BAGHDAD (AP)- A government spokesman says security forces have ambushed a convoy of fuel tankers trying to illegally enter Iraq from Syria, killing at least eight drivers. Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan Ibrahim says the operation took place near the Iraqi border at dawn Sunday....

Despite a war, the Syrian government appears determined to go ahead with presidential elections on June 3. It is widely believed that President Bashar al-Assad will easily be elected to a seven-year term. The vote is to be held under new rules that block major Syrian opposition figures...

AP, Beirut- Activists say a makeshift bomb dropped from a Syrian government helicopter has killed at least five people, including two children. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory says the air raid took place Saturday in the town of Sarmeen in the northwestern province of Idlib. It...

A French government spokesman denied on Sunday a report that it paid a ransom for the release a week ago of four French journalists held captive in Syria for more than 10 months. Focus, a German magazine, published on its website a report that France paid 18 million dollars for their...