The UN envoy for Syria said Thursday there was little prospect of an imminent restart of negotiations to try to end the raging conflict.

A German woman who was kidnapped in Syria last year while she was pregnant has been freed along with her baby, the German foreign ministry has said.

Russian or Syrian regime warplanes knocked a major Aleppo hospital out of service yesterday, hospital workers said, and ground forces intensified an assault on the city’s besieged rebel sector, in a battle that has become a potentially decisive turning point in the civil war.

Jordan’s King Abdullah swore in a new government headed by Hani Mulki as prime minister for a second term yesterday, with a little-changed Cabinet and a mandate to accelerate economic reforms.

The World Bank has announced that it will release $300mn in loans to help facilitate the labour market for Syrian refugees in Jordan.

Thousands of people attended the funeral of Jordanian writer Nahed Hattar on Wednesday amid tight security, three days after he was shot dead on the steps of an Amman court.

The United States is sending about 600 extra troops to Iraq to train local forces for an upcoming offensive on the Islamic State group stronghold of Mosul, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said on Wednesday.

CIA Director John Brennan said on Wednesday that legislation to allow lawsuits against the government of Saudi Arabia over the Sept. 11 attacks has "grave implications" for US national security.

Turkey said Wednesday that courts have placed 32,000 suspects under arrest on charges of links to a group run by the US-based preacher blamed for July's failed coup, as the country braces for the most extensive trials in its history.

Russian or Syrian warplanes knocked a major Aleppo hospital out of service on Wednesday, hospital workers said, and ground forces intensified an assault on the city's besieged rebel sector, in a battle that has become a potentially decisive turning point in the civil war.

Iraq has asked Washington to deploy additional trainers and advisers as its forces prepare for the battle to retake Mosul from the Islamic State group, the premier's office said Wednesday.

An unauthorised drone forced Dubai airport to halt air traffic for about half an hour on Wednesday in the second such incident in four months, the airport authority said.