Sunday’s reports that the Syrian conflict was spilling over into Lebanon can be taken as further evidence that the sectarian civil war is destabilising the region. There are also signs that the unending strife is pushing the two players who really matter, America and Russia, towards trying for negotiations and a ceasefire based on the Geneva Accord signed last June.

Up to 60 people were injured when a driver described by witnesses as an elderly man drove his car into a group of hikers marching in a parade in a small Virginia mountain town.

Kim Sengupta hears how a group he saw as moderates has been pushed to extremes

Clashes broke out today between Palestinians marking the Nakba, and Israeli security officials.

Syrian troops have taken full control of a town near a highway linking the capital Damascus with the Jordanian border, a new advance in its campaign to drive rebels from the country's south, an activist group said today. 

Deputy foreign minister, Faisal Muqdad, indicates that weapons inspectors would be allowed into the country to perform tests

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has said that his country's military is capable of facing Israel, despite the country's bloody civil war, in his first comments since Israel launched as many as three large attacks on targets inside Syria at the weekend.

Israel's willingness to hit targets has complicated Obama administration's internal debate over what to do about Syria

If the EU and US say nothing about these attacks, approval is granted

With the second strike in three days, Israeli involvement in bloody civil war deepens

President seeks proof of how chemical weapons were used in Syria before taking major decision

Rise in complaints to press watchdog

Reports of Sarin being used during an operation outside Damascus on 19 March came from Israel

A crude oil embargo placed on Syria by EU member states has been eased in a move that will allow the purchase of the natural resource from areas held by groups opposing the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.