BAGHDAD (AP) – Even as Iraq slowly claws back territory from the Islamic State group, faith in the government is crumbling among many, particularly the country’s Shiites, angered by political disarray and the continual pounding of the capital, Baghdad, by militants’ bombings. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi triumphantly announced the beginning …

IDOMENI, Greece (AP) – Greek authorities began an operation at dawn Tuesday to gradually evacuate the country’s largest informal refugee camp of Idomeni on the Macedonian border, blocking access to the area and sending in more than 400 riot police. The government’s spokesman for the refugee crisis, Giorgos Kyritsis, said …

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) – A gated community of villas with well-tended flower gardens near the West Bank town of Ramallah may help explain why Palestinians almost universally believe there is corruption in the government of President Mahmoud Abbas. The secluded “Diplomatic Compound,” built for senior Palestinian Authority officials on …

NORTHERN SYRIA (AP) – Barcham Zana knows her enemy. It is the Islamic State, which she calls “darkness.” Islamic State militants killed two cousins, she said. For her, the group is not an abstract threat. The 20-year-old spoke through a Syrian interpreter at a rudimentary training camp surrounded by golden …

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – An unspecified number of North Koreans working at a Pyongyang-run restaurant overseas have escaped their workplace and will come to South Korea, South Korean officials said Tuesday. The announcement by Seoul’s Unification Ministry came after South Korean media reported that two or three female employees …

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Facebook says it is dropping its reliance on news outlets to help determine what gets posted as a “trending topic” on the giant social network, a move adopted after a backlash over a report saying it suppressed conservative views. Facebook’s General Counsel Colin Stretch outlined the …