Iran confirmed Wednesday that it will take part in international talks aimed at resolving the Syria conflict for the first time as a diplomatic push to end the war gains momentum.

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will join his counterparts from Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Turkey in Vienna on Friday for negotiations it is hoped could help staunch almost five years of bloodshed.  

It is the world's largest producer of milk and also the largest consumer. And for good reason. Because in India, milk is not just the morning glass you drink before you sprint out of the house. Its uses go far beyond the dietary and nutritional.

By the end of 2014, India was producing 140 million metric tons of milk per year — roughly 50 percent more than the United States, the second-biggest producer.

Bracing for a tsunami like the one that devastated Japanese communities during a 2011 mega-earthquake, coastal communities from British Columbia to California have been grappling with how to protect people from a similar catastrophe.

One of those towns is constructing the nation's first structure built as a vertical tsunami refuge.

Guinness World Records has denied a Chinese city's attempt at a new mark for the biggest serving of fried rice ever cooked, saying Yangzhou violated rules by wasting 150 kilograms (331 pounds) of the feast.

According to a posting on the record book's Chinese microblog, organizers said 4 metric tons (8,820 pounds) of cooked fried rice was distributed to five different outlets. However, it said a portion had been handled inappropriately, violating the organization's rules requiring that the food be edible and not be wasted.

An Iranian official says the Revolutionary Guard has sent more military advisers to Syria to help President Bashar Assad in the fight against insurgents.

Gen. Hossein Salami, the Guard's deputy leader, says this has led to more Iranian deaths in the conflict. Salami didn't give any specifics for the Iranian death toll or for the number of troops dispatched.

Another meeting in another luxury hotel in another European city oozing with diplomatic history.

Such is the state of the international effort to revive a peace plan for Syria.

The Islamic State group has purportedly released a video showing the aftermath of a raid in northern Iraq by U.S. and Iraqi special forces in which one American soldier was killed.

The video, released by the pro-IS news agency Aamaq, allegedly shows the rubble of the prison raided in the town of Huwija, as well as abandoned first aid equipment and mutilated bodies, purportedly of IS militants killed in the clashes.

The thing to remember about Amazon's new $50 Fire tablet is that it's a $50 tablet.

It's not as light or as thin as a tablet that costs five or six times more. The camera isn't as good, and the screen isn't as sharp. But it works well as a budget device for the basics — reading, Facebook, video and, of course, shopping on Amazon.

Egyptian authorities have granted given government workers a half-day off in an attempt to bolster low turnout in the country's parliamentary election.

The Cabinet decree, reported in the state-owned daily Al-Ahram on Monday, reflected deep concern over the turnout in the first legislative election since Egypt's last parliament was dissolved in June 2012 following a court ruling declaring its election unconstitutional.

The coast guard says a passenger motorboat with 41 people on board capsized in central Philippines in a storm, leaving seven dead and two others missing.

A coast guard report Monday said the boat Tawash was on its way to to Guimaras province with 36 passengers and five crew members when it capsized.