TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian news agencies say authorities have released a prominent pro-reform activist two days after security forces took him into custody.

The Fars semiofficial news agency and other local agencies quote Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi as saying former vice president Hossein Marashi was te...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Visiting U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday that Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped, while a Palestinian teenager was killed in clashes with Israeli troops elsewhere in the West Bank.

The death of 16-year-old Mohammed Qadus, who Palestinians say wa...

BAGHDAD (AP) - A secular challenger to Iraq's prime minister edged ahead Saturday in the overall vote count in parliamentary elections, while the prime minister held onto his province-by-province lead as the counting neared completion.

The March 7 elections will determine who will lead Iraq as American troops depa...

JERUSALEM (AP) - The diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and Israel has sent a tremor through their alliance, but one key part of the bond seems virtually untouchable: the roughly $3 billion a year in U.S. military aid.

Israel's harsher critics often call for aid cuts to twist Israel's arm. Yet amid the uproar of rec...

CAIRO (AP) - Yemen's president on Friday declared the country's six-year war with northern rebels over, saying the Shiite militants are living up to a cease-fire agreement signed last month.

After years of sporadic fighting, Yemen has come under international pressure to quickly end the conflict _ which spilled ...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas officials say Israeli aircraft have fired five missiles at Gaza's defunct airport and nearby border tunnels, wounding at least 12 people.

The Israeli military confirmed Friday's airstrikes, saying they targeted militant activities in response to recent rocket fire from Gaza.

The missile strike...

(AP) - U.S. TROOP LEVELS:

March 31, 2003: 90,000.

October 2007: 170,000 at peak of troop buildup.

March 1, 2010: Just over 96,000.

COALITION TROOP LEVELS:

Number of countries that participated in "Coalition for the Immediate Disarmament of Iraq" at the start of the war: 31, including the United States.

As ...

CAIRO (AP) - Egypt's president named a moderate, Western-educated Islamic scholar the country's new top cleric on Friday, the state news agency reported.

The appointment makes Ahmed el-Tayeb the new grand sheik of Cairo's Al-Azhar, the pre-eminent theological institute of Sunni Islam, the faith's majority sect. ...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that doctors ordered him to rest after a fall left him with a bruised back.

Abbas was taken to a hospital in Amman, Jordan, for X-rays, which showed no broken bones.

The Palestinian leader has a home in Amman in addition to the one he has in the West B...

DOHA, Qatar (AP) - Proposed export ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna defeated at UN wildlife trade meeting.

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