Mohammed Zakaria has lived in a plastic tent in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley for almost as long as war has raged in his native Syria.

He and his family fled bombings in 2012, thinking it would be a short, temporary stay. His hometown of Homs was under siege, and subject to a ferocious Syrian military campaign. He didn't even bring his ID with him.

After a decade of unfathomable violence and human tragedy that has made Syria the defining war of the early 21st century, the fighting has tapered off but the suffering hasn't.

U.S. President Joe Biden took office with promises of a return to diplomacy with Iran, but both sides' determination not to look weak has jeopardized prospects of a quick breakthrough.

The rollercoaster saga of former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn has made international headlines, from his shock 2018 detention in Japan to his audacious escape the following year.

Israel considers Iran an "existential threat" but the two countries were once long-time allies under the shah.

Anyier sits at the side of the road gasping for breath as the beating sun and 3,700-meter (12,000-foot) altitude take their toll.

Syria's complex battle ground includes tens of thousands of fighters from several nationalities trained and armed by regime ally Iran, a deployment that has worried the United States and Israel.

Iran will vote in June for a successor to President Hassan Rouhani and his moderate-reformist government, but politics in the country is dominated by the nuclear issue and no frontrunner has emerged. 

A German court on Wednesday jailed a former Syrian intelligence agent for complicity in crimes against humanity in the world's first prosecution over state-sponsored torture by the Syrian government.

Renewed rocket attacks on US targets in Iraq show Iran-aligned factions are heaping pressure on the government while Tehran may be seeking leverage over America's new administration, analysts say.