Syrian troops today shelled the central region of Houla where more than 100 people were massacred last week, activists said.

The eurozone crisis should not stop EU countries from co-ordinating their foreign policies, Herman van Rompuy told an audience in London today.

UN envoy's mission to Damascus ends in failure with Assad as defiant as ever

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be coming to the London Olympics.

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor was jailed for 50 years today for helping rebels commit what a court in The Hague called some of the worst war crimes in history.

The Olympics, those who fete the Games are forever telling us, are not just about athletic triumph: the Olympic ideal means something more. The promotional videos for each Games feature not just victorious titans brandishing their medals, but smiling children, sporting losers, communities regenerated. The suggestion is that sport can mean something more than a simple calculus of victory and defeat.

A top Israeli minister has fed speculation that the Jewish state could be responsible for a powerful new virus said to have been used in an attack on computers across the Middle East.

Everyone should listen to Kofi Annan's claims that the massacre in Houla is a "tipping point" in the crisis in Syria, a United Nations human rights spokesman said today.

Europe and US ratchet up diplomatic pressure on Assad's pariah state

It was in Assad's interests to avoid any atrocities. But the regime could not restrain its forces

German, Italian and Spanish foreign ministries announced today that Syrian ambassadors are being expelled - following similar moves by Britain, France, Australia and Canada after a massacre in which the United Nations says families were shot at close range in their homes.

France, Britain and Australia are expelling senior Syrian diplomats, officials said today, increasing pressure on Damascus after a massacre in which the United Nations says families were shot at close range in their homes.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad met peace envoy Kofi Annan on Tuesday, the state news agency SANA said, amid an outcry over a massacre of civilians that UN observers attributed at least partly to the army but the government blamed on Islamist militants.

Australia has expelled two Syrian diplomats in response to last week's massacre in Syria in which more than 100 people, mostly women and children, were killed.