JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has rejected a French initiative aimed at restarting peace efforts with the Palestinians, saying direct negotiations are the best way to reach a final agreement between the sides. Paris is to host an international meeting in May of 20 countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, to discuss the peace process. … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian President Bashar Assad scored a minor, if bizarre, publicity victory Thursday, receiving a part-time state senator from America at a time when U.S. officials have repeatedly asserted Assad has lost his legitimacy to rule the war-torn country. Outspoken Virginia state Sen. Dick Black — who resigned as co-chairman of Sen. Ted … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — Airstrikes and artillery killed more than 60 people in the past 24 hours in Aleppo, including dozens at a hospital in a rebel-held neighborhood, as Syria’s largest city was turned once again into a major battleground in the civil war, officials said Thursday. Aid agencies warn that Aleppo is on the brink … Continue reading
The United Nations humanitarian chief says the world should be “ashamed” at the devastating human toll in the “senseless fight” in Syria where many people are facing appalling desolation, hunger and starvation. Stephen O’Brien told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that it must not squander the opportunity for peace in the now stalled Geneva … Continue reading
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sparked a new diplomatic brushfire by declaring that the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war, is and should remain “under Israel’s sovereignty permanently.” But following tough international criticism, Israeli officials said Netanyahu’s statements had been misconstrued and that a 1981 decision to … Continue reading
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says the U.S. can meet his goal of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees by Sept. 30, the end of the federal budget year. Obama says the goal he set last year has been challenging, partly because of the need to assure the U.S. public that refugees are being thoroughly checked … Continue reading
HIT, Iraq (AP) — After clearing a street of Islamic State fighters, Maj. Salam Hussein began moving house to house. Rifling through drawers in living rooms and bedrooms, he pulled out a handful of papers, pamphlets and books all printed by the Islamic State group. “We find this (stuff) is every house,” he said using … Continue reading
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli prime minister’s office says Israel will “upgrade” some Israeli settlement buildings in the West Bank and build only a “small” number of other structures in the territory, but an Israeli settlement watchdog is questioning the claim. The prime minister’s office said Thursday the new buildings are slated for an existing … Continue reading
MOSUL DAM, Iraq (AP) — A team of Italian specialists arrived Thursday at the site of the Mosul Dam as part of an emergency campaign to repair Iraq’s largest dam before it collapses. The advance team from the Italian engineering firm Trevi Group will set up a camp for the group of engineers who are … Continue reading
PALMYRA, Syria (AP) — When Islamic State fighters overran the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra almost a year ago, Maha Abderrazak was among tens of thousands of terrified civilians who fled west, many escaping with just the clothes on their backs and the few belongings they could carry by hand. This week, the 22-year-old is … Continue reading
SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemeni government troops newly-trained by a Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen’s Shiite rebels routed al-Qaida militants on Friday from a city in the country’s south, military officials said. Houta, the capital of Lahj province, is now firmly under government control, the officials said. The coalition-trained troops, which are loyal to Yemen’s internationally … Continue reading
BEIRUT (AP) — A Syrian government delegation arrived in Geneva on Friday to join a new round of U.N.-mediated peace talks underway with an umbrella opposition group that seeks to find a resolution to the country’s five-year civil war. The arrival of the Damascus team, led by Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari, comes amid escalating … Continue reading
ISTANBUL (AP) — Two Turkish journalists went on trial on Friday on allegations that they revealed state secrets and helped a terror organization with their reports on alleged government-arms smuggling to Syrian rebels, in a closed-door trial that has increased concern about the erosion of media freedoms in Turkey. Cumhuriyet newspaper’s chief editor Can Dundar … Continue reading
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) The Latest on fighting against Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq (all times local): 10:00 p.m. Russian news agencies are citing a military official as saying that a Russian officer has been killed in fighting near the Syrian city of Palmyra. The state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti said an … Continue reading
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syrian state media and opposition activists say heavy fighting is underway between government troops and Islamic State militants on the outskirts of Palmyra, with the two sides exchanging artillery and gunfire. The historic town in central Syria has been controlled by the extremist Islamic State group since May. The militants have … Continue reading
Spartan Echo 