Three Pakistan-origin British sisters are feared to have travelled to Syria with their nine children to join the dreaded Islamic State militant group after they went missing on their way back from a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
Rediff.com takes a look at times these deadly weapons have been used.
The worried families of three missing British schoolgirls believed to have fled to Syria to join the Islamic State on Monday made a moving plea to them to come back home as Scotland Yard sent its officers to search for them in Turkey.
Underlining the relevance of the Non-Aligned Movement, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said NAM should help in tackling key political and economic challenges, including worsening situation in Syria and a persistent global economic slowdown.
The United States on Sunday warned Syria that it has taken no options off the table after striking a deal with Russia to destroy Damascus's chemical weapons stockpile and asserted that military action against the Assad regime still remains "real".
Rajeev Srinivasan on why there is the strong possibility that this whole thing is an elaborate charade and how the mainstream might have just played into Trump's showman hands.
A Saudi Arabia-drafted resolution on Syria, which is set to be voted upon in the United Nations General Assembly, has dropped its demand for President Bashar Al Assad to step down and sanctions be imposed against the country after some member States, including India, objected to the provisions.
United States President Barack Obama on Saturday warned lawmakers against turning "a blind eye" to chemical attacks in Syria as he made a strong pitch to war-weary Americans for "limited" strikes in the strife-torn country.
United States President Barack Obama has announced his decision to take military action against the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons
An estimated 400 people, an average of 40 a day, have been killed in Syria in the days following the arrival of the Arab League monitors in the country, a top United Nations official has said.
Dutchman Wim Koevermans's stint as coach of the Indian football team started on a positive note as Portugal-returned skipper Sunil Chhetri and Anthony Pereira's strikes propelled the hosts to a 2-1 win over Syria in the Nehru Cup opener in Delhi on Wednesday.
Chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict in Syria on a "relatively large scale", a United Nations report said, without blaming any side.
The Syrian government has agreed to pull back its troops from cities and complete withdrawal of heavy weapons by April 10, United Nations-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan told the UN Security Council on Monday, even as Western nations expressed doubts that the new promises would be kept.
Ghana mourned late footballer Christian Atsu who was killed last month in the Turkey earthquake.
The Pentagon is gearing up for a three-day attack on Syria, with a heavy barrage of missile strikes followed by more attacks on targets that were missed to destroy in the opening salvos, a leading United States newspaper reported on Sunday.
After spending most of his time over the weekend calling up and meeting lawmakers, President Barack Obama will go all out on a media publicity blitz over the next two days to convince war-weary Americans that an attack on Syria is needed for the long-term safety of the US.
Israel needs to come terms with the new reality that they are no longer invincible or the dominant power in the West Asian region, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The United Nations has said an American freelance journalist, held captive for nearly two years by militants in Syria, was freed and handed over to its peacekeepers in the Golan Heights.
Nirupama Rao, India's new ambassador to the United States, has defended India's stand on Libya and Syria, which stands in stark contrast to that of the US and its allies in the NATO. In the interaction that followed her keynote address at the third Brookings-FICCI Strategic Dialogue on US-India Relations, Rao said, "Let me say that we deeply value the consultations that we had with the United States on issues related to the Arab Spring and the upheavals that we have seen".
'Surely, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will not be able to pay or compensate the Russians for deployment and use of Russian men and equipment,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
President Obama had no intention of risking a global conflagration on account of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, especially at a time when he was struggling to wind up the wars his predecessor had started, says T P Sreenivasan
President Barack Obama and his cabinet colleagues reached out to key allies of the US before a possible military strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Former Pakistan women's hockey player Shahida Raza was among at least 67 people killed on the weekend in a migrant shipwreck off the coast of Italy.
Agencies like the Tauheed Jammat have been set up in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana to radicalise the youth and recruit them to carry out terror activities in other countries. Vicky Nanjappa reports
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'We have sent messages to the Syrians in the past and we will continue to do so. We have tools at our disposal -- a variety of tools, ranging from diplomatic tools to economic pressure,'Bush said.
Ruling out any immediate possibility of sending troops to war-torn Syria, the United States has said it will do so only when requested to join the international community, in case of a peaceful transition in the country.
The move was apparently aimed at Israel, which neither admits nor denies possessing nuclear weapons but is perceived by the countries in the region to have such arms.
Saudi Arabian football chiefs sacked coach Jose Peseiro on Sunday immediately after his demoralized side slumped to a shock 2-1 defeat at the hands of unfancied Asian Cup outsiders Syria.
Entire areas in southern Turkey and northern Syria have been levelled to the ground, and poor construction has been blamed for the collapse of these buildings.
As violence in Syria worsens, India has called on all parties within and outside the troubled country to fully cooperate with international envoy Kofi Annan to bring an end to the crisis.
Amid escalating violence in Syria, there is growing concern that Al Qaeda is trying to change the nature of the conflict against President Bashar Al Assad's regime and is resorting to frequent suicide bombings to "hijack" the revolution, a media report said on Wednesday.
The United States needs to maintain its military threat against Syria as such pressure forced the Assad regime to change its posture on chemical weapons, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said today.
The two-day meet of the 120-nation grouping, which began with the national anthem of Iran followed by the recitation of the verses from the holy Quran, was inaugurated by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei at the leaders' Summit hall in Northern Tehran.
Those who are returning will not be paying any fare and the government is bearing the cost of their return.
In the current complex and dynamic strategic environment, refining the IAF's strategy, building robust capabilities and developing a flexible mindset to "prosecute future wars" will prove decisive, the chief of air staff said.
'People coming from the slightly upper section of Palestinian society want to fight and I see vengeance in their eyes.'
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