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...

Former officials urge closed-door Senate hearings on Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's pick for intel chief

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 100 former senior U.S. diplomats and intelligence and national security officials have urged Senate leaders to schedule closed-door hearings to allow for a full review of the government's files on former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Donald Trump's pick to be national intelligence...

Iran frees jailed Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi for 21 days on medical grounds after surgery

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi was released temporarily from prison Wednesday after undergoing a complex surgery in Iran that saw part of a bone in her right leg removed over cancer fears, her supporters said. Video footage from the...

Iranian fighter jet crashes in the country's south, killing 2 pilots

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An Iranian fighter jet crashed in the south of the country Wednesday, killing the two pilots, state media reported. State television identified the pilots as Col. Hamid Reza Ranjbar and Col. Manouchehr Pirzadeh, saying they were on a test flight after the plane...