China, Russia and India are among 11 countries targeted by the Obama administration for leaving American producers of music, movies and other copyrighted material open to rampant piracy.

The U.S. is placing the 11 countries on a "priority watch list" that subjects them to extra scrutiny and could lead to sanctions if the U.S. brings cases to the World Trade Organization.

A popular Lebanese rock band says Jordanian authorities have banned them from performing because their songs promote religious and sexual freedom.

Jordan's Antiquities Department initially told Mashrou' Leila ("Night Project") it could not perform at a Roman Theater in the capital Amman because the show contradicts the venue's "authenticity."

A network of activists monitoring the Syria conflict says militants from the Islamic State group have seized five villages from Syrian rebels close to the Turkish border.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday the extremist group took five villages in Azaz district, where rebels hold an enclave host to tens of thousands of internally displaced civilians.

In a front-runner's rout, Republican Donald Trump roared to victory Tuesday in five contests across the Northeast and confidently declared himself the GOP's "presumptive nominee." Hillary Clinton was dominant in four Democratic races and now is 90 percent of the way to the number she needs to claim her own nomination.

Trump's and Clinton's wins propelled them ever closer to a general election showdown. Still, Sanders and Republicans Ted Cruz and John Kasich, vowed to keep running, even as opportunities to topple the leaders dwindle.

Lebanese banks began taking measures against persons or institutions in accordance to a U.S. law that imposes sanctions on banks that knowingly do business with Hizbullah, banking sources said on Wednesday.

The sources told al-Mustaqbal daily that the measures are being taken on accounts in Lebanese Liras and foreign currencies.

French television has broadcast what it says is a video taken from inside the Paris restaurant where jihadi Brahim Abdeslam blew himself up on Nov. 13, killing himself and wounding several others.

The footage broadcast by France's M6 on Sunday appears to show a man walking into the Comptoir Voltaire restaurant crowded with Friday night diners, looking down and covering his eyes before an explosion at his back propels his body forward.

Yemeni officials say forces loyal to the country's internationally recognized government have retaken the southern coastal city of Mukalla, driving out al-Qaida militants a year after they captured it.

The officials say the forces entered the city late on Monday, following dozens of airstrikes against al-Qaida positions in and outside the city by a Saudi-led coalition fighting on the side of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's government.

"For a thousand years," Abdullah Sheikh's family has been working the land the same way — flooding fields in Egypt's Nile Delta and planting seeds by hand.

But now a small, relatively cheap plow has changed all that, allowing him to nearly double the yields of his two acres of wheat, arranging it in neat, raised beds with smaller furrows that require a third less water. "It saves us much labor, seeds and effort," Sheikh said, calling it a "blessing" for his family, eight of whom help work the plot.

Dubai will soon have a one-stop destination for families whose tastes run from Spider-Man to velociraptors to the Powerpuff Girls.

Local developer Ilyas and Mustafa Galadari Group said Sunday its new 1.5 million square-foot (139,355 square meter) indoor amusement park on the city's desert outskirts will open on August 15.

Suicide attacks targeting security forces in two Baghdad suburbs have killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens, officials said Sunday.

A suicide car bomb struck a checkpoint in the eastern suburb of Hussainiyah late Saturday, killing six civilians and four soldiers, a police officer said. He added that another 28 people were wounded in the attack. The Islamic State group claimed the attack in a statement posted on a militant website.