DAMASCUS (AP) —Four mortar shells exploded on Tuesday in central Damascus, killing 14 people and wounding scores, state media said. The attacks in the Syrian capital come a day after President Bashar Assad announced his candidacy for the June 3 presidential elections, a race he is...

A casual wave to fellow diners in a Baghdad restaurant in 2008 sealed Nouri al-Maliki's reputation as the man who restored a degree of normality to a city that civil war had nearly destroyed. Now he has gone out again among the people, strolling around the city to prove he is...

With Middle East peace talks frozen and expectations of a negotiated deal at an all-time low, a growing number of Israeli politicians believe it is time for the government to set the nation's own borders unilaterally. Some seek the annexation of most of the occupied West Bank,...

The United States imposed new sanctions on allies of Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, prompting Moscow to denounce "Cold War" tactics amid more violence in eastern Ukraine. The move to ban visas and freeze assets of the likes of Putin's friend Igor Sechin, head of...