Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad warned Monday that Western military strikes risked igniting a "regional war" in the "powder keg" of the Middle East, in an interview with French newspaper Le Figaro.
The White House battled Monday for congressional authorization to bomb Syria, as two top Republicans warned that a "no" vote after President Barack Obama had threatened action would be catastrophic.
A 350-million-year-old fossilised scorpion discovered in South Africa is the oldest known land animal to have lived on Gondwana, part of Earth's former supercontinent.
More than two million Syrians have now fled their war-ravaged country, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday, lamenting the nearly 10-fold increase from a year ago.
Russia has sent a reconnaissance vessel from its Black Sea fleet to the coast off Syria, as Moscow anxiously watches Western plans for military action against the Damascus regime.
Clashes and explosions were reported in a camp housing Iranian exiles, with the group claiming Iraqi troops killed more than 50 of their members, charges officials steadfastly denied.
A senior Iranian official warned in Damascus on Sunday that US interests in the region would be at risk if Washington launched a military strike against his country's ally Syria.
Turkish police Sunday blocked the entrance to Istanbul's Gezi Park, the epicentre of anti-government protests in June, to prevent a demonstration against a possible military intervention in Syria.
An Uzbek woman threatened to blow herself up on Sunday at the Dubai public prosecutor's office over a dispute with a man she claims is her son's father.
Nelson Mandela spent a first night back home after being discharged from hospital Sunday, but the South African government said the anti-apartheid hero remains critically ill and under intensive care.
Oil prices fell in Asian trade Monday after US President Barack Obama's announcement that he would seek approval from lawmakers for military action against Syria eased prospects of an imminent strike.
Ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi is to stand trial in a criminal court for "incitement to murder", state television reported on Sunday, without giving a date for the trial.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel hit out at Russia and China over their stance in the Syrian crisis, saying in an interview published Saturday that their action weakened the United Nations.
President Barack Obama said the United States was weighing "limited, narrow" action against Syria, as UN inspectors left the country Saturday and opened a window into a possible strike.
A team of UN inspectors left their Damascus hotel in a convoy of cars Saturday following the conclusion of their probe into the alleged use of chemical weapons by the regime.
US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday called for the release of two American dual citizens jailed in Iran, saying Washington was "deeply concerned" about their fate.
President Barack Obama said Wednesday he had not yet signed off on a plan to strike Syria, but action appeared likely after Washington abandoned the hunt for a last-minute UN mandate.
