By Arshad Mohammed and Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Washington threatened on Wednesday to increase support for Syria's rebels if President Bashar al-Assad refuses to discuss a political end to a civil war that is spreading across borders. Rebels called for reinforcements to combat an "invasion" by Hezbollah and …

By Megha Rajagopalan BEIJING (Reuters) - European aid groups said their banks in Europe had stopped sending money to North Korea in the wake of U.S. sanctions on Pyongyang's main foreign exchange bank, leaving them scrambling for a solution short of hand-carrying cash into the impoverished country. Aid groups said if it …

AMMAN (Reuters) - The Friends of Syria alliance called on Iran and its Lebanese Hezbollah ally on Thursday to withdraw fighters immediately from Syrian territory and described their armed presence in the country as a threat to regional stability. ...

By Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Metals swap deals with Iran by Switzerland-based commodities giants Glencore Xstrata and Trafigura could have been a way of skirting international sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, according to a confidential U.N. Panel of Experts report …

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. House of Representatives committee approved legislation on Wednesday seeking to impose tighter sanctions on Iran, the latest congressional effort to slow development of the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program. The "Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013" passed the …

For the cleric who runs Iran, there’s no such thing as a pleasant surprise, especially on election day. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was not pleased when a librarian named Mohammad Khatami was swept into the president’s office in 1997, leading a wave of reformists who challenged the status quo in which Khamenei, as the unelected …

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The U.S. and several key allies looked again Wednesday for a strategy to end Syria's civil war, their united efforts unable at the moment to stem the Assad regime's military gains and Washington still unwilling to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid.

By Dan Williams HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) - Israel is poised for a large-scale assault on Syria to prevent advanced weapons reaching jihadi rebels or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon if President Bashar al-Assad is toppled, Israel's air force chief said on Wednesday. But Major-General Amir Eshel, addressing a security conference, …

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new push to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions by crippling the country's economy gathered momentum on Capitol Hill Wednesday with approval of legislation by the House Foreign Affairs Committee that would impose even tougher economic sanctions against Tehran.

VIENNA (AP) — The U.N. atomic agency on Wednesday detailed rapid Iranian progress in two programs that the West fears are geared toward making nuclear weapons, saying Tehran has upgraded its uranium enrichment facilities and advanced in building a plutonium-producing reactor.

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could eventually produce plutonium for a nuclear weapon if Tehran decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday. In another development likely to worry the United States and its allies, …

By Erika Solomon HERMEL, Lebanon (Reuters) - On a country road in Lebanon's northeast, traffic is heavy; ambulances screech by, sirens blaring, and cars packed with mourners follow coffins as Hezbollah brings wounded fighters home from Syria, and its dead. ...

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The U.S. and several key allies looked again Wednesday for a strategy to end Syria's civil war, their united efforts unable at the moment to stem the Assad regime's military gains and Washington still unwilling to join those providing the rebels with lethal military aid.

Main domestic and international issues facing Iran ahead of its June 14 presidential election:

VIENNA (AP) — The U.N. atomic agency on Wednesday detailed rapid Iranian progress in two programs that the West fears are geared toward making nuclear weapons, saying Tehran has upgraded its uranium enrichment facilities and advanced in building a plutonium-producing reactor.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — By now, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is well-accustomed to enduring blows from Iran's ruling clerics as his reputation fell from favored son to political outcast. But their intended parting shot — barring his chief aid from the presidential race — may be just the opening act in Ahmadinejad's reinvention …

By Steve Gutterman MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government will decide soon whether to take part in peace talks with the opposition, a senior Syrian diplomat said after talks in Moscow. Asked whether Damascus had committed to joint Russian-U.S. efforts to hold a peace conference, Syrian Deputy Foreign …

DUBAI (Reuters) - Bahrain's main opposition group suspended its participation in reconciliation talks with the government for two weeks on Wednesday, blaming the slow pace of talks and the raid last week on a top Shi'ite Muslim cleric's home. Little progress has been achieved in the talks that began in February as part …

BEIRUT (AP) — Syria's main opposition alliance on Wednesday urged fighters from around the country to reinforce a rebel-held town under attack by President Bashar Assad's troops and their allies from the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.

By Fredrik Dahl VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is pressing ahead with the construction of a research reactor that Western experts say could offer it a second way of producing material for a nuclear bomb if it decides to make one, a U.N. report showed on Wednesday. Iran has transported the reactor vessel to the heavy water plant …

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must turn over power to a transitional government in order for a U.S.- and Russian-backed peace conference to have any chance of success, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Wednesday. "It is perfectly clear that the main aim of this possible conference is to …

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain's Interior Ministry says an Iranian drone has been found in the strategic Gulf kingdom that hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran has increased its capacity to refine uranium by installing hundreds of more centrifuges at its Natanz plant, a U.N. nuclear agency report said on Wednesday, underlining Tehran's defiance of Western demands to curb the activity. But, in a development that could help buy time for diplomacy between …

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that a decision by election overseers to disqualify his top aide from next month's presidential race is an act of "oppression" and that he will take the case to the country's supreme leader.

