Washington

The United States will be ready to "protect" moderate Syrian rebels possibly with air power once they enter into combat, a top US official said March 2.
     

Turkey will continue to assess whether or not to take part in an international military operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Defense Minister ?smet Y?lmaz said on March 2.

North Korea fired two short-range missiles off its east coast on March 2, South Korean officials said, a defiant response to annual military exercises between South Korea and the United States but one which drew a swift protest from Japan.
   

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ramps up his mission to foil an emerging White House-backed nuclear deal with Iran with a speech on March 2 to the powerful pro-Israel AIPAC lobby.
      
Netanyahu has infuriated the White House and Democratic lawmakers by accepting an invitation by President Barack Obama's Republican foes to speak on Capitol Hill Tuesday.
      

Recent football-related racism highlights European nations? tortured transition from ethnically relatively homogeneous to multicultural immigration societies amid a resurgence of entrenched racial, including anti-Semitic, attitudes that flourish in times of economic crisis and are not limited to Muslim communities.

When Kemal Dervi? was asked to sort out the Turkish economy fourteen years ago, few were hopeful. In 2001, this country was in the midst of its worst economic crisis in modern times and Dervi? was given little chance, despite his 22-year career at the World Bank. He was seen as an inexperienced outsider with little knowledge of domestic politics.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to Washington on March 1 on what he said was a "historic" mission to try to stop a nuclear deal with Iran, an AFP correspondent reported.
      

People in a democratic country should be able to express criticism of their leaders, a senior U.S. official has said, voicing Washington?s concern over Turkey?s human rights situation, amid a series of recent cases in which senior elected officials have opened cases against citizens upon alleged ?insults.? 

BELGRADE - Serbia is pursuing its policy, following its EU path and maintaining good cooperation and traditionally good relations with Russia, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic stated on Friday and added that he expects the first chapters in the EU accession talks to open by the end of June or September.

The Emir of Qatar said on Feb. 26 he was committed to "stability" in Egypt, despite a recent row between the two nations over Cairo's airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in Libya.