Some 400 people in the besieged Syrian town of Madaya need to be urgently evacuated for medical treatment, says UN humanitarian chief Stephen O'Brien.

An Islamic State militant executes his mother in public in the Syrian city of Raqqa because she encouraged him to leave the group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports.

The UK's security and intelligence agencies are examining a video by so-called Islamic State, to identify a man and young boy with British accents.

10 alleged members of Islamic State (IS) including a Bangladeshi are killed in coalition force’s air strikes in Syria and Iraq in last one month, according to a list prepared by the US military.

An Islamic State leader with "direct" ties to the alleged mastermind of the Paris attacks is among the 10 of the group's higher-ups killed in Syria and Iraq this month.

If troubled Lebanon, wracked by sectarian violence and religious divides, can champion coexistence and provide Syrian refugees with a chance to study, there is no reason other countries in the region should not follow its example.

The expected evacuation of thousands of rebels from in and around Yarmouk refugee camp in southern Damascus puts on hold, reports say.

Three months after the death of Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old who's body washed up on a beach, his Abdullah bears a Christmas message to the world.

Zahran Alloush, head of the powerful Jaish al-Islam Syrian rebel group, is killed east of Damascus, a monitoring group and Syria's opposition say.

Russia dismisses as "total lies" a report by Amnesty International accusing it of indiscriminate air strikes in Syria.

French police have foiled a terror attack on police and army personnel in the region of Orleans, the interior minister has said.

At least 200 civilians are killed in Russian air strikes in Syria, an Amnesty International report says, quoting witnesses and activists.

The killing of minorities by so-called Islamic State should be recognised as genocide, more than 60 parliamentarians say in a letter to the UK PM.

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

The United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously approves a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syria peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that claimed more than a quarter million lives.

Controversial plans for an EU Border and Coast Guard force are to be set out as part of an EU drive to curb the record influx of migrants.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Moscow for talks to try to bridge gaps with Russia over the political process to end Syria's civil war.

At least 45 civilians are killed Sunday in heavy bombardment of a besieged Syrian rebel stronghold east of Damascus that also struck a school, a monitoring group said.

The first military plane carrying Syrian refugees to be resettled in Canada has arrived in the country.

Syrian rebels begin evacuating the last area they hold in the city of Homs under a ceasefire deal reached with the government, a monitoring group has said.