WASHINGTON - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry travels Monday to the Middle East for talks on holding a Syrian peace conference.
 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he doubts the U.S./Russian initiative can stop the fighting.
 The latest effort to end Syrian violence aims to bring together for the first time envoys from President Assad’s government […]

WASHINGTON - North Korea has fired two more short-range missiles into waters off its eastern coast, making six launches in three days.
 South Korea’s Defense Ministry said North Korea fired one missile on Monday morning and another in the afternoon into the East Sea - also called the Sea of Japan.
 The latest launches follow three on […]

WASHINGTON -  Republican lawmakers and fiscally conservative Tea Party leaders are vowing to keep up the pressure on the White House to see if it was involved with the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny.  Tea Party leaders say the IRS scandal confirms their worst fears about a federal […]

DAMASCUS - It was too late when air raid sirens wailed at one of Syria’s most fortified military compounds. Israeli jets were already attacking the Hameh complex and civilian employees in nearby housing were scrambling for cover with their families.
 Around Damascus the warplanes staged a series of raids in the early hours of Sunday including […]

JERUSALEM - Israel’s Army Radio says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stopped approving new construction in West Bank settlements in what may be a bid to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.
 There was no confirmation of the settlement freeze from the office of Netanyahu, who was in Shanghai on Tuesday as part of an official […]

BAGHDAD - Skyrocketing sectarian violence and escalating political conflict in Iraq have some Middle East analysts concerned that Iraq may be on the brink of civil war. The latest upsurge in violence is the worst since the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops.
 With sectarian bombings and shootings escalating, April was the deadliest month in Iraq in […]

WASHINGTON - South Korean President Park Geun-hye addresses a joint meeting of the U.S. Congress Wednesday, as she continues a tour of Washington that has been dominated by talks on North Korea.
 After meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House Tuesday, Park said Seoul and Washington must not tolerate North Korea’s recent wave of […]

WASHINGTON - Gun-related homicides and other crimes involving guns have fallen sharply over the last two decades in the United States, but most Americans believe firearms crime is higher now than 20 years ago, according to an analysis and a separate poll released on Tuesday.
    
 Some 11,101 gun-related homicides were reported in the United States in […]

WASHINGTON — A former U.S. diplomat in Libya who says more could have been done to protect Americans at the U.S. mission in Benghazi when it was attacked last September will be a featured witness on Wednesday during a congressional hearing.
 Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of mission in Libya at the time of the attack, will […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama says Israel is justified in protecting itself from advanced weapons shipments to terrorist groups like Hezbollah.
 In an interview Saturday with the Spanish-language network Telemundo, Obama did not directly comment on reports of an Israeli airstrike against a Syrian missile shipment believed bound for Hezbollah.  He said he would let […]

TEHRAN - Iran called on the region to unite against Israel after a reported attack on Syria and said it was ready to train the Damascus government’s army.
    
 Israel carried out its second air strike in days on Syria early on Sunday, targeting Iranian-supplied missiles headed for Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a Western intelligence source said.
    
 Tehran on Sunday […]

JERUSALEM - Israel has attacked targets in Syria for the second time in three days. 
 Loud explosions rocked Damascus as Israeli warplanes struck targets deep inside Syria.  The Syrian news agency says Israeli missiles blasted a military research center near the capital.
 Foreign intelligence sources say Israel hit sophisticated Iranian-made missiles believed to be headed to the […]

WASHINGTON - U.S and allied forces in Afghanistan are preparing for stepped-up attacks after Taliban insurgents this week declared the start of their annual spring fighting season.
 Their message came in an audio message that announced the start of a monumental spring operation, one aimed at defeating those it described as “western invaders,” a reference to […]

DAMASCUS - The Syrian opposition is condemning what it calls a “large-scale massacre” by government forces and loyalist militias that reportedly left dozens dead in a northwest city.
 The Syrian National Coalition alleged that forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad “were directly involved in the execution and burning of at least 150 people, including women and […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto both say they will work together to further integrate their countries’ economies, and to fight cross-border crime. The two leaders met Thursday in Mexico City.
 After their meeting, President Obama said he and Pena Nieto are working to further bolster an economic relationship that […]

WASHINGTON - This is the time of year when farmers in the northern hemisphere count on bees and other insects to pollinate orchards, vegetables and berry fields. But what has the beekeeping world abuzz this season is the continuing phenomenon of mass honeybee deaths — and how governments on two continents are responding to them.
 
 U.S. […]

NASHVILLE - Music fans are mourning the loss of a true Country legend. George Jones, 81, died Friday at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
 In 1955, Jones recorded “Why Baby Why,” his first hit for Starday Records.  Born in Saratoga, Texas, he began performing in local clubs at age 10.  In the late 1940s, he worked […]

MOSCOW - Russia plans to deploy fighter jets in Belarus this year and eventually establish an air base in the former Soviet republic, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday.
       
 The moves would increase Russia’s military presence in Belarus, viewed by Moscow as a buffer between Russia and NATO, and could unnerve neighbouring members of […]

WASHINGTON - U.S. investigators have traveled to the Russian republic of Dagestan to interview the parents of the two suspects in last week’s bombing at the Boston Marathon.
 U.S. Embassy officials say the team of investigators is working with the Russian government.
 One of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, made a six-month visit to Dagestan and Chechnya last […]

JERUSALEM - Israel says Syria has used chemical weapons against rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.
 The head of research and analysis for Israel’s military intelligence, Brigadier General Itai Brun, told a security conference Tuesday that the weapons were “probably” the nerve agent sarin.
 Syria’s government and the rebels have traded accusations about the use of chemical […]

WASHINGTON - Two ethnic Chechen brothers, suspected of the double bombings at the Boston marathon, attended a mosque in Cambridge Massachusetts. The bombs killed three and injured more than 170.  The older brother, now deceased, is accused of being argumentative about his religion, critical of those who weren’t conservative Muslims.
 The two bombing suspects are seen […]

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf was arrested Friday in connection with his dismissal of top judges while he was president. Musharraf did not resist the detention, and plans to appeal his case to the Supreme Court.
 
 Several cars of armed police escorted Pakistan’s former military strongman Pervez Musharraf to court early Friday from […]

WASHINGTON - Police in the northeastern U.S. state of Massachusetts are conducting a massive manhunt for one of the suspects in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings, after killing the other one in a shootout late Thursday.
 Authorities say the “white hat” suspect from the marathon bombings, known as Suspect 2, is on the loose and is “armed […]