Burnt houses, collapsed buildings and rubble line streets strewn with broken glass and spent shells in Homs' devastated neighborhoods, for months the front line in the revolution against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. 　　On a 10-minute drive through Baba Amr district on Thursday, as journalists accompanied United Nations truce observers, two... More

　　The results of the first round of voting in Egypt's presidential elections appear to have taken many by surprise, both at home and abroad. 　　Many had expected Egypt's first ever democratic presidential election would be the final battle in the war against the former regime, a battle Mubarak's allies were... More

　　With the international community expressing outrage over the massacre of at least 108 civilians in the village of Houla, fresh outbreaks of fighting were being reported in other conflict hotspots. 　　On Monday, activists in the opposition stronghold of Hama reported an intensified government bombardment of the city, saying that at... More

　　The village of Taldou, near the town of Houla in Syria's Homs province was the scene of one of the worst massacres in the country's 14-month-long uprising. 　　United Nations observers on the ground have confirmed that at least 108 people were killed, including 49 children and 34 women. Some were... More

　　By Donatella Rovera 　　"Why is the world not doing anything to help us? We demonstrated peacefully and from the first day we were beaten and shot at. Then the army came into our villages and fired at us with tanks and helicopters and burned and destroyed our homes. Is the... More

　　A young man describes how his town became the latest horrific headline to emerge from Syria. 　　Mohammad, a 20-year-old from a small village in Hama province, left for work on Wednesday morning not knowing that he would find most residents of his town dead when he returned. 　　When Mohammad came... More

　　Dawn broke over the northern mountains of Jabal al-Zawiya late last month to find a group of anti-government fighters hiding along a ridge line, waiting for their remote-controlled bomb to destroy an army convoy on the road below. 　　The roughly 100 guerrillas were members of a larger group known as... More

　　Palestinians in this hamlet have clung to their arid acres for decades, living without proper electricity or water while Israel provides both to Jewish settlers on nearby hills. But the end now seems near for Susiya: Demolition orders distributed last week by the Israelis aim to destroy virtually the entire... More

　　As violence appears to have escalated in Syria, the BBC's Ian Pannell reports on the situation in the north of the country, where he has just spent the last two weeks with some of the opposition fighting groups in Idlib province. 　　The commander had "gone to ground" and we sat... More

　　A new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Syrian intelligence agencies are running torture centers across the country where detainees are beaten with batons and cables, burned with acid, sexually assaulted, and their fingernails torn out. 　　The report released on Tuesday by the New York-based group identified 27... More

　　The food is piled high. Steaming pots of seasoned tomatoes and potatoes, yogurt and cucumber, cheese and piles of tortilla-like khubz, dipped in oil. A dozen or so young Syrian men crowd around, chattering excitedly about the day's events. 　　These men are foot soldiers in the public relations wing of... More

　　In the ransacked and burnt-out remains of various security headquarters in al-Bab lie many clues to the means used by Bashar al-Assad's government to stay in power, revealing why life under the regime had become increasingly intolerable for its citizens. 　　In the widely-hated building of military security, the formerly locked... More

　　Palestinians face severe restrictions in the more than 60 per cent of the West Bank under full Israeli control. 　　Dozens of tents, made of wooden planks, small boulders and plastic tarps, cling to the rocky hilltop. Tires, garbage, shoes, children's clothes and broken electronic equipment are strewn between the tents,... More