Latest Middle East News

US aircraft carrier in the Middle East is heading home

Sep. 11, 2024 19:41 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon's rare move to keep two Navy aircraft carriers in the Middle East over the past several weeks has now finished, as the USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading home, according to U.S. officials. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the Roosevelt...

IOC move on election rules puts up legal hurdles to Coe running for top Olympic job

Sep. 11, 2024 11:28 AM EDT

GENEVA (AP) — In a move by the IOC that apparently could block Sebastian Coe as an expected presidential candidate, the Olympic governing body has clarified its complex election rules before a deadline Sunday to enter the race. A letter was published Wednesday after being sent by...

Man charged with plotting to attack a Jewish center in New York was in Canada on a student visa

Sep. 10, 2024 16:19 PM EDT

NANAIMO, British Columbia (AP) — A Pakistani man arrested last week in Quebec and accused of plotting to attack a Jewish center in Brooklyn came to Canada on a student visa, Canada's Immigration Minister Marc Miller said Tuesday. Miller said Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, was granted a...

The UN chief calls the death and destruction in Gaza the worst he's seen

Sep. 09, 2024 22:11 PM EDT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. chief said Monday that the United Nations has offered to monitor any cease-fire in Gaza and demanded an end to the worst death and destruction he has seen in his more than seven-year tenure. Secretary-General António Guterres said in an interview...

A Palestinian team in Chile offers soccer with a heavy dose of protest

Sep. 09, 2024 11:21 AM EDT

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Arms raised high. Banners denouncing the war in Gaza. Crowds united in song and wrapped in keffiyehs, the black-and-white checkered scarves that have become a badge of Palestinian identity. It could have been any other pro-Palestinian rally erupting over the...

Pentagon chief says a six-month temporary budget bill will have devastating effects on the military

Sep. 08, 2024 20:52 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Passage of a six-month temporary spending bill would have widespread and devastating effects on the Defense Department, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said in a letter to key members of Congress on Sunday. Austin said that passing a continuing resolution that caps...

Man charged with plotting shooting at a New York Jewish center on anniversary of Oct. 7 Hamas attack

Sep. 06, 2024 21:11 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — A Pakistani man was arrested in Canada this week and accused of plotting a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the latest conflict in the Middle East, federal authorities announced Friday. ...

US envoy to Taiwan declares ties 'rock solid' amid military threats from China

Sep. 04, 2024 06:08 AM EDT

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The top U.S. envoy to Taiwan on Wednesday said American support for the island is “rock-solid, principled, and bipartisan,” and said Washington will continue to follow through on its commitments to ensure the island can defend itself against threats from China. ...

Commander of Navy warship relieved of duty months after backward rifle scope photo flap

Sep. 03, 2024 16:13 PM EDT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The commander of a Navy destroyer that’s helping protect the San Diego-based aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Middle East has been relieved of duty about four months after he was seen in a photo firing a rifle with a scope mounted backward. The...

Fall is bringing fantasy (and romantasy), literary fiction, politics and Taylor-ed book offerings

Aug. 29, 2024 16:45 PM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Brandon Sanderson, whose epic “Wind and Truth” is a highlight of the upcoming publishing season, sees nothing wrong with the idea of “escapism.” “It's just the ability to go to another world and relate to other people's problems, problems that aren't our...