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The UN refugee agency said Monday it will cut 3,500 staff jobs -- slashing nearly a third of its workforce costs -- due to a funding shortfall, and reduce the scale of its help worldwide.

A German court on Monday handed a life sentence to a Syrian doctor who tortured opponents of former ruler Bashar al-Assad during the country's brutal civil war. 

The number of people forcibly displaced from their homes worldwide has dropped slightly from a record peak but remains "untenably high", the United Nations said Thursday.

Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani condemned on Wednesday Israeli strikes in retaliation for overnight rocket fire, saying they were aimed at destabilising his country.

The United States' new envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, called for a non-aggression agreement between Syria and Israel in remarks to Saudi channel Al Arabiya on Thursday.

A French court on Wednesday jailed a former Syrian Islamist rebel spokesman to 10 years for his role in atrocities committed in Syria's civil war in the country's first universal justice case.

Syria's new authorities have agreed to help the United States locate and return Americans who went missing in the war-ravaged country, a US envoy said on Sunday, in another sign of thawing bilateral ties.

Syrian authorities on Saturday announced an interior ministry restructuring that includes fighting cross-border drug and people smuggling as they seek to improve ties with Western nations that have lifted sanctions.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Tuesday that Syria could be weeks away from a fresh civil war of "epic proportions," as he called for support to the transitional leadership.

For weeks, Ziad Abu al-Dahab has been training for gold at an equestrian tournament near Damascus -- in a sport once dominated by Syria's Assad family and their inner circle.