Linkin Park lead singer Chester Bennington, who sold millions of albums with a unique mix of hard rock, hip-hop and rap, was found dead in his home near Los Angeles on Thursday, the Los Angeles County coroner says. He was 41.

Coroner spokesman Brian Elias said authorities are investigating Bennington's death as an apparent suicide but no additional details are available.

An international watchdog has renewed its calls for an independent and transparent investigation into the recent deaths of at least four Syrians in Lebanese army custody, as well as allegations of torture and ill-treatment of the detained.

The Qatari foreign minister began a visit to Beijing on Thursday, a day after his Chinese counterpart told a top official from Qatar's rival the United Arab Emirates that China hoped the rift between the Gulf countries could be repaired.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi later in the day, China's foreign ministry said, although no details of any discussions were immediately released.

Israel's public security minister says metal detectors are essential to maintain security at a contested Jerusalem shrine despite rising tensions and a Muslim call for mass protests in the city.

Gilad Erdan tells Israel's Army Radio on Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will rule on the issue later in the day when he returns from a working visit to Europe. But Erdan insisted the new Israeli measures did not change the status of the site and were necessary to carry out proper security checks.

The Israeli military on Wednesday promoted a comprehensive aid program to Syrian civilians harmed by their country's civil war, marking a significant broadening of its involvement in a conflict of which it has tried to steer clear.

In a tour of the volatile frontier, the military unveiled "Operation Good Neighbor," which it says has provided tons of food, medicine, clothing and infrastructure over the past year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was caught Wednesday by a live microphone making a rare public admission that Israel has struck Iranian arms convoys in Syria bound for Hizbullah "dozens and dozens of times."

Netanyahu was also heard railing against the European Union's "crazy" insistence on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a precondition for closer ties with the 28-state bloc, and trumpeting Israel as essential to its prosperity and survival.

Turkey's prime minister has announced a cabinet reshuffle, replacing or swapping 11 ministers in the 26-member council of ministers.

The announcement on Wednesday comes months after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regained the leadership of Turkey's ruling party following a narrow win in a referendum ushering in a series of constitutional changes.

A top Indian diplomat said China is being unusually aggressive in a month-old border dispute with India that shows no sign of easing, media reports said Wednesday.

For one Iraqi lieutenant, the fight against the Islamic State group in Mosul has been a slow, methodical quest for revenge. For three years, he has hunted for two IS militants from his village who he believes killed his father. Along the way, he has shot to death detained militants after interrogating them, he acknowledges unapologetically.

And if he catches either of the men he is searching for, the lieutenant vows he will inflict on him "a slow death" and hang his body from a post in the village after forcing him to reveal where his father's body is buried.

Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai was greeted with cheers by dozens of young women in northeastern Nigeria, where she spoke out for the many girls abducted under Boko Haram's deadly insurgency.

The 20-year-old Pakistani activist told The Associated Press on Tuesday she was excited by the courage of the young women who are undaunted as they pursue an education amid one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.