President Barack Obama will launch a new round of Middle East diplomacy Friday in a plush oasis in the arid California desert, hosting a Valentine’s Day summit with Jordan’s King Abdullah II. Obama and the king will swap the piles of snow in Washington for the Sunnylands retreat at...

Gunmen seized part of Sulaiman Bek town and nearby villages in northern Iraq on Thursday, Agence France-Presse reported local officials as saying. This is considered to be the latest instance of authorities losing ground to militants, who have held all of the city of Fallujah and parts...

Abu Huraira is haunted by memories of shells falling from the sky, ripping to pieces people trying to bury their loved ones in a Syrian graveyard. He is unnerved by the mental images of mutilated bodies, and of bones laid bare in his rebel comrades' deep wounds. But the...

Among the dwindling holdouts in the rebel-held Old City neighborhood of Homs, an area of the devastated Syrian city that international relief officials are trying to evacuate, is the former star goalkeeper of the national soccer team, transformed over three years from a pacifist...