A U.N. rights watchdog called on Sri Lanka on Wednesday to investigate "routine torture" of detainees by security forces and rebuked its government for failing to prosecute war crimes committed during the country's 26-year civil war. The Sri Lankan military finally vanquished the separatist...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Wednesday urged all actors in Syria to follow through on the pledges they made earlier to the Syrian people. All sides, including the Assad regime and armed opposition groups in Syria, continue to attack hospitals, schools, water sources, and infrastructure,...

The leaders of six major Western nations called on Wednesday for an immediate ceasefire in the Syrian city of Aleppo and condemned Russia and Iran for supporting the Syrian government. "The most urgent goal remains an immediate ceasefire so that the United Nations can bring humanitarian aid...

In the early days of the assault on Islamic State in Mosul, Iran successfully pressed Iraq to change its battle plan and seal off the city, an intervention which has since shaped the tortuous course of the conflict, sources briefed on the plan say. The original campaign strategy called for...

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that a potential U.S.-Russia deal to allow Syrian rebels to safely leave Aleppo was still on the agenda, but that no talks were planned between the two countries for now. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that Russian and U.S....

Ankara is doing "everything possible" to facilitate negotiations between Moscow and Syrian opposition groups to halt the bloodshed in Aleppo, Turkey's premier said in an interview published Wednesday after meeting President Vladimir Putin. "We are doing everything possible to bring about...

Iran was set to sign preliminary agreements with Total and Shell Wednesday to develop major oil and gas fields as it seeks to boost its output, an oil official said. The deals include a $10-12 billion expansion of the South Azadegan oil field and another project at the Yadavaran oil field,...

The death toll from a strong earthquake that hit northern Indonesia's Aceh province on Wednesday has doubled to at least 50, Indonesia's disaster agency said, as rescuers searched dozens of collapsed buildings for trapped survivors. Search and rescue teams used earth movers to clear rubble...

A Russian military adviser working in Aleppo has been killed by artillery shelling carried out by Syrian opposition rebels, Russian news agencies quoted the Russian Defense Ministry as saying Wednesday. The adviser would be posthumously given a top military award, the agencies said....

 A court in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday sentenced 15 people to death and several others to prison terms in a case involving an alleged Iranian spy cell, a sign of the continuing tension between the two Mideast powers. A Riyadh criminal court handed down its ruling to the 32 people who were...

 U.S. and Russian officials will not hold talks on Syria in Geneva this week, despite an announcement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that they would, sources familiar with the plans said on Tuesday. Lavrov said on Monday that Moscow would start talks with Washington on a...

The House passed a defense bill last week that included language giving the incoming Trump administration the authority to send shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles to rebel groups fighting in Syria. While the bill provides certain restrictions for transferring the controversial weapons,...

 A trending story that claims Hillary Clinton won a total of 57 counties in the presidential election is untrue. The Associated Press finds that Clinton won 487 counties nationwide, compared with 2,626 for President-elect Donald Trump. The story appeared on several viral content...

Russia's foreign minister Tuesday accused the U.S. of backtracking on planned talks in Geneva over a rebel pullout from Syria's Aleppo to "buy time" for those battling leader Bashar Assad. "It looks like an attempt to buy time for the rebels to have a breather, take a pause and replenish...

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, engulfed in an influence peddling scandal, said if she was impeached she would wait for a court to uphold the decision, an official of her party said on Tuesday, signaling a political crisis could drag on for months. Parliament is expected to hold a vote...

Iran will not let U.S. President-elect Donald Trump rip up the nuclear deal it signed with world powers, President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday. "[Trump] wants to do many things, but none of his actions would affect us ... Do you think the United States can rip up the JCPOA (the Joint...

Turkey's military says the country's military chief has held talks with his U.S. counterpart during a previously announced visit to an air base in southern Turkey. A brief military statement Tuesday said the meeting took place Monday at Incirlik Air Base where U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford was...

Russia and China on Monday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for a seven-day ceasefire in the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo. Venezuela also voted against the text, while Angola abstained. The 11 other member nations on the council cast their votes for the text. The vote...

The death toll in the Oakland warehouse fire climbed to 36 Monday with more bodies still feared buried in the blackened ruins, and families anxiously awaited word of their missing loved ones. The laborious job of digging with shovels and buckets was suspended overnight because of a...

The second crash of a Russian warplane off the coast of Syria in less than a month intensified scrutiny Monday of a critical weakness in Moscow’s show of naval force in the Mediterranean and the 1,000-foot hulk leading it.  The Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s sole, aging aircraft carrier,...