The man believed to be Hezbollah's most senior military commander in Syria's war is killed in Damascus.

France and Turkey have said that air strikes on hospitals in northern Syria constitute war crimes.

Sweden expects to expel up to 80,000 asylum-seekers whose applications have been rejected, its interior minister was quoted as saying.

Vladimir Putin has said Russia is using "far from everything we are capable of" in its military operations in Syria.

Sweden announces the introduction of temporary border checks to control the flow of migrants into the country.

Germany is to restrict the number of entry points for migrants arriving via Austria, in a bid to control the flow as thousands cross into Bavaria daily.

The US is intensifying diplomatic efforts to end the "hell" of Syria's civil war even as it increases support for moderate rebels, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will attend multilateral talks on finding a political solution to the conflict in Syria in Vienna this week, a government spokeswoman has said.

The Islamic State jihadist group executes three people in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra by binding them to three historic columns and blowing them up, a monitoring group said.

Syria's ally Russia says there should be talks between the Syrian government and the "full spectrum" of opposition.

Women and children at a migrant camp outside the French port city of Calais are to be given heated tents by the end of the week, officials say.

The White House has strongly condemned a visit to Moscow by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

EU states have approved an action plan for Turkey that it is hoped will ease the flow of migrants to Europe.

Nato defence ministers will assess the "troubling escalation of Russian military activities" in Syria, the alliance's secretary-general says, ahead of talks in Brussels.

Russia is considering whether to follow the US and its allies in conducting air strikes against Islamic State (IS) targets, President Vladimir Putin says.

Syria's civil war has prompted the first withdrawal of crop seeds from a "doomsday" vault built in an Arctic mountainside to safeguard global food supplies.

The number of people displaced by war, conflict and persecution reached a record level of nearly 60 million across the world in 2014, says a UN report.

At least 16 people, including 13 children, are killed when Syrian air force jets bombed a town in Deraa province on Tuesday, activists say.