There are no plans to storm the Syrian city of Aleppo despite thousands of Al-Nusra militants massing around the city, the Russian military general staff, which is providing air support to the Syrian army, said on Monday.

• April 11, 2016

Russia has delivered the first part of an advanced missile defense system to Iran, Iranian media reported on Monday, starting to equip Tehran with technology that was blocked before it signed a deal with world powers on its nuclear program.

• April 11, 2016

The Turkish army on Monday shelled sites in northern Syria in response to cross-border rocket fire that hit a Turkish town and wounded several people, a government official said.

• April 11, 2016

The Russian air force and Syrian military are preparing a joint operation to take Aleppo from rebels, the Syrian prime minister was quoted saying on Sunday, and an opposition official said a ceasefire was on the verge of collapse.

• April 10, 2016

A former vice governor of China's populous southwestern province of Sichuan has been put under investigation for suspected corruption, the ruling Communist Party's graft-busting body said late on Saturday.

• April 10, 2016

A rallying cry to Iraqi Sunnis from former President Saddam Hussein's top surviving aide aims to bolster the old ruling Baath party's appeal with Sunni Muslims fearing new reprisals by Shi'ite militias, experts said.

• April 10, 2016

Russian relations with former Cold War adversary NATO will not improve for as long as the alliance continues a "containment policy" toward Moscow, Russia's NATO envoy was quoted as saying on Saturday.

• April 9, 2016

A senior lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives said on Thursday the European Central Bank's package of rate cuts would not tackle the euro zone's economic woes, but could cause the property market to overheat.

• April 9, 2016