Damascus signed an oil and gas deal with a Russian company Wednesday which will allow for the first-ever exploration off Syria's coast.
The United States National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden has called for an end to mass spying by governments, stating that a child born today will have "no conception of privacy."
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt will separately pay official visits to Iran within the next two months.
A high-ranking Russian official says the internationally brokered Syrian peace talks next month will be impossible without the participation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Russia has launched three military satellites into orbit as part of its space program, a Defense Ministry spokesman says.
The inventor of the AK-47 assault rifle, Mikhail Kalashnikov, has died at the age of 94, Russian officials say.
A new survey conducted by Gallop has revealed that a majority of citizens in the independent post-Soviet states believe that the split after the Soviet Union collapsed brought nothing but harm.
Saudi Sheikh Adel al-Kalbani, a former senior imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, has been prevented from boarding his plane in Riyadh to fly to London over his divisive secterian views.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the US role in forging an interim deal to ease concerns about Iran's nuclear program but said he hoped a US decision to broaden a blacklist of companies under existing sanctions would not undermine progress toward a comprehensive agreement.
A video of asylum-seekers being hosed down at a migrant center in Italy has caused outrage in Europe on UN Migrants Day.