Warplanes pounded Syria's Eastern Ghouta yesterday as Islamist groups tried to resist an advance by Russian-backed regime forces

Israel's military hit Hamas posts in the Gaza Strip yesterday after Palestinians set off two bombs near the border fence, the military said,

An Afghan man taken hostage by the Taliban made a dramatic escape by stealing a gun while his captors were praying and shooting

A suicide bomb blast claimed by the Taliban ripped through a police checkpoint on the outskirts of the Pakistani city of Lahore late

Saudi Arabia will develop nuclear weapons if its arch-rival Iran does so, the kingdom's crown prince said in remarks released

Syrian troops and government-linked militia have systematically used rape and sexual violence against civilians, atrocities that amount

Thousands of civilians poured out of Eastern Ghouta yesterday as the capture of a key town brought Syria's government even closer to

Syrian government forces and allied militias have raped and sexually assaulted women, girls and men in a campaign to punish opposition communities - acts that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity, UN investigators say.

Afghanistan has deployed more troops to a restive western province where a multi-billion-dollar pipeline is planned after the Taliban

From the bloody repression of peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime to

Elements of the Taliban are open to talks with the Afghan government, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said yesterday as he arrived in

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah survived an assassination attempt in Gaza yesterday, the Palestinian Authority said after an

Taliban fighters have captured a district centre in Afghanistan's western province of Farah bordering Iran, where they have battled

At least 25 civilians and members of government forces have been killed in northern Iraq since late Sunday in attacks by the Islamic State

Prominent Saudis held in what Riyadh dubbed an anti-corruption campaign were subjected to coercion and physical abuse, the New York

Seven years of conflict in Syria have left more than 350,000 people dead, according to an updated overall death toll released yesterday by

Weapons imports to the Middle East and Asia have boomed over the past five years, fuelled by war and tensions in those regions, a

Egypt's military said yesterday 16 jihadists, an officer and a soldier were killed in the past four days during a major

The Libyan navy on Saturday rescued 252 migrants seeking to reach Europe, in two separate operations off the

At least 16 people were killed and dozens more injured after lightning struck a Seventh-Day Adventist church in