Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has secured a landslide victory in a wartime election that was condemned as a sham by his opponents but demonstrated his tenacious hold on power after three years of brutal civil war.

The question is not whether the elections in Egypt and Syria are democratic or not. They are clearly not. But when did democracy visit these countries anyway? The closest Arab countries in the Middle East have come to democracy is in Iraq and that is only because the old mold was broken by the U.S. invasion.

Turkey has re-installed an encrypted, long-range radio to its territory at the Süleyman Shah Tomb in Syria, despite the al-Assad regime’s objection in the past, military sources have told daily Hürriyet.

Turkey has re-installed an encrypted, long-range radio to its territory at the Süleyman Shah Tomb in Syria, despite the al-Assad regime’s objection in the past, military sources have told daily Hürriyet.

BELGRADE - Ivan Mrkic, the foreign policy advisor to the Serbian president, on Wednesday met with a group of ambassadors of Arab states to discuss the upcoming donor conference for aid for Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç met with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Warsaw during Poland’s celebration marking the 25th anniversary of the end of Communism on May 4.
      

The Telecommunications Directorate (TİB) unblocked access to YouTube on June 3, some 67 days after a ban that triggered global criticism of the Turkish government’s tightening grip on the Internet.

Turkey has listed the al-Nusra Front, a branch of al-Qaeda operating in Syria and Lebanon, as a terrorist organization following an update of a Cabinet motion on June 3.

Russian UN draft on Ukraine criticized

NEW YORK -- A Russian draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and a humanitarian corridor met with criticism from the West, AFP reported.

The draft has also had "cool response at the Security Council on Monday," the French agency said.

Four people suspected of recruiting militants to fight in Syria have been arrested in the Paris region, officials revealed.

"There are people who recruit jihadists. There are as I'm speaking arrests being made. We are acting everywhere. There will be no respite in the fight against terrorists", French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was quoted by BBC as saying.