BEIRUT / AP Turkey warned on Wednesday that repeated cease-fire violations by Syria’s government were threatening peace talks scheduled for later this month. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the talks in Kazakhstan were scheduled for January 23, to be preceded by preparatory meetings between Turkish and Russian “experts”in Turkey. The Syrian government and allied militias have pressed on with …

  BEIJING / AP An official allegedly shot and injured two leaders of a city in southwestern China on Wednesday as the pair held a meeting in a conference center, and later killed himself, local authorities said. The suspect entered the venue where the Communist Party chief and mayor of Panzhihua city in Sichuan province were meeting and shot continuously …

  TEL AVIV / AP An Israeli soldier was convicted of manslaughter on Wednesday in the deadly shooting of an incapacitated Palestinian attacker, capping a nine-month saga that has deeply divided the country. The verdict, which marks an extremely rare instance of an Israeli military court siding against a soldier over lethal action taken in the field, threatened to deepen the …