Syrian troops battled army defectors in a string of towns in the mountains overlooking Damascus on Wednesday in a new assault to crush rebellious areas around the capital, activists said.

European Union nations must increasingly pool their military resources, especially as individual members keep trimming their budgets and the U.S reshapes its military strategy to focus on regions beyond Europe, the bloc’s top defense officials …

Less than 25 percent of Afghans say the national police are now strong enough to handle security without international forces’ help, but three-quarters believe they will be ready by the 2014 NATO handover, according to …

Oman’s ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, a longtime, discreet intermediary with Iran, says that Iran is seriously seeking a way out of American-led sanctions over its nuclear program and urges the United States to re-engage …

Police in a north Nigeriacity where a radical Islamist sect attack last week killed 185 people say that a German expatriate working for a construction company has been kidnapped there.

Syrian troops stormed a flashpoint suburb of Damascuson Thursday, rounding people up in house-to-house raids and clashing with army defectors, activists said, as the 10-month-old uprising inches ever closer to the capital.

Iraqi officials say insurgents have bombed a house belonging to two policemen and their families in central Iraq, killing 10 people inside it.

More Afghans fled the country and sought asylum abroad in 2011 than in any other year since the start of the decade-long war, suggesting that many are looking for their own exit strategy as international …

Iran is ready to revive talks with the world powers, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday, as toughening sanctions aim at forcing Tehran to sharply scale back its nuclear program.

The photos show lifeboats, illuminated by lights from the Costa Concordia, sailing away from the partly submerged ship to the nearby Isola del Giglio island. Nearly 4,200 passengers and crew members were evacuated.