John Kerry

Fresh air strikes pounded Syria's Aleppo city early May 2, an AFP correspondent said, as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Geneva in a bid to halt the mounting carnage.
 
More than a week of fighting in and around Syria's second city has killed hundreds of civilians.    

Russia said on May 1 that talks were taking place to include Aleppo in a temporary lull in fighting declared by the Syrian army in some western parts of the country, a sign of intensified efforts to halt a surge of violence in its former commercial capital.

The United States on April 30 demanded that Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's forces halt their bombardment of the city of Aleppo and help restore a nationwide ceasefire, while nearly 30 air strikes hit rebel-held areas of the city on the same day as a temporary "calm" declared by Syria's military took effect around Damascus and in the northwest.

Pressure mounted on Bangladesh April 26 after two leading gay rights activists were hacked to death, the latest in a series of chilling attacks on intellectuals, writers and religious minorities for which only a handful of people have been convicted.

The U.S. Embassy in Turkey has shared remarks by President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry praising press freedoms on its official Twitter account, using the hashtag #ÖzgürBas?n - #FreePress in Turkish. 

Many in Nicosia, Athens, Brussels and Washington are confident - and some concerned - that the Cyprus issue may be resolved by the end of the year. In the US, especially, top officials are eager for this to happen by the end of 2016, as every US government likes to wrap up as many international affairs as possible before their term ends so as to boost its legacy.

Iran has so far seen only around $3 billion in previously frozen assets returned since it struck a nuclear deal with world powers, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said April 18.

The extent to which Tehran stands to gain from the agreement to place its nuclear program under tight controls has been a matter of fierce debate since Iran signed the accord last year.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared on April 17 that Israel would never relinquish the Golan Heights, in a signal to Russia and the United States that the strategic plateau should be excluded from any deal on Syria's future. 

According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), 30,000 civilians have fled the war to escape fighting between ISIS jihadists and other rebels in Syria over the past two days. HRW estimates that most of the civilians have left the surrounding regions in Aleppo on the borders with Turkey, where heavy clashes are in progress between ISIS terrorists and other rebel groups.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on April 14 condemned as dangerous and provocative a military encounter in the Baltic Sea that the United States has described as a simulated attack on a U.S. destroyer by two Russian warplanes.