Middle East, Asia | featured news

Syrian refugees continue to flee across the Turkish border to escape violence, as world powers amplify their outrage over the Damascus regime's tough crackdown on peaceful demonstrators.

Syrian military forces are poised to enter another northern town, while an increasing number of civilians are fleeing to Turkey to escape the military crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Pakistan's intelligence service arrested the owner of a safe house rented to the CIA to observe bin Laden's compound.

After more than a thousand reported deaths from a government crackdown on dissidents and chilling videos of violence on social media, the unrest in Syria has drawn international attention -- albeit no response from the United Nations Security Council.

Meanwhile, a refugee crisis keeps growing in Turkey, where at least 3,000 Syrians fled across the border in recent days to makeshift tent cities set up by relief agencies and the Ankara government.

A delegation of human rights organizations and their lawyers Tuesday accused the Syrian government of committing crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, according to a statement released by the group.

Tanks stormed the town of Talbiseh on Monday, a day after surrounding it, and at least 10 people were wounded, a resident said, in an expanding military campaign in central Syria to crush dissent against Baathist rule.

In a major turnaround, Syria is pledging full cooperation with U.N. attempts to probe strong evidence that it secretly built a reactor that could have been used to make nuclear arms, according to a confidential document shared with The Associated Press on Sunday....

Meeting with Pakistani leaders, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the U.S.-Pakistan relationship is at a 'turning point' and that Islamabad needs to ramp up its cooperation in the fight against Al Qaeda militants. Her visit is seen as a fence-mending mission in the wake of the U.S. raid to kill Osama bin Laden, an operation that aggravated mistrust on both sides.

Some lawmakers believe Osama bin Laden presence Pakistan may have frayed ties with the United States beyond repair, Senator John Kerry told Islamabad on Monday, but added that their strategic relationship was too important to let go.