The foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey agreed in a telephone conversation Tuesday to push for a ceasefire in Syria and to prepare for possible peace talks planned in the Kazakh capital of Astana, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. During the conversation "the importance...

Gunmen have kidnapped an Iraqi female journalist after posing as members of the security forces and bursting into her home in Baghdad, authorities said Tuesday. Afrah Shawqi Hammudi was abducted Monday at around 10:00 pm (1900 GMT) from her home in a southern neighborhood of the capital,...

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas hopes the upcoming Mideast conference in France will set a mechanism to end Israeli settlements in territory Palestinians claim for a state. His public remarks were his first since the recent U.N. Security Council resolution that condemned settlements as a...

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it viewed a U.S. decision to ease restrictions on weapons supplies to Syrian rebels as a "hostile act" which threatened the safety of Russian warplanes and military personnel, the RIA news agency reported. RIA quoted the ministry as saying the...