Turned away three times since fleeing the bombardment of Syria's second city Aleppo in January, mother of eight Faten Darwish has given up on getting her family into a refugee camp in southeast Turkey. Instead, the 33-year old lives with her husband and children in a dingy...

A Lebanese army officer was shot dead in the country’s second city of Tripoli during fighting between rival sects on Thursday, a security source and state media said. Lebanon’s National News Agency said masked men on a motorcycle had opened fire on the officer, Fadi...

Syria has sent 49 percent of the raw materials used for its poison gas and nerve agent programme abroad for destruction, according to the chemical weapons watchdog overseeing the removal of the country's stockpiles. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said...

US President Barack Obama has met Pope Francis for the first time to discuss how to fight global inequality and poverty, calling himself a "great admirer" of the pontiff. Obama arrived at the Vatican on Thursday amid the pomp and tradition of the Catholic Church, making his way to...

  Turkey has said it is ready to take any measures against threats to its national security from war-torn Syria, its foreign minister warned. "The Turkish republic is a powerful state and never hesitates to take any measures to protect its national security if need...

Looming fuel price rises in  Iran  will be the first major test of President Hassan Rouhani's ability to retain public support in the face of attacks from his hardline rivals. Since he was elected in August, Rouhani has pleased many Iranians by reaching an interim...

Israeli forces shot three Palestinian militants dead on Saturday in a raid on a home in the occupied West Bank to capture a wanted Hamas Islamist militant, Israeli military and Palestinian officials said. The Palestinian Authority denounced the violence that it said threatened...

U.S. lawmakers lashed out at the Obama administration's handling of Syria's civil war on Wednesday, demanding a stronger American response to the conflict and better communication from the White House about its plans. Senator Robert Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign...

Haitham al-Maleh, the Syrian opposition figure revealed that the Syrian National Coalition has been contacted intensively by many countries and parties supporting the Syrian regime, requesting the opposition to control themselves after the remarkable achievement of rebels in the...

U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, led by losses in materials and technology sectors, as geopolitical concerns rose after the U.S. and European Union agreed to work together on tougher sanctions on Russia. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI was down 98.89 points, or 0.60 percent, to end...

Within days of Crimea being swallowed up by Russia, the lights began flickering out. Officials in the peninsula accused Ukraine of halving electricity supplies in order to bully Crimea, which voted earlier this month in a referendum to secede and join Russia. "Cutting supplies...

Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi was in a meeting with military top brass Wednesday at which he was expected to resign ahead of a likely presidential bid, state media reported. Interim president Adly Mansour later joined the meeting, after returning from an Arab League summit...

The Mulok checkpoint in Homs has long been the key to liberate besieged Homs because it separates Homs from its suburbs. This checkpoint, which is located north of Homs and about 5 km long, is one of regime’s biggest checkpoints which brought death and destruction to the...

  Activists northeast Syria reported that Bashar al-Assad’s forces have adopted new killing strategy by planting landmines near the main highway in Deir al-Zor. Six passengers killed and seven wounded days ago due to landmine explosion hit their bus on the...

Thousands of people from al-Hosn village run away to Lebanon from imminent death they faced by heavy shelling and systematic killing from Syrian regime and its Shabiha. They tried to enter Lebanon through Khalid Valley days ago, however, many of them they were killed, as bodies of...

Arab leaders have called for a political solution to the conflict in Syria, although the Syrian opposition had asked for "sophisticated" arms to tip the balance of power. The regional body, in its final statement issued on Wednesday after a two-day summit in Kuwait, also condemned...

Syrian activists say rebels and government forces are clashing over another coastal town in Latakia province, as opposition fighters slowly press their advance in the area. Wednesday's fighting for the town of Qastal Maaf comes after rebels in recent days seized the Kassab...

Four men were found guilty on Thursday of the gang-rape of a photojournalist last year in Mumbai, an attack that sparked street protests in the city and raised fresh questions about attitudes to women in the world's largest democracy. Women's safety in  India  has been...

A U.N. report on how Syria's neediest civilians are often not accessible to humanitarian relief workers makes it clear that the government of President Bashar al-Assad shoulders most of the blame, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. A month after the 15-member U.N. Security Council...

Tensions are running high on the Turkey-Syria border following the shooting down of a Syrian warplane by Turkish forces at the weekend, the Turkish army said Tuesday. The military reported a dozen incidents involving its aircraft and Syrian anti-aircraft defences on Monday alone....