Syrian official rules out Assad departure ahead of talks
By ZEINA KARAM and ALBERT AJI A top Syrian official urged the opposition to let go of its dream of easing President Bashar Assad out of power in a transitional…
United Kingdom government
Politicians, celebs deny abuse of offshore accounts
By FRANK JORDANS and KEN MORITSUGU The president of Ukraine became the latest prominent politician to deny wrongdoing Wednesday after his name was linked to secretive offshore accounts arranged by…
UK’s contentious online spying law passes test in Parliament
By JILL LAWLESS A proposed British law that gives police and spies unprecedented powers to look at the Internet browsing records of everyone in the country passed its first major…
UK judge: Putin probably approved plan to poison ex-spy
By JILL LAWLESS President Vladimir Putin probably approved a plan by Russia’s FSB security service to kill a former agent-turned-Kremlin critic who died after drinking tea laced with radioactive poison,…
British troops deploy to Afghan province amid Taliban battle
By LYNNE O’DONNELL When Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani took office, he ushered in a period of hope for the country’s traumatized and war-weary people that decades of violence would soon…
EU leaders vow ‘uncompromising fight’ against terrorism
JOHN-THOR DAHLBURG Shocked by the bloody Paris attacks, European Union leaders on Friday vowed an “uncompromising fight against terrorism” and called for wide-ranging countermeasures ranging from beefed-up immigration controls to…
Cameron: Not Certain ‘Jihadi John’ Dead
By LOLITA C. BALDOR A U.S. drone strike targeted a vehicle in Syria believed to be transporting the masked Islamic State militant known as “Jihadi John,” according to American officials.…
Israel: Palestinian shot, killed 2 Israelis in the West Bank
By NEBI QENA A Palestinian man shot and killed two Israelis and wounded a teenager as they were driving in the West Bank on Friday, Israeli officials said, the latest…