Los Angeles / AFP A US court convicted two men of attempting to help the IS group in Iraq and Syria, with one attempting to travel to the Middle East. A jury found Nader Elhuzayel and Muhanad Badawi, both 25, guilty of conspiring to provide material support to the extremist group, the US Justice Department said in a statement. …

  MOSCOW / AP With President Vladimir Putin heading to China this weekend, officials in both countries extoll a blossoming “strategic partnership” between the two former communist rivals. But despite Moscow’s push to strengthen ties with Beijing amid a bitter strain in relations with the West, Russia-China trade has shrunk sharply and a slew of ambitious projects have remained largely on …

  BEIJING / AP Diplomats from the US and North Korea are attending a six-nation security forum in Beijing on Wednesday, in a rare opportunity for contact between them after the North fired two suspected powerful new ballistic missiles. Despite their attendance at the event, the US State Department has said there were no plans for direct talks between the …