The UN Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire across Syria "without delay" to deliver humanitarian aid to millions and evacuate the critically ill and wounded.

Nearly 7,000 Syrians will be allowed to remain in the United States for another 18 months, the Trump administration has said, but no more Syrian citizens will be able to apply for the special protection programme.

Russia's defence ministry has displayed a pair of drones that it said were captured following attacks on two Russian military bases in Syria.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has revoked his resignation following a consensus deal reached with rival political parties, marking an end to one of the most bizarre interludes in Lebanese politics.

Vladimir Putin has met with Syrian president Bashar Assad in Sochi.

The United States is pulling out of Unesco after repeated criticism of resolutions by the UN cultural agency that Washington sees as anti-Israel.

Russia and Saudi Arabia have struck a number of deals, including contracts for Russian weapons, as part of a groundbreaking first visit by a Saudi monarch.

The head of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah said on Sunday it was time for political leaders to accept the survival of Syrian president Bashar Assad's government.

US President Donald Trump has signed a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia, conceding under pressure from his own party that a warmer relationship with Moscow was not in the country's best interests.

Catch up on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com this morning.

At least eight people have been killed and 12 others injured in a series of car bomb explosions in the Syrian capital Damascus as officials claimed they had foiled a plot to target crowded areas.

Latest: The US has seen chemical weapons activity at a Syrian air base used for a sarin gas attack in April, the Pentagon said.

The White House has issued a warning to Bashar Assad as it claimed "potential" evidence showed Syria was preparing for another chemical weapons attack.

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Russia’s defence ministry has said it will treat US-led coalition planes in Syria, west of the Euphrates River, as targets after the US military shot down a Syrian air force jet.

Russia is trying to verify reports that its military has killed the leader of the Islamic State group in an air strike targeting a meeting of militant leaders.

More than 40 others were wounded in the attacks which have been claimed by the Islamic State.

Jared Kushner made the proposal at a meeting with the Russian ambassador to the US last December, a person familiar with the talks said.

Donald Trump will meet Vladimir Putin's senior diplomat at the White House on Wednesday in a signal that US relations with Russia have improved.

President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have signalled the prospect of increased co-operation in Syria after what the White House described as a "very good" phone discussion that included a focus on setting up safe zones in the war-torn nation.

Theresa May has dismissed as "hypothetical" a suggestion from Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson that it would be difficult to say No to supporting further US air strikes against Bashar Assad's regime.

US president Donald Trump has condemned those who deny the Holocaust and pledged to confront anti-Semitism.

The United States has issued 271 sanctions in response to Syrian president Bashar Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons.

The US has issued 271 sanctions in response to Syrian president Bashar Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons, according to AP.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that air strikes had seriously damaged the medical centre in Abdin village, in Idlib

Israeli defence officials said this week that Syria still has up to three tons of chemical weapons in its possession.

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As British voters prepare to go to the polls on June 8 they face the prospect of a campaign dominated by a single issue, suggests Gavin Cordon.

The evacuation of more than 3,000 Syrians from four areas as part of a population transfer has been postponed a day after a deadly blast killed more than 120 people, many of them government supporters.

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US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has used a visit to a Second World War memorial in Italy to declare that the United States will stand up to aggressors who harm civilians.

The United States has warned it is "prepared to do more" to stop the horrors that are taking place in Syria under Bashar Assad.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley warned on Wednesday that US President's Trump administration will take action against chemical attacks in Syria - if the UN Security Council fails to act.

International donors have pledged $6bn to help conflict-torn Syria this year, a senior European Union official has confirmed.

At least 40 people have been killed in twin explosions near religious shrines frequented by Shiite pilgrims in the Syrian capital, Damascus, according to Syria's interior minister and media reports.

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The increase of Israeli settlements has "gotten so substantial" that it is inhibiting the possibility for an "effective, contiguous Palestinian state", Barack Obama has said in his final interview as US president.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is prepared "to negotiate everything" at talks set to begin in Kazakhstan, as he seeks to cast himself as a peacemaker after his forces recaptured Aleppo last month.

Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

The UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution supporting efforts by Russia and Turkey to end the nearly six-year conflict in Syria and jump-start peace negotiations.

France has struck a compromise with Russia on a United Nations resolution that it said would prevent "mass atrocities" in besieged areas of Aleppo, Syria, where thousands of trapped civilians and rebel fighters await evacuation in freezing temperatures.

Barack Obama has strongly suggested Russia president Vladimir Putin knew about the email hacking that rocked the US presidential race and urged Donald Trump to back a bipartisan investigation.

Some 50,000 civilians have fled eastern Aleppo over the past two days in a "constant stream", Russia says, as Syrian government forces close in on the last pocket of opposition control.

A group of lawyers are seeking to launch a criminal case in Germany against Syrian President Bashar Assad over alleged war crimes committed in the city of Aleppo.