Politics

  Beirut / AP Airstrikes in the northern Syrian province of Idlib killed at least 10 suspected al-Qaida-linked militants in Syria on Wednesday, the latest in a spate of targeted attacks against the group, activists said.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 10 were killed when missiles struck two vehicles and three motorcycles in the airstrike in Saraqib, ...

  JERUSALEM / AP Israeli Arab leaders have called for a general strike in all their towns and villages in response to the demolition of 11 homes without proper permits by Israeli authorities. Lawmaker Yousef Jabareen on Wednesday called the demolition in the central city of Kalansua “unprecedented” and vowed to fight further measures. He said the source of the ...

  SKIEN / AP A government attorney says that Norwegian mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bomb-and-shooting rampage, is in touch with fellow right-wing extremists from behind bars and must to be held in solitary confinement. During a government appeal against a court ruling last year that Breivik’s isolation in prison violates his human rights, ...

  Bloomberg Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s appointment of his son as a senior adviser may be a move to stem dissent in the governing party and prepare a successor to his 30-year rule. Museveni, who secured a fifth term in a 2016 vote, named Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the 42-year-old head of an elite military group, as his adviser for special operations. ...

  GENEVA / AP Talks to reunify long-divided Cyprus are on track to overcome major obstacles that have stood in the way of a peace accord for decades, the United Nations envoy for Cyprus said on Wednesday. But an immediate deal won’t be in the offing since important legal and technical details will have to be sorted out before an ...

  ISTANBUL / AP Turkey’s state-run news agency says that 60 businessmen have been arrested for suspected ties to the movement allegedly responsible for the failed coup in July. Anadolu says that 110 businessmen were brought before an Istanbul court Wednesday to be formally arrested on charges of “membership in a terrorist organization.” Fifty of them were given conditional release, ...

  BEIJING / AP China said on Wednesday it was committed to promoting peace and stability in Asia, even as it sent an aircraft carrier battle group through the Taiwan Strait amid heightened tensions between Beijing and the self-ruled island. The statement in the preface to a Cabinet report on China’s policies on Asia-Pacific security cooperation follows heated criticism from ...

  NEW YORK / AP President-elect Donald Trump has appointed his influential son-in-law Jared Kushner as a White House senior adviser, putting the young real estate executive in position to exert broad sway over both domestic and foreign policy, particularly Middle East issues and trade negotiations. Trump has come to rely heavily on Kushner, who is married to the president-elect’s ...

  GENEVA / AP The leaders of Cyprus have begun a second day of talks aimed at reunifying the island split along ethnic Greek and Turkish lines, addressing issues of how power could be shared, ties with the European Union and economic matters. Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci were meeting at UN offices in ...

  BERLIN / AP Germany’s interior and justice ministers hope to thrash out initial plans for a response to last month’s truck attack on a Christmas market, with a tougher stance expected towards suspected extremists who don’t have asylum. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the December 19 attack in Berlin demands a swift response that guarantees both security and civil ...