Israel's air strike on Syria last week may have damaged the country's main research center on biological and chemical weapons, The New York Times reported Sunday.
Wednesday's air strike targeted surface-to-air missiles and an adjacent military complex believed to house chemical agents, a U.S. official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity.

Finally they've arrived -- nearly 2,000 kerosene heaters for thousands of displaced Syrians facing a bitingly cold winter in camps in rebel-controlled areas in the northwest of the country.
Trucks loaded with precious gas stoves came from Iraq via Turkey, to be distributed in four camps along the Turkish border by a Western NGO whose name its employees refrain from using for "political and security" reasons.

Security guards at Libya's parliament have beaten up a crew of Alassema, an independent television network, the channel told Agence France Presse on Sunday.
"A team from (Alassema TV) went to cover a meeting of the national assembly on Friday, entering as they were permitted to," the channel's press office director Fethi Ben Aissa said.

At least 13 civilians were killed Sunday in a missile attack by the Syrian army on a rebel-held neighborhood in the embattled northern city of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.
"We have documented the names of nine people, while we can confirm at least another four were also killed. All were civilians," Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Syria's main opposition group said Russia must now put pressure on President Bashar Assad to end the spiraling conflict, a Syrian National Coalition (SNC) spokesman told Agence France Presse on Sunday.
"The ball is now in Russia's court. If Russia is genuinely thinking about the future of its interests in the region, we think it should side with the Syrian people's legitimate grievances, and not with those who are killing the Syrian people," spokesman Walid al-Bunni told AFP by telephone.

The Shin Bet domestic spy agency said on Sunday that it had arrested members of a cell belonging to the radical Palestinian Islamic Jihad group who had plotted to kidnap Israelis.
"A bid by Islamic Jihad to kidnap a soldier or an Israeli citizen was foiled by Shin Bet special forces and police," the agency said in a statement.

Israel's main political parties began intensive coalition talks on Sunday, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was formally tasked with forming a new government following last month's election.
Netanyahu, whose rightwing Likud-Beitenu list won a narrow victory with 31 of the Knesset's 120 seats, now has 28 days to piece together a government facing key diplomatic and foreign policy issues.

President Bashar Assad's key ally Moscow has not stopped supporting the Syrian regime, a state daily said on Sunday, hours after Russia's top diplomat met the Syrian opposition leader.
"Bets that Russia would change its mind and modify its stance clash with its policy, which is commanded by its interests and strategic considerations," the official daily Ath Thawra wrote in an editorial.

Iran's installation of new equipment at its Natanz nuclear plant will speed up enrichment efforts and complicate plans to prevent Tehran from building a weapons capability, Israel said on Sunday.
Speaking just before the formal start of talks to build Israel's new ruling coalition, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the most important mission which will face the new government was preventing a nuclear Iran.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Sunday welcomed Syrian opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib's readiness to hold talks under conditions with the Syrian regime.
"It's a good step forward," Salehi said at the Munich Security Conference, where he said he had held a "very good meeting" with Khatib.
