By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN | Wed Feb 22, 2012 3:22am EST AMMAN (Reuters) – Troops and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 27 young men when they raided villages in a northern Syrian province, an opposition activists’ group said on Wednesday. The young men, all civilians, were mostly shot in the head or chest in their homes or in streets in the villages of Idita, Iblin…

By Andrew Quinn and Khaled Yacoub Oweis WASHINGTON/AMMAN | Tue Feb 21, 2012 10:41pm EST WASHINGTON/AMMAN (Reuters) – The United States appeared to open the door to eventually arming Syria‘s opposition, saying that if a political solution to the crisis was impossible it might have to consider other options. The comments, made by officials at both the White House and the U.S. State Department on Tuesday, marked a shift in…

HUDKHIL | Wed Feb 22, 2012 12:25am EST HUDKHIL (Reuters) – Hundreds of Afghan protesters threw stones at police on Wednesday and security forces fired shots in the air in a second day of demonstrations after copies of the Koran, Islam’s most holy book, were burned at a major NATO airbase. Protesters shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to (President Hamid) Karzai” in demonstrations on the outskirts of the Afghan…

By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON | Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:38am EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In early January, President Barack Obama’s campaign manager Jim Messina called David Axelrod, the president‘s top strategist, into his Chicago office and started writing on a white board. On one side of the board, Messina sketched out the amounts of money he expected Republican “Super PACs” and other groups to raise and spend to try to…

WASHINGTON | Mon Feb 20, 2012 3:43pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama spoke on Monday with his Afghan counterpart to discuss regional support for Afghan-led reconciliation, the White House said. Obama, in his conversation with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, also discussed the Afghanistan-Pakistan-Iran trilateral meetings held last week in Islamabad.”They agreed to speak again soon to remain closely aligned as both countries continue our efforts to achieve common…