US secretary of state John Kerry is in Iraq on an unannounced visit to urge Iraqi leaders to stop Iranian overflights of arms and fighters heading to Syria and to overcome sectarian differences that still threaten Iraqi stability 10 years after the American-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

President Barack Obama says each of his proposed steps to reduce gun violence should get a vote in the Congress, even an assault weapons ban that both parties agree stands little chance at passing.

Clashes killed five people overnight in the flashpoint Lebanese city of Tripoli, a security official said on Friday, with the Army reporting a soldier was among the dead.

Syria’s key regional ally Iran on Friday condemned a suicide mosque bombing in Damascus that killed the country’s top Sunni Muslim cleric and at least 40 other people, Fars news agency reported.

At least two shells and one missile fired in fighting in Syria landed inside Lebanon today, residents and security sources said, but there were no reports of damage or injuries.

President Barack Obama is set to plunge into the turbulent Middle East on a mission aimed primarily at assuring America’s top ally in the region and its friends back home that it will not be forsaken amid bitter domestic political squabbles and budget crises in Washington.

Afghan political parties united against President Hamid Karzai recently opened talks with the Taliban and US-declared terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, hoping to broker peace ahead of next year’s exit of international combat troops and a presidential race that will determine Karzai’s successor, Taliban and Opposition leaders have told The Associated Press.

A brazen attack on the Iraqi justice ministry claimed by Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate killed 30 people and wounded 50, state TV quoted justice minister Hassan al-Shammari as saying on Monday.

Kenya’s outgoing Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who was narrowly defeated in presidential polls by Uhuru Kenyatta, on Saturday filed a petition challenging the election result, an AFP photographer said.

Saudi Arabia today executed seven men convicted of armed robbery despite last-minute appeals by international rights groups that their lives be spared, a witness in the southern city of Abha said.