By Dan Williams HERZLIYA, Israel (Reuters) - Israel is prepared to attack Syria to prevent advanced weapons reaching jihadi rebels or Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon if President Bashar al-Assad is toppled, Israel's air force chief said on Wednesday. Major-General Amir Eshel also said Israelis should brace for a protracted …

What if writer’s block or the moments between creative inspirations didn’t bother us? What if they could be considered welcome moments or even essential to the game of creation? Most people don’t experience writing in one fluid bout of perfection, anyway, writes Leni Zumas in the Spring 2013 issue of Good magazine. In an …

By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday Iran and its militant Shi'ite Lebanese ally Hezbollah were "propping up" Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and giving him increasing support. "It is very clear that Syrian regime is receiving a great deal of support, increasing …

By Adrian Croft BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Germany will throw its weight behind a British drive to put the armed wing of Hezbollah on the European Union's list of terrorist organizations, German diplomats said on Wednesday. Britain said on Tuesday it wanted the EU to add Hezbollah's military wing to its terror list because of …

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

By Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's clerical rulers may have sought to remove any challenge to their grip by barring two vivid contenders from next month's presidential election, but they risk alienating voters already disillusioned by the violent aftermath of the 2009 poll. The June 14 vote will …

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran denied on Wednesday any link to members of a spying ring detained by its Sunni Muslim regional rival Saudi Arabia, according to Iranian media. Saudi state media reported on Tuesday that officials had detained 10 people accused of spying for Iran after arresting 18 people in the same case in March. …

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's leading opposition group called on Wednesday for rebels across the country to send reinforcements to the strategic border town Qusair, where heavy fighting has drawn in fighters from Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement. Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad said air strikes and …

VIENNA (AP) — Iran is moving ahead to update a program the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons, diplomats said Wednesday, despite high-level diplomacy aimed at stopping it from doing so.

MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Wednesday with officials in Oman to discuss their plans to buy a $2.1 billion air defense system from American manufacturer Raytheon.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday he would take up the ban of his close aide from the June 14 presidential election with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian media reported. Iran's electoral watchdog on Tuesday disqualified Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, Ahmadinejad's former chief …

MUSCAT, Oman (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is talking with officials in Oman about their plans to buy a $2.1 billion air defense system from American manufacturer Raytheon.

By Marcus George DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian authorities barred two potentially powerful and disruptive candidates from running in next month's presidential election on Tuesday, ensuring a contest largely among hardliners loyal to the clerical supreme leader. Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a veteran companion of the Islamic Republic's …

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's election overseers removed potential wild-card candidates from the presidential race Tuesday, blocking a top aide of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a former president who revived hopes of reformers.

The eight candidates approved Tuesday for Iran's June 14 presidential election to replace Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who cannot run again because of term limits.

Iran’s smiling but immovable top nuclear negotiator, a revolutionary and wounded war veteran with a decades-old suspicion of the United States, has become a frontrunner in Iran’s presidential race.

BEIRUT (AP) — Despite recent rebel setbacks in Syria's civil war, the main opposition bloc signaled a tough line Tuesday on attending possible peace talks with President Bashar Assad's regime.

Russia believes that its long-held vision of how to achieve peace in civil war-torn Syria has at last become possible due to a shifting balance of forces in the war and changing perceptions in the West, experts say.

In early January 2006, less than a month after I arrived in Iraq as a young U.S. Army lieutenant, I witnessed my first act of violence committed against Iraqi civilians. While on a patrol on a highway 20 km south of Baghdad, a roadside bomb targeting my platoon exploded a second too late — or perhaps a second too early …

By Michael Shields VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria may pull its peacekeeping troops from the Golan Heights, evacuating the U.N. buffer zone, its defence minister warned on Tuesday, as Syria and Israel exchanged fire across a long dormant frontline now inflamed by civil war. Vienna's warning was aimed at Britain and other allies …

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli and Syrian troops exchanged fire across their tense cease-fire line in the Golan Heights on Tuesday, prompting an Israeli threat that Syria's leader will "bear the consequences" of further escalation and raising new concerns that the civil war there could explode into a region-wide conflict.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's election process slipped into a tense holding pattern Tuesday amid speculation that candidates blocked from the ballot include a top aide of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a former president who revived hopes of reformers.

By Estelle Shirbon LONDON (Reuters) - Two Saudi princes on Tuesday sought to extricate themselves from a London legal battle with a Jordanian businessman who accuses them of laundering money for Hezbollah, an allegation their lawyer called "fanciful". Prince Mishal bin Abdulaziz al Saud, a brother of Saudi Arabia's King …

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency said on Tuesday that it had heard that the Guardian Council, which is vetting candidates for next month's presidential election, had barred former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and a leading ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from running. If true, the exclusion …