Russia typically brushes off new U.S. sanctions. Not this time.

The Trump administration announcement of export restrictions in response to accusations Moscow used a nerve agent to poison a former Russian spy in Britain sent the ruble tumbling to a two-year low and drew a stern warning from its prime minister. While the initial sanctions may have a limited impact, a second batch expected within months could hit the Russian economy much harder and send already tense relations into a tailspin.

Firefighters worked furiously Friday to keep a Southern California wildfire from burning more homes while crews in the north finally gained ground on deadly and destructive blazes that have burned for two weeks.

Aircraft have been making flight after flight, dumping water and bright pink retardant to protect Lake Elsinore and other foothill communities as the fire sweeps through the dense, bone-dry brush of the Cleveland National Forest.

It was an unusual way to reveal a struggle against cancer, particularly in a part of the world where the illness is still largely considered a private matter and taboo.

But a video clip released on Twitter is how Lebanese singer Elissa chose to share the news with her fans and millions of followers on social media.

It was supposed to be a goodwill gesture from an energy company in Turkey.

This summer, the Karadeniz Energy Group lent Lebanon a floating power station to generate electricity at below-market rates to help ease the strain on the country's woefully undermaintained power sector.

Syria's presidency announced Wednesday that first lady Asma Assad has begun treatment for breast cancer.

The presidency posted on its Facebook page a photo of President Bashar Assad sitting next to his wife in what appeared to be a hospital room with an IV in her left arm.

An Italian army officer has assumed the command of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon.

Maj.-Gen. Stefano Dal Col takes over from outgoing Irish army Maj.-Gen. Michael Beary as the new head of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL.

A Canadian woman pregnant with her third child says she was served a cleaning agent at a McDonald's restaurant instead of the latte she ordered.

Sarah Douglas said that she was taking her son to a baseball tournament in the Alberta town of Lethbridge when they stopped at the McDonald's drive-thru for the coffee. When she took a sip she knew something was wrong and pulled over to spit it out.

Caretaker Justice Minister Salim Jreissati announced Saturday that members of the Islamic State group handed over to Lebanon recently are being questioned under the supervision of judicial authorities.

Jreissati's comments came a day after Human Rights Watch said the United States should ensure no foreign IS suspects held by local allies in Syria are transferred to a country where they are at risk of torture or unfair trials.

U.S. officials say the Trump administration is staffing up a Middle East policy team at the White House in anticipation of unveiling its long awaited but largely mysterious Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

The National Security Council last week began approaching other agencies seeking volunteers to join the team, which will work for President Donald Trump's Mideast peace pointmen Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, according to the officials. The team, which is being set up to organize the peace plan's public presentation and any negotiations that may ensue, will comprise three units: one concentrating on its political and security details, one on its significant economic focus and one on strategic communications, the officials said.

President Donald Trump bluntly declared his attorney general should terminate "right now" the federal probe into the campaign that took him to the White House, a newly fervent attack on the special counsel investigation that could imperil his presidency. Trump also assailed the trial, just underway, of his former campaign chairman by the special counsel's team

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders scrambled to explain that Trump's tweet Wednesday was "not an order" and the president was not directing his attorney general to do anything.