ARTICLES RELATING TO
BASHAR AL-ASSAD
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chances of retaining power are getting "smaller and smaller" every day.
A Syrian medical group alleges that President Bashar al-Assad's regime is diverting most aid to injured government supporters.
Almost 150 people have died on the first day of a barely-observed truce between the warring parties in Syria.
Syrian artillery, planes and a helicopter gunship have pounded rebel positions in Aleppo, as President Bashar al-Assad's forces try to break through the insurgents' frontline.
Syria's rebels say a government-in-exile headed by a splinter group of dissidents was "stillborn" and that it did not represent the opposition's demands.
Syrian Olympians in London don't talk about the war back home, they just worry about loved ones.
"The soldiers fled like rats," says a grinning rebel after he and his fellow fighters captured Anadan checkpoint from the Syrian army, gaining access to Aleppo.
The United Nations say that 200 000 people have fled the Syrian city of Aleppo in two days as President Bashar al-Assad's forces step up their assault.
Russia says that militants who have seized control of posts on Syria's border with Turkey may be allies of al-Qaeda.
The Syrian government is still in full control of its chemical weapons stockpiles, Israeli defence officials say in an apparent bid to calm fears that a non-conventional war could be looming.
US President Barack Obama has warned Syrian strongman Bashar Assad it would be a "tragic mistake" to unleash chemical weapons, after Damascus admitted it has a stockpile.
Feared forces headed by President Bashar al-Assad's brother have used helicopters in a new offensive against rebels in Damascus, as clashes also raged in Syria's second city Aleppo.
More than 300 people have been killed in one day in violence across Syria, making it the deadliest day of a 16-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
General Hisham Ikhtiyar, the head of Syrian national security wounded in a Damascus bomb blast that killed three senior officials, has died of his wounds, state television has announced.
Religious authorities in most Middle Eastern countries have declared that Friday will be the start of the holy month of Ramadan.
