An opposition leader, rights activist and longtime dissident in Syria's rebel-held city of Raqqa has been abducted, activists say.

Two car bombs explode in Dagestan, killing at least eight people and wounding about 20 others, investigators say, one of the deadliest attacks this year in a region plagued with violence linked to an Islamist insurgency.

Hezbollah MP Nawaf Musawi says the battle situation in war-torn Syria is not turning in America and Israel’s favor.

Iran's electoral watchdog says it would bar physically feeble candidates from running for president, in an apparent hint that it could disqualify 78-year-old former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from the race.