JERUSALEM – A poll shows Israel’s opposition Zionist Union edging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud a week ahead of the March 17 election. Tuesday’s Panel Politics poll showed the center-left camp led by Isaac Herzog earning 24 out of parliament’s 120 seats. Likud trailed slightly with 21 projected seats. …

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone – A United Nations-backed court says a former militia leader convicted of war crimes during Sierra Leone’s civil war has been granted provisional release and will serve out the remainder of his term in his community. The Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone said in a statement …

CAIRO – Egypt’s official news agency says a criminal court has sentenced 14 people, including the leader of the country’s banned Muslim Brotherhood, to death. The Giza Criminal Court issued its decision on Monday, however the court set an April 11 date to formally issue the ruling after consulting with …

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. envoy for global education is calling for a multimillion dollar fund to provide education in emergencies and is urging donors to start by providing $163 million to educate half a million Syrian children who are refugees in Lebanon. Gordon Brown told a news conference Wednesday …

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone – Sierra Leone’s bar association says the removal of the country’s vice president was unconstitutional and has asked the president to reinstate him. The call by the Sierra Leone Bar Association adds to increasing concern over President Ernest Bai Koroma’s surprise firing of his vice president. A …

DAMASCUS, Syria – Iraq’s foreign minister has held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad that focused on threats facing both countries, including the Islamic State group. Ibrahim al-Jaafari met with Assad during a one-day trip to Damascus on Tuesday. He says they discussed “Syrian and Iraqi issues, and the common …

CAIRO – Arab League member nations formally announced on Sunday an agreement to form a joint military force. While details of how such a force would actually operate remain thin, the agreement is a telling sign of a new determination among Saudi Arabia, Egypt and their allies to intervene aggressively …

PERTH, Australia – Police say a 60-year-old man who attempted to trek 48 kilometers (30 miles) with little water in searing heat across Australia’s parched Outback after his car broke down has been found dead 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) from safety. Police said in a statement Thursday that the man …

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia’s prime minister has inaugurated the country’s biggest hydropower dam, a Chinese-built project to help supply electricity for villages and factories. Prime Minister Hun Sen was joined Monday by the Chinese ambassador at the official opening of the 338-megawatt Russei Chrum Krom hydropower project, which took …

BERLIN – The United Nations’ top human rights official is appealing to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah to pardon a blogger convicted of insulting Islam and sentenced to be flogged. Raif Badawi was brought to a public square in Jiddah last week and flogged 50 times. He was sentenced last May …