A parole committee has decided to grant early release to Israeli ex-prime minister Ehud Olmert, who is serving a 27-month prison sentence for corruption, his lawyer said Thursday. "The committee accepted all our arguments," Olmert's lawyer Shani Illouz told public radio. "As of now, Olmert...

Iraqi forces captured on Thursday the wrecked historic mosque of Mosul in which Daesh (ISIS) proclaimed its self-styled "caliphate" three years ago, an Iraqi military statement said. Taking the Grand al-Nuri Mosque hands a symbolic victory to the Iraqi forces which have been battling for...

Israel said it attacked a Syrian military position on Wednesday after a stray mortar shell from fighting in Syria's civil war landed inside the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. The Israeli military said the Syrian shell hit an open area in the northern Golan Heights, causing no injuries,...

Hamas has begun work on a buffer zone along Gaza's border with Egypt, the movement said Wednesday, as part of an effort to assure Cairo that it's serious about preventing the cross-border flow of weapons and militants. Hamas officials hope the creation of the buffer will lead to an easing of...