherhood's...

(Reuters) - Egypt's public prosecutor charged 200 suspected Islamist militants on Saturday with "founding, leading and joining a terrorist organization" and launching bomb and rocket attacks across the country. The accused belong to Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, or Supporters of...

Ukrainian leader Oleksander Turchinov warned pro-Russian eastern regions they would be stepping into the abyss if they voted for self-rule on Sunday in a referendum that has raised Western fears of a slide to full civil war. Barricades of tires and scrap metal blocked streets...

By Faris Al Rifai; Translation by Yusra Ahmed Few days ago The young Syrian-Palestinian cartoonist Hani Abbas was fannounced the winner of the “Press Cartoonist Award”, the highest award for Caricature in the world, organized by the Cartoonists for...

AFP- More than 100,000 civilians have fled the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor because of fierce clashes between rival jihadist groups, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday. The British-based monitoring group also said the clashes between Al-Qaeda affiliate...

Damascus, May 10 (IANS) The campaign for Syria's presidential elections will officially kick off May 11, the supreme constitutional court said Saturday. The court notified the final three candidates for the elections to run their campaigns from May 11 to June 2, a day ahead of the...