A top European Union official urged the United States on Thursday to accept more refugees fleeing the civil war in Syria, saying that asylum seekers should not be equated with violent extremists. Stavros Lambrinidis, the EU’s special representative for human rights, said that taking in more refugees would help ease… Read More

A U.S. Navy officer relieved of commanding a Persian Gulf patrol ship allegedly failed to maintain equipment to the point of exposing “his crew to unnecessary risk,” interfered with an inquiry into his actions and once slept drunk on a bench at a Dubai port, according to a naval investigation…. Read More

With fresh friction wearing on an old alliance, President Barack Obama pressed Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf nations on Wednesday to step up efforts to defeat the Islamic State group and help rebuild war-torn Iraq. Obama huddled privately with Saudi King Salman at Erga Palace as Defense Secretary Ash Carter… Read More

A parade of jets and vintage aircraft roared across the sky outside Paris on Wednesday, honoring the American fighter pilots who flew for France during World War I. The commemoration marked the centenary of the formation of the Lafayette Escadrille on April 20, 1916, by a group of American airmen… Read More

As many as 500 people are feared dead after a shipwreck last week in the Mediterranean Sea, two international groups said Wednesday, describing survivors’ accounts of panicked passengers who desperately tried to stay afloat by jumping between vessels. The disaster happened in waters between Italy and Libya, based on accounts… Read More

U.S. and Kurdish officials say their forces carried out a joint assault in northern Iraq that killed an Islamic State leader. The operation was publicly announced Monday by the Kurdish Region Security Council. It identified the targeted Islamic State figure as Salman Abu Shabib al-Jebouri and said he was supervising… Read More

The U.S. has agreed to deploy more than 200 additional troops to Iraq and to send Apache helicopters for the first time into the fight against the Islamic State group in Iraq, the first major increase in U.S. forces in nearly a year, U.S. defense officials said Monday. The uptick… Read More