Mediator Lakhdar Brahimi will meet representatives of the warring sides in Syria separately for the first few days to increase pressure on them.
Syria expects to remove 200 people from the city of Homs during a three-day ceasefire while humanitarian organisations provide aid to those remaining.
Russia has offered assurances that the Syrian government will soon ship more toxic agents abroad for destruction.
Rebels with ties to al-Qaeda have posted an internet video of a beheading of a pro-government fighter in Homs.
Rebels with ties to al-Qaeda have posted an internet video of a beheading of a pro-government fighter in Homs.
Aid agencies in Syria have evacuated hundreds of people from the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Yarmouk.
The first round of peace talks has ended with no progess made on ending the civil war or commitment from the govt to return to the negotiating table.
Human Rights Watch says the government has levelled thousands of buildings under the guise of urban planning to punish residents of rebel-held areas.
The US has demanded that Syria allow aid in to Homs, as peace talks over the future of President Bashar al-Assad continue.
Syria: The long road to finding peace after years of war.
A shocking report about the systematic killing of detainees Syrian jails is just the tip of the iceberg, experts say.
UN aid agencies say heavy fighting has prevented health workers from getting polio vaccine to 100 000 Syrian children.
The OPCW has called on President Bashar al-Assad to pick up momentum in handing over Syria’s remaining chemicals for destruction.
Reported cases of Christians killed for their faith spiked last year, with Syria accounting for more than total worldwide deaths in 2012.
Syria has started moving chemical weapons materials out of the country as part of the disarmament programme, which has faced technical problems.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has held out the possibility of Iran playing a constructive role at talks in Geneva.
A December 31 deadline to remove part of the Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal for destruction has been missed.
Chemical arms watchdog OPCW has said Syria will likely miss its December 31 deadline to remove the "most critical" warfare chemicals from the country.
Air raids using barrel bombs in Syria’s second city of Aleppo have killed at least 76 people, including 28 children.
It has been months since convoys from the United Nations have delivered food or medical care to rebel-held areas in Damascus.
Institutions are doubling shifts and staff, but they are finding it difficult to cope with the demand.
The country has offered to destroy Syrian chemicals on a US ship and is looking for a suitable Mediterranean port where processing can be carried out.
Thousands of refugees are continuing to stream into the Lebanese border town of Arsal as clashes intensify in the nearby Qalamoun mountains.
Incendiary weapons are banned from use in war as they inflict indiscriminate damage, yet it appears Syrian forces have used them in the last year.
Despite global outrage over the use of chemical weapons, Bashar al-Assad’s government is successfully exploiting divisions among the opposition.
The war has forced some 50 000 Palestinians to flee Syria, a country where they had enjoyed some of the most favourable treatment in the Arab world.
Syria’s entire declared stock of chemical weapons has been placed under seal, says inspectors.
A polio outbreak to the east of the country has reinforced the call for relief workers’ safety.
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/ 29 October 2013
The World Health Organisation has confirmed a polio outbreak among young children in north-east Syria, adding that the risk is high for it to spread.
Increasingly they are being targeted – and the automation of weapons will make it even worse.
Long-delayed peace talks aimed at ending the Syrian conflict have provisionally been set for November 23.
A human rights group has spoken out against the hundreds of Syrians who have fled their country for sanctuary in Egypt – where they face detention.