MOSCOW (AP) – The latest news on developments in the Syrian conflict. All times local: 11:40 a.m. Turkey has welcomed the formation in Saudi Arabia of a 34-nation military coalition to fight terrorism. The kingdom announced the new “Islamic military alliance” just hours earlier, saying it will have a joint …

BAGHDAD (AP) – For nearly three months, anesthesiologist Bashar Taha lived in fear of deadly retaliation. Taha, 38, was part of a team that performed plastic surgery on a female patient’s nose in a Baghdad hospital. The woman had surgery complications afterward and was sent to intensive care, where she …

BEIJING (AP) – The tough guys wore smiley face stickers, but they weren’t there to spread good cheer. Scenes of pushing, shouting and shoving outside a Beijing courthouse this week were orchestrated by plainclothes security officers identified by a sticker familiar around the world – the yellow decal identified since …

INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey (AP) – Defense Secretary Ash Carter flew to Turkey Tuesday, saying he is looking for new ways the U.S.-led coalition can strengthen its fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. Carter said he will be asking his military commanders and other officials to come …

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Cortana’s learning the neighborhood. Google’s digital assistant can’t tell a joke. And Siri apparently has a thing for the metric system. Those are just a few of the things I learned after staging a face-off between the three leading digital assistants. Apple’s Siri and “OK Google” …

SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand (AP) – Every morning at 2 a.m., they heard a kick on the door and a threat: Get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the factory that owned them with their aching hands in ice water. They …

BEIJING (AP) – Police scuffled with protesters and journalists at a Beijing courthouse Monday as a prominent rights lawyer stood trial on charges of provoking trouble and stirring ethnic hatred with online commentary critical of the ruling Communist Party. Chinese protesters and foreign rights groups said Pu Zhiqiang’s trial at …

PARIS (AP) – Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front collapsed in French regional elections Sunday, failing to take a single region after dominating the first round of voting, pollsters projected. The conservatives surged against the governing Socialists, changing the political map of France. The failure of the National Front to …

BEIJING (AP) – Security agents forcibly kept dozens of people away from the Beijing court where rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang stood trial Monday, and authorities roughed up at least five protesters before taking them away in vehicles. At least one foreign journalist also reported being slammed to the ground. The …

LE BOURGET, France (AP) – The climate deal adopted in suburban Paris was the culmination of four years of negotiations on how to get nearly all countries to jointly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet. The talks were difficult and sometimes teetered on the …