JERUSALEM (AP) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached a deal to expand his coalition government on Wednesday by bringing in the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party and appointing its leader Avigdor Lieberman as his new defense minister. The development caps a tumultuous political week that began with Netanyahu negotiating with the …

JERUSALEM (AP) – A leading Israeli rights group said Wednesday it will stop seeking investigations of Israeli soldiers suspected of abusing Palestinians, arguing that internal military probes have failed to deliver justice and effectively help whitewash half a century of occupation. In a rebuke to the military justice system, the …

DALA, Myanmar (AP) – Every year at this time, the ponds and wells go dry. People walk for hours to fill their plastic buckets at a lotus-filled pond that is the only clean source of drinking water in this community outside Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. The dry season, which typically …

ISE, Japan (AP) – Leaders of the Group of Seven rich nations plan to voice unity over fighting terrorism, pandemics and tax evasion at their summit in Japan this week. Finding a consensus on how to breathe life into their sluggish economies is proving more elusive. Aging workforces, sagging productivity …

Edmonton (ATB): The Association held its election for 2016/18 and elected Ranjit Singh Khaira as President,Chamkaur Singh Mahal as Vice President, Sudagar Singh as Secretary as Kalwant Singh Kalra as Joint Secretary and Surjit Singh Mrar as Treasurer and Ajaib Singh Grewal,Jagrup Singh Sidhu and Harchand Singh Chahal as directors. …

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 …