Syria

BBC News Stockholm Sweden has expelled a high-ranking Syrian diplomat for allegedly planning to abduct his daughter, Swedish media report. Syria’s charge d’affaires wanted to take his daughter out of Sweden because of her relationship with a young man there, Swedish television SVT says. The Swedish foreign office has refused …

Egypt has said President Hosni Mubarak will not attend a summit of Arab leaders in Damascus on Saturday. A junior cabinet minister will lead the Egyptian delegation instead. Saudi Arabia had said it would only send its Arab League representative rather than King Abdullah, and Lebanon is boycotting the summit …

A Syrian cleric suspected of recruiting foreign militants to fight in Iraq has been shot dead in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, his aides have said. Sheikh Mahmoud Abu al-Qaqaa was shot several times by a gunman as he left the Imam Mosque after Friday prayers. The gunman tried …

Washington — In assessing Syria’s future and the importance that the minorities play in defining not only Syria’s vision but the means by which we can achieve that vision, the Christians of Syria stand tall. Today, Syria, under the rule of Assad, is the best place for Christians because Assad …

The village of Tel-Sakra is in the district of the town of Tel-Tammer, which, in turn, is in the jurisdiction of the Governorate of Hassake in Northeast Syria. The whole story in its full details is that four Assyrian youths from the village of Tel-Sakra were planning on attending a …

Your Excellency Mr. Mohammed Bassam Imadi, As of today no one knows how many persons have been sent to the Syrian prisons without trials and sentences. The families of the prisoners are not informed on how their imprisoned relatives are treated, if they have been tortured or, sometimes, if they …

Ghazi Kanaan was appointed interior minister in a major cabinet reshuffle in October 2004.   Before joining the government, he was head of Syrian intelligence in Lebanon.   The 63-year-old brigadier-general was born in the coastal governorate of Lattakia in 1942. He graduated from military college in 1965 and rose …

Kanaan (r) had a long and intimate connection with Lebanon By Roger Hardy BBC Middle East analyst   The official Syrian News Agency announced Ghazi Kanaan’s suicide without attempting to explain it. It said cryptically that the authorities were carrying out the necessary investigation. But, given Mr Kanaan’s long and …

Interview with Syrian Interior Minister Major General Ghazi Kanaan given to Voice of Lebanon correspondent Warda Zamel on 12 October, hours before he was found dead in his office, having apparently committed suicide. Presenter: Syrian Interior Minister Maj-Gen Ghazi Kanaan, in this cloudy climate that prevails over the two fraternal …

Kanaan (left) was Syria‘s top official in Lebanon for years Syria’s Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan has committed suicide, the official news agency in Damascus says. He was reportedly questioned by a UN investigator last month over the murder of ex-Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. For many years Kanaan was Syria‘s powerful …