Iran to shut offices, colleges and schools in Tehran because of air pollution

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran announced Tuesday that all governmental offices, universities, and schools in the province of Tehran will be closed for two days because of poor air quality, state TV reported. The capital city of Tehran — home to over 10 million people — saw the...

Analysis: Collapse of Syria's Assad is a blow to Iran's 'Axis of Resistance'

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — For Iran’s theocratic government, it keeps getting worse. Its decadeslong strategy of building an “Axis of Resistance” supporting militant groups and proxies around the region is falling apart. First came the crushing Israeli campaign in Gaza triggered...

Global reaction to Assad's sudden ouster from Syria ranges from jubilation to alarm

Across the Middle East and beyond, the fall of Syria’s authoritarian government at the hands of jihadi militants set off waves of jubilation, trepidation and alarm. Expatriate Syrians and many residents across the Middle East exulted at the overthrow of a leader who led his country...

How it happened: Two seismic weeks that toppled Syria's government

LONDON (AP) — Half a century of rule by the Assad family in Syria crumbled with astonishing speed after insurgents burst out of a rebel-held enclave and converged on the capital, Damascus, taking city after city in a matter of days. Opposition forces swept across the country and...

Iran, a close ally of Assad, says Syrians should decide their country's future without foreign intervention

Trump says US should stay out of fighting in Syria as opposition forces gain

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that the U.S. military should stay out of the fast-escalating conflict in Syria, where a dramatic rebel offensive reached the capital and threatened the rule of Syria's Russian- and Iranian-allied president. “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT,"...

Analysis: At dueling Mideast forums, officials ask what will happen when Donald Trump takes office

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — At glittering ballrooms in the Mideast this weekend, discussions of the wars and chaos gripping the region gave way to one central question: What's going to happen when U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office next month? Summits in both Bahrain and...

IAEA chief: Iran is poised to 'quite dramatically' increase stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Iran is poised to “quite dramatically” increase its stockpile of near weapons-grade uranium as it has started cascades of advanced centrifuges, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned Friday. The comments from Rafael Mariano Grossi came...

The year in review: Influential people who died in 2024

It was a murder case almost everyone had an opinion on. O.J. Simpson 's “trial of the century” over the 1994 killings of his ex-wife and her friend bared divisions over race and law enforcement in America and brought an intersection of sports, crime, entertainment and class that was hard to...

Exiled Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof's definition of home is shifting

NEW YORK (AP) — Shortly before he was to be flogged and imprisoned for eight years, Mohammad Rasoulof fled Iran. His weekslong journey would take him from Tehran, through rural Iranian villages, on foot across a mountainous borderland and ultimately to Hamburg, Germany. As arduous...