Saudi Arabia's diplomatic brawl with Canada has exposed what Western officials call "new red lines" in their engagement with the oil-rich kingdom, deterring nations from publicly criticising its human rights record.

Kurdish fighters in northern Syria detained an alleged Italian member of the Islamic State group as he was trying to flee across the border to Turkey, they said Thursday.

Any chemical weapons attack on Syria's last rebel stronghold would lead to "consequences" for the regime in Damascus, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned in Beijing Thursday. 

A heavily-armed Swiss man has been detained at Bulgaria's eastern border with Turkey and charged with terrorism after allegedly planning to go to Syria, prosecutors announced Thursday.

France admitted Thursday that it instigated a "system" that led to torture during Algeria's independence war, a conflict that remains hugely sensitive six decades on.

A man wearing a white surgeon's mask sprays red paint at pockmarks left in a white wall by shrapnel -- honoring comrades who died in an Iranian missile attack in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Companies from dozens of countries are showing their wares at the Damascus International Fair this week, but those from two in particular are getting special treatment -- Russia and Iran.

Firms from the top two wartime allies of Syria's government are set up in an entirely separate building, hinting at the preferred status they hope to enjoy as the country tries to transition into reconstruction.

Violence in northwest Syria has displaced more than 38,500 people in less than two weeks amid increasing hostilities and a looming regime assault on the opposition-held Idlib province, the UN said Thursday.

Israel reopened its only crossing for people with the Gaza Strip on Thursday, more than a week after shutting it following a destructive Palestinian protest.

The reopening follows several days of relative calm, as Egyptian and UN officials attempt to broker a long-term truce between Israel and Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas.

Israeli border police removed caravans on Thursday from near a Bedouin village in the occupied West Bank, which they have orders to demolish despite international criticism, officials said.