The euro zone turned its attention tentatively on Monday to helping Greece tackle its huge debt repayments, with a view to a deal on May 24, after Greek lawmakers passed unpopular pension and tax reforms one critic called "a tombstone for growth".

• May 9, 2016

Syrian government forces and their allies fought insurgents near Aleppo on Monday and jets carried out raids around a nearby town seized by Islamist rebels, a monitoring group said, despite international efforts to reduce the violence.

• May 9, 2016

Syria's opposition is hopeful of a return to peace talks in Geneva if a U.S.-Russian deal on reviving a failed truce is swiftly implemented, a member of the opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said on Monday.

• May 9, 2016

Turkish warplanes hit targets belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq on Sunday, military sources said, as three soldiers and 12 militants were reported killed in separate clashes over the weekend.

• May 8, 2016

The incoming Taiwanese government on Sunday accused China of "political interference" after a senior Chinese official cast doubt over the island keeping its observer status at the World Health Organisation if bilateral relations deteriorated further.

• May 8, 2016

Managing Saudi Arabia's new energy mega-ministry, set to oversee over half the economy and designed to cut through a tangled bureaucracy to make government more coherent and efficient, will be a formidable challenge.

• May 8, 2016

The U.S. military said on Friday it had deployed a very small number of forces to Yemen to offer intelligence support for the United Arab Emirate's so far successful push on the ground against al Qaeda's most dangerous affiliate.

• May 6, 2016

China's securities regulator said it is analyzing the potential impact of overseas-listed Chinese companies coming home to relist on mainland exchanges, potentially bad news for tech firms trying to come home and cash in on high valuations.

• May 6, 2016