BEIRUT / AP A top adviser to the United Nations envoy for Syria said on Tuesday that their “main guidance” for the first intra-Syrian peace talks in 10 months will be a Security Council resolution that calls for political transition. UN envoy Staffan de Mistura is putting the “finishing touches on arrangements” for Thursday’s start of talks in Geneva …

  DUBAI / AP Bahraini lawmakers voted Tuesday to change the constitution to allow civilians to be tried in military courts, further empowering its security forces amid a crackdown on dissent at level unseen since its 2011 Arab Spring protests. The decision by the 40-seat Council of Representatives, the elected lower house of the tiny Gulf nation’s National Assembly, comes …

  NGHIA BINH / AP The family of a Vietnamese woman arrested in the death of the half brother of North Korea’s ruler in Malaysia has confirmed she is their relative, but believes she didn’t knowingly participate in the killing. Kim Jong Nam died last week after apparently being poisoned in Kuala Lumpur’s airport. Speaking at their home in a …