Damascus

Almost 2000 people lost their lives in air attacks in Aleppo committed by government forces in 2014, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) argues.

As many as 283 woman and 567 children are included in the death toll, the organization reports as quoted by Al Jazeera.

Iran said Friday that next week's presidential election in Syria, branded a farce by Western governments, will boost the legitimacy of its ally Bashar al-Assad.
      
"God willing, the elections in Syria will be carried out without a hitch," said Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior foreign policy adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
      

The destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal will not be completed before a June 30 deadline agreed after Washington threatened air strikes last year, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has said.

An April 27 deadline for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons to international monitors also expired with Damascus holding around eight percent of its declared material.

The world's chemical watchdog on Tuesday denied a report by the Syrian government that investigators and their drivers on a fact-finding mission were kidnapped, saying the group was "safe" and returning to base after an attack.
      

Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League mediator who has for months tried to put an end to Syria's ongoing civil war, announced his resignation.

The decision would be in force from May 31, as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported in a joint press-conference with the veteran Algerian diplomat Brahimi on Tuesday.

Ship and crew prepared to neutralise Syria's chemical arsenal

The UN refugee agency issued a report saying there was a sharp rise in asylum claims in 44 industrialized countries in 2013. driven primarily by the crisis in Syria.

UNHCR's "Asylum Trends 2013" report says 612,700 people applied for asylum in North America, Europe, East Asia and the Pacific in 2013, which is the highest total for any year since 2001.