Warplanes pounded rebel-held areas of Homs in the Syrian city's heaviest onslaught for months on Friday, monitors said, as Turkey reportedly returned cross-border shellfire for the second time this we

US President Barack Obama warned Syria on Monday that Washington will not tolerate any deployment of chemical weapons, as fighting raged from the north to the south of the country.

Obama put Bashar a

Tunisia's new constitution will not be adopted until April 2013, six months later than planned, the head of the drafting committee said on Monday, threatening to compound political uncertainties.

"Th

Syrian troops and rebels clashed on Friday in the city of Aleppo, where several people died when a shell crashed into a bakery as hundreds of residents queued for bread, reporters said.

They said aro

President Bashar al-Assad vowed on Tuesday to crush the 17-month rebellion against his regime and to cleanse Syria of 'terrorists', as his troops engaged rebels in key battleground city Aleppo.

The family crept across farmland under night's cover, heading for the border, when Syrian troops opened fire. Bullets whizzed around them as they broke into a mad dash, survivors say.

Two Syrian opposition activists unfurled an enormous rebel flag at the base of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Friday and were briefly detained by police.

As a handful of supporters from the France Syri

Fighting raged in Syria's second city on Thursday as troops and rebels prepared for a head-on confrontation and pro-regime media warned of a looming "mother of all battles."

Syria admitted on Monday it has chemical weapons and warned of using them if attacked, though not against its own civilians, as regime troops reclaimed most of Damascus after a week of heavy clashes.

Turkey sent batteries of ground-to-air missiles to the border with Syria on Sunday, media reports said, boosting its firepower as rebels in Syria seized several border posts.

As fighting raged in Dam