Syria
Clinton to visit Scandinavia, Caucasus, Turkey
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leaves next week on an eight-day trip to Scandinavia, the Caucasus and Turkey that will cover security issues such as Iran and Syria as well as the environment and health.
Russian arms shipment en route to Syria: report
UNITED NATIONS - A Russian cargo ship loaded with weapons is en route to Syria and due to arrive at a Syrian port this weekend, Al Arabiya television said in a report that Western diplomats in New York described on Friday as credible.
Exclusive: Syria grain trade signals alarm for Assad
LONDON/HAMBURG - Syria is struggling to meet its grain import needs because of sanctions, raising the risk of bread shortages that could sap public support for President Bashar al-Assad as he tries to snuff out a 15-month-old uprising.
Lebanese Syria hostage release delayed, massacre claimed
BEIRUT/AMMAN - Lebanon said on Friday that a group of Lebanese Shi'ites kidnapped in Syria had been freed and were safe in Turkey, but produced no sign of the hostages at the centre of a kidnap drama heightening tensions over the conflict in neighboring Syria. | Video
Factbox: U.N. reports little progress in Syria toward peace
- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council in a letter on Friday there has been little progress toward peace in the 14-month-old conflict between Syrian government forces and an increasingly militarized opposition.
U.N. says Syria bombings show marks of "terrorist groups"
UNITED NATIONS - The size and sophistication of some recent bomb attacks in Syria suggest that "established terrorist groups" may have been behind them, the U.N. chief said on Friday, in a letter in which he urged states not to supply arms to government or rebel forces.
Russian arms shipment en route to Syria: report
UNITED NATIONS - A Russian cargo ship loaded with weapons is en route to Syria and due to arrive at a Syrian port this weekend, Al Arabiya television said in a report that Western diplomats in New York described on Friday as credible.
Annan to visit Syria soon, spokesman says
GENEVA - International peace mediator Kofi Annan will visit Syria "soon," his spokesman told Reuters on Friday, in what would be the former U.N. Secretary-General's first visit since he presented his peace plan to Syria's government in early March.
Exclusive: Syria grain trade signals alarm for Assad
LONDON/HAMBURG - Syria is struggling to meet its grain import needs because of sanctions, raising the risk of bread shortages that could sap public support for President Bashar al-Assad as he tries to snuff out a 15-month-old uprising.
U.S. says working to get U.N. missions bank accounts
UNITED NATIONS - Responding to a complaint by Syria's U.N. envoy, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations said on Friday it was working to ensure that foreign diplomatic missions whose accounts have been closed by U.S. banks are able to get new ones.


