Middle East | featured news

Despite efforts to implant a cease-fire, Syrian authorities said on Monday that attackers had fired anti-tank rockets at the office of the Central Bank in Damascus.

An Iranian envoy voiced hope on Monday that talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog in mid-May would help resolve "outstanding issues", but he again ruled out any halt to Tehran's controversial uranium enrichment program.

Hundreds of Syrian soldiers reportedly defected from that country's armed forces on Sunday, al-Arabiya reported, citing an opposition-supporting news service.

The latest high-level talks on ending a diplomatic deadlock between the United States and Pakistan ended in failure on Friday over Pakistani demands for an unconditional apology from the Obama administration for an airstrike.

In what would be a significant concession, Obama administration officials say they could support allowing Iran to maintain a crucial element of its disputed nuclear program if Tehran took other major steps to curb its ability to develop a nuclear bomb.

Widows and children of the former al-Qaeda chief arrive in the kingdom after being deported from Pakistan.

U.N.-Arab League special envoy Kofi Annan has expressed dismay over reports that the Syrian government resumes brutal attacks on cities once U.N. monitors leave -- the latest sign that diplomatic efforts are failing to quash the bloodshed in the country.

International envoy Kofi Annan is expected to brief the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, as reports of carnage in Syria steadily increase despite the council's agreement to boost the number of monitors there.

Blake Hounshell says Romney may criticize Obama's Afghanistan approach, but his is much the same for a conflict that is intractable and a pull-out that is inevitable

Afghan and U.S. officials said Sunday they had agreed to the broad outlines of an accord governing the long-term American presence in Afghanistan after the Western combat role ends in 2014. The heads of the two countries' negotiating teams, Afghanistan's national security advisor Rangin Spanta and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, initialed a draft of the "strategic partnership agreement" that the two sides have said they plan to finalize prior to a landmark NATO summit in Chicago next month. That gathering is expected to provide a blueprint for the final phase of the decade-long war in Afghanistan.