A new Lebanese government headed by Saad Al-Hariri has finally emerged in Beirut after nine months of negotiations, political bickering and haggling over quotas. With 30 ministers representing the country s major political forces, the cabinet counts four women among its members, a first in Lebanon. The announcement of the new government comes more than two years after the agreement between rival Lebanese political forces that enabled Michel Aoun to be elected president, with support from his main ally Hizbullah, and Al-Hariri to be named prime minister.

The United States supports "dictators, butchers and extremists" in the Middle East, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a Twitter post Wednesday in a response to U.S. President Donald Trump s State of the Union speech. Tensions have ramped up between Iran and the United States since Trump pulled out of a multilateral nuclear deal last May and reimposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Even as he appealed for unity, President Donald Trump made it clear in his State of the Union address on Tuesday that his idea of common ground is having Democrats back his policy agenda and stop investigating his administration. For all of Trump s talk about bridging "old divisions" and pursuing bipartisan initiatives, Trump previewed the well-trod themes that will power his 2020 re-election campaign: a hard line on immigration and border security, a deep suspicion of trade deals, and an "America First" foreign policy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month in Moscow for talks on Iranian military activity in Syria. It will be their first face-to-face meeting since November and follows a series of air strikes in January against what Israel said were facilities belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force in Syria. "I ll be going on February 21 again to Russia following my discussions with President Putin in Paris a few months ago and subsequent phone conversations," Netanyahu said.

Russia will race to develop two new land-based missile launch systems before 2021 to respond to Washington s planned exit from a landmark nuclear arms control pact, it said on Tuesday. President Vladimir Putin said at the weekend that Russia had suspended the Cold War-era Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), which bans both nations from stationing short- and intermediate-range land-based missiles in Europe.

World powers are taking sides in the deadly struggle between the rivals to lead Venezuela, which has ranged some Western nations against Russia, China and others. Inside the country, opposition figurehead Juan Guaido, 35, is vying to lure military commanders to switch their allegiance to him away from President Nicolas Maduro, 56. Here is a summary of whom key players are backing, after Guaido declared himself acting president on January 23 in defiance of the leftist Maduro.

Britain on Monday will seek to reassure foreign investors worried about Britain leaving the EU after Japanese automaker Nissan said it was scrapping a major planned investment less than two months before Brexit. Prime Minister Theresa May was due to hold a conference call with around 55 chairmen and chief executives of European multinationals with operations in Britain.

Spain, Britain, France and other EU nations on Monday recognized Venezuela’s opposition chief Juan Guaido as interim leader after President Nicolas Maduro defiantly rejected an ultimatum to call snap elections. Russia, one of the main allies of Maduro’s regime, slammed what it dubbed European “interference” in the oil-rich but impoverished Latin American country, saying it was an attempt “to legitimise usurped power.” Already recognized by the United States, Canada, Australia and several Latin American countries, Guaido is trying to force the socialist leader from power so he can set up a transitional government and hold new elections.

U.S. President Donald Trump said it was important to keep a U.S. military presence in Iraq so that Washington can keep a close eye on Iran, according to a CBS interview to be broadcast on Sunday. Trump said the United States spent a fortune on a base in Iraq. "We might as well keep it. One of the reasons I want to keep it is because I want to be looking a little bit at Iran because Iran is a real problem," he said in excerpts from a CBS "Face the Nation" interview.

Yemen s deputy chief of staff died Sunday from wounds sustained last month in a drone attack by Houthi rebels on the country s largest air base, the information minister said. "Major General Saleh al-Zandani, deputy chief of staff, was martyred while undergoing treatment after he was wounded in the terrorist bombing at the Al-Anad base," Moammer al-Eryani wrote on Twitter. Zandani was among 11 wounded in the January 10 drone attack on a military parade at the base in Lahij, a province some 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Yemen s second city Aden.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday called U.S. intelligence chiefs "extremely passive and naive" on Iran and dismissed their assessments of the threat posed by North Korea a day after they contradicted his views during congressional testimony. His comments drew criticism from some of his fellow Republicans in Congress, some of whom have introduced legislation that would counter Trump s policies on national security in an unusual break from their party s leader.

China and the United States are ahead of the global competition to dominate artificial intelligence (AI), according to a study by the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) published on Thursday. The study found US tech giant IBM had by far the biggest AI patent portfolio, with 8,920 patents, ahead of Microsoft with 5,930 and a group of mainly Japanese tech conglomerates.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said he is willing to negotiate with the opposition and hold early congressional elections, in a concession as opponents plan another big demonstration. "I am ready to sit down at the negotiating table with the opposition so that we could talk for the good of Venezuela," Maduro told Russia s RIA Novosti in an interview in Caracas, the agency reported Wednesday. "It would be very good to conduct parliamentary elections at an earlier stage. It would be a good form of political discussion," Maduro said, according to the Russian state news agency.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday extended ceasefires in two conflict-hit states, official media reported, where protest leaders have pushed for anti-government rallies. Addressing supporters in South Kordofan state, Bashir said his "top priority" was ending fighting which erupted there in 2011.

British Prime Minister Theresa May will seek to renegotiate the EU divorce deal, her spokesman said Tuesday, ahead of crunch votes in parliament that could reset the course for Brexit. With exactly two months to go until Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union on March 29, May is going to attempt to change the agreement she herself negotiated — even though Brussels has insisted it will not re-open it. “We have to have a deal which can carry the support of parliament and that’s going to require some changes to the withdrawal agreement,” May’s spokesman said, as Downing Street tried to seize the initiative back from MPs.

Russia s foreign minister is pressing North African countries to support Syria s return to the Arab League, now that President Bashar Assad is largely seen as having won the Syrian civil war. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria this week and at each stop called for Syria s reintegration into the ``Arab family.

U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad arrived in Kabul on Sunday to try to secure cooperation from Afghanistan s president after breakthroughs in peace negotiations with Taliban leaders in Qatar. With Khalilzad and his boss U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as well Taliban officials, hailing progress towards ending America s longest war, he must now win over President Ashraf Ghani -- whose government the Taliban have so far kept out of the process.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney says President Donald Trump is prepared for another government shutdown if Congress won t work with him to secure the southern border. Mulvaney says Trump doesn t want to see federal agencies closed again and doesn t want to declare a national emergency either. But he says Trump is prepared to do either.

An alarm warning of an imminent mining dam rupture went up early Sunday in Brumadinho, the same Brazilian community where a dam collapsed killing 37 with hundreds more feared dead, firefighters and the mining company said The alert, warning of dangerously high water levels at a dam that is part of the Corrego do Feijao mining complex in southeastern Brazil, went off at 5:30 am (0730 GMT), a statement by the mining company Vale said.

US President Donald Trump said in a late night Tweet on Wednesday that he would delay a State of the Union address until the government shutdown was over, responding to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi s move to obstruct his plans for the speech. Earlier in the day, Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives floated the idea of ending the partial government shutdown by giving Trump most or all of the money he seeks for security along the Mexican border but for items other than the wall he wants.

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday after which the Russian leader said the two men had discussed how they planned to stabilise the situation in Syria s Idlib province. The Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier on Wednesday that the situation in the region, where Moscow and Ankara have tried to create a de-escalation zone, was rapidly deteriorating and that it was almost under the full control of Nusra militants.