BUDAPEST, Hungary – The Hungarian government says it will complete by Aug. 31 the construction of a fence meant to stop the flow of immigrants and refugees entering through its southern border with Serbia. Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said that Interior Minister Sandor Pinter assured the Cabinet at its meeting …

LOS ANGELES – The Coast Guard says an oil slick that formed in the Pacific Ocean last week near Santa Barbara, California, was created by natural, ocean-floor seepage. Tests conducted on samples from the thin layer of oil found its composition matched naturally occurring sources. The slick was found Wednesday …

JERUSALEM – An Israel-based rights group has launched a lawsuit, seeking to block the release of $100 billion in frozen Iranian assets in the United States following the U.S.-led nuclear deal with Tehran. The Shurat HaDin Law Center says it’s acting on behalf of two dozen U.S. citizens who won …

ISLAMABAD – Two Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. drone strike has killed four militants in a troubled tribal region near the Afghan border. The officials said Friday two missiles hit a militant hideout in the village of Datta Khel in North Waziristan, where the military has been carrying …

KABUL, Afghanistan – An Afghan official says a bombing in the northern Kunduz province has killed 22 members of illegal armed groups, including four leaders. Abdul Wadood Wahidi, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the bombing late Saturday targeted a meeting of criminal groups that in the past have clashed …

BEIRUT – Syrian authorities have arrested a relative of President Bashar Assad on suspicion of shooting a senior army officer in a traffic dispute, setting off rare protests in a coastal stronghold of the Assad family. Latakia’s Gov. Khodr al-Salem says in comments published late Monday by state-run news agency …

Since Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860, the new two party system has gone through 3 distinct presidential phases, Republicans dominated in the first and third, Democrats in the 2nd. We may now be in the fourth, another Democratic era. The president’s State of the Union address last night suggests he …

President Obama came into office promising to unify America, but he has made political discourse meaner and more cynical. Whenever Mr. Obama is playing a weak hand, he questions the motivations of those who disagree with him and mangles the truth to undermine any criticism. Take the president’s recent statement …

If my atheist dad were still alive, this would be a good summer for him. That’s because one of his favorite landmarks—the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial Cross—has been saved. With the transfer of the site to the Mount Soledad Memorial Association (MSMA), it is now permanently protected from demolition after …

BAGHDAD – Iraq’s parliament has approved a report implicating senior officials over the fall of Mosul to the Islamic State group last year. Speaker Salim al-Jabouri told reporters Monday the report, prepared by parliament’s security and defense committee, will be sent to Iraq’s prosecutor general. Al-Jabouri added that “no one …