BAGHDAD (AP) – Defense Secretary Ash Carter met with Iraqi leaders and his commanders Wednesday on an unannounced war zone visit aimed at broadening U.S. assistance to Iraq to defeat the Islamic State group. The Obama administration has been talking for days about “accelerating” the fight against IS, but that …

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) – Human rights advocates have called for an investigation following the Nigerian army’s raid on a Shiite sect in which hundreds of people were reportedly killed. Details of the weekend violence in Zaria have been slow to emerge, with the three attacked areas of the northern town …

HARSHAM CAMP, Iraq (AP) – The Islamic State militants who stormed into the Iraqi town of Sinjar last year, massacring members of the Yazidi minority and forcing women into sexual slavery, are gone. But Sunni Muslims who lived alongside the Yazidis there for generations say their own nightmare is far …

The closure was part a day of national mourning and a precaution against militant attacks tied to the anniversary, said government spokesman Mushtaq Ghani. Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership attended a ceremony in the northwestern city of Peshawar to award medals to the victims’ families. In his address, Prime …

LONDON (AP) – Britain’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled unanimously against tycoon and U.S. presidential contender Donald Trump in his pitched battle to stop an offshore wind farm near his upscale Scottish golf resort. Trump claims the 11-turbine project, approved by the Scottish government in 2013, will spoil the view …

BEIJING (AP) – Chinese President Xi Jinping called Wednesday for governments to cooperate in regulating Internet use, stepping up efforts to promote controls that activists complain stifle free expression. Xi’s government operates extensive Internet monitoring and censorship and has tightened controls since he came to power in 2013. Speaking at …

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that 34 nations have agreed to form a new “Islamic military alliance” to fight terrorism with a joint operations center based in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh. The announcement published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency said the alliance will be Saudi-led …

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 …