JERUSALEM Israeli forces said they shot and killed a Palestinian who was brandishing a knife near an Israeli settlement on Monday. The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service confirmed the death near Hebron in the occupied West Bank, but said it had no further details. “A Palestinian assailant approached an Israel …

Iran called on Monday for militants to be “cleaned out” of Syria’s Idlib province, as it prepared for talks with Syria and Russia about confronting the last major enclave held by rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian government forces are planning a phased offensive in Idlib and surrounding areas …

BEIRUT An air strike near a US base in southeastern Syria has killed at least eight pro-government fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Monday. Four Syrians, one Iranian national and three other non-Syrian fighters were killed in the strike carried out on Saturday, the Britain-based war monitor said. …

BAGHDAD Iraq parliament held its first session since May’s national election on Monday but failed to elect a speaker, what should have been the first step toward forming a new government. Lawmakers were supposed to elect the speaker and two deputies, at the start of a 90-day process outlined in …

The Iranian rial hit a record low against the U.S. dollar on the unofficial market on Monday amid a deterioration in the economic situation and the reimposition of sanctions by the United States. The dollar was being offered for as much as 128,000 rials, according to foreign exchange website Bonbast.com, …

NEW DELHI A 35-year-old BSP panchayat member from Uttar Pradesh was shot dead allegedly by two unidentified men in southeast Delhi’s Batla House Monday, police said. The deceased was identified as Dilshad, who was living in Jogha Bai Extension in Jamia Nagar, they said. Police were informed about the incident …

MUMBAI At least two persons were killed, one is reported missing and more than 85 were injured in various incidents as Maharashtra witnessed ‘dahi-handi’ celebrations in Mumbai and others parts of the state on Monday. One youth died in ‘dahi-handi’ related incident in Sion, central Mumbai, while another drowned in Bhayander in Thane. One youth is …

CAPE TOWN (SOUTH AFRICA) Eight people were killed Monday in an explosion at a munitions factory near Cape Town in South Africa, a city official said. Local residents reported that nearby houses shook from the blast, which sent a plume of white smoke into the air above the Rheinmetall-Denel plant …

THE HAGUE A 19-year-old Afghan man suspected in last week’s stabbing of two American tourists at Amsterdam Central Station said Monday was motivated by insults to Islam, prosecutors said Monday. “The man is of the opinion that in the Netherlands ‘the Prophet Mohammad, the Koran, the Islam and Allah have …

LONDON Some of Britain’s MPs from the ruling Conservative party on Monday questioned the UK government’s financial assistance programme for India, which will involve 52 million pounds for 2018-19 and 46 million pounds for 2019-20. A few weeks after the government’s Department for International Development (DfID) released its “India Profile” for the coming years in …