The first face-to-face meeting between Syria’s government and the opposition hoping to overthrow president Bashar Assad started and ended after barely 30 minutes today.

Syria’s first peace talks came close to collapsing before they began, with the opposition refusing to meet president Bashar al-Assad’s delegation and the government threatening to bring its team home.

The UN-Arab League envoy to Syria has ended a visit to Damascus, calling on both the government and the opposition to attend a peace conference in Geneva later this month.

A suicide truck bomb attack on a government checkpoint on the edge of the city of Hama in central Syria has left 30 dead, according to state media and activists.

Negotiations between the United States and Russia on securing Syria’s chemical weapons have reached a critical turning point after two days of intense diplomacy.

President Bashar Assad says Syria will start submitting data on its chemical weapons stockpile a month after signing the convention banning such weapons.

US secretary of state John Kerry has arrived in Geneva to test the seriousness of a Russian proposal to secure Syria’s chemical weapons.

President Barack Obama and French president Francois Hollande have said they are committed to a political solution in Syria even as they prepare for potential military strikes.

Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore has deemed goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank should be treated as illegal.

Syrian government troops trying to relieve a besieged military base in the country’s north-west ambushed a rebel checkpoint today, killing at least 12 opposition fighters, activists said.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton issued a parting warning about Syria’s civil war, accusing Iran of playing an increasingly prominent role in directing the violence.

The UN envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has said Syria's war has reached "unprecedented levels of horror".

The Syrian military has bombarded the outskirts of Damascus and other areas around the country, according to activists.

The president of the United Nations Security Council said important developments were under way in efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the 21-month war in Syria and there could be another US-Russia meeting with international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi next week.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has left a New York hospital, three days after doctors discovered a blood clot in her head.

Russia is pressing the Syrian leadership to honour previous pledges to enter talks with the opposition.

The international envoy seeking a solution to Syria’s 21-month-old conflict said yesterday that political change was needed to end the violence which has killed 44,000 people, and called for a transitional government to rule until elections.

Russia is seeking to revive last summer’s peace plan for Syria in talks with a senior Syrian diplomat and an international envoy, according to Moscow’s foreign ministry.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad yesterday sent a senior diplomat to Moscow yesterday to discuss proposals by international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to end the conflict convulsing his country, Syrian and Lebanese sources said.

The international envoy tasked with pushing to end Syria’s civil war has said the situation is still “worrying” after discussing the crisis with president Bashar Assad.

The United Nations envoy tasked with brokering an end to Syria’s civil war is due to meet president Bashar Assad today.

A Syrian government air strike has killed tens of people in a town near the central city of Hama, according to opposition activists.

People can be forgiven for not knowing Ireland held the chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Russian counterpart are to discuss the Syrian crisis in Dublin.

The UN-Arab League envoy to Syria is meeting with the Chinese foreign minister to solicit support from Beijing in international efforts to ending Syria’s civil war.

A Syrian warplane flattened a three-storey building, suspected rebels detonated a deadly car bomb and both sides traded gunfire in hotspots across the country, leaving a United Nations-backed holiday truce in tatters on its second day.

Syrian troops have shelled rebel-held areas and clashed with anti-government gunmen in several parts of the country despite an internationally mediated ceasefire, according to activists.

It is being hailed as a miracle in a conflict that has seen endless misery.

Two deadly car bombs and sporadic fighting marred a shaky holiday truce today in Syria, although thousands of protesters used the brief respite in the civil war to pour into the streets and demand president Bashar Assad’s removal.

A car bomb has exploded in Damascus, causing a number of casualties, according to Syria’s state-run media.

Fighting raged near a military base in Syria’s north as a ceasefire in the bloody civil war was set begin on Friday at dawn, activists said, illustrating the difficulty of enforcing even a limited truce coinciding with a Muslim holiday.

Heavy fighting has preceded the dawn start of a proposed truce in Syria’s 19-month civil war, activists said.

The Syrian army promised to observe a four-day ceasefire for a Muslim holiday starting today, while rebels claimed to have taken control of new areas in the key battleground of Aleppo.

The Syrian military says it will cease military operations for four days starting tomorrow in observance of a major Muslim holiday.

The Syrian government and some rebel leaders have agreed to a ceasefire during the forthcoming Muslim four-day holiday.

The leader of the main Syrian opposition group said today that the chances of a truce proposed by the UN for a Muslim holiday this week are slim, partly because the plan is too vague.

A car bomb killed 13 people in central Damascus yesterday as President Bashar al-Assad told an international mediator seeking a truce in Syria’s civil war that the key to any political solution was to stop arming rebels.

An explosion has hit the Old City of Damascus, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens of other civilians, Syrian activists said.

Syria has banned Turkish Airlines flights from its air space, according to state-run news agency SANA.

Iran's president says a new world order needs to emerge, away from American "bullying" and domination.

Democratic uprisings across the Arab world and the Palestinians’ bid for UN membership sparked hope and excitement at last year’s meeting of world leaders.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief said today that more sanctions against Syria and Iran are being weighed.

New UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has said that the death toll in Syria is "staggering" and the destruction "catastrophic".

Western powers are preparing a tough response in case Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s regime deploys chemical or biological weapons, France’s foreign minister said.