Nation and World News

BEIRUT – Israeli missiles struck a research center near the Syrian capital Damascus, setting off explosions and causing casualties, Syria’s state news agency reported early Sunday, citing initial reports.

WASHINGTON – Israel launched an airstrike into Syria, apparently targeting a suspected weapons site, U.S. officials said Friday night.

HOUSTON – The National Rifle Association kicked off its annual convention Friday with a warning that its members are engaged in a "culture war" that stretches beyond gun rights, further ramping up emotions surrounding the gun control debate.

WASHINGTON – U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in April, and hiring was much stronger in the previous two months than first thought. The gains trimmed the unemployment rate to a four-year low of 7.5 percent.

NEW YORK – The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans climbed a startling 28 percent in a decade, a period that included the recession and the mortgage crisis, the government reported Thursday.

WASHINGTON – Fewer Americans are losing their jobs. Employers are struggling to squeeze more work from their staffs. The U.S. is producing so much oil that imports are plunging, narrowing the trade deficit.

WASHINGTON – It’s a chemical that’s been in U.S. households for more than 40 years, from the body wash in your bathroom shower to the knives on your kitchen counter to the bedding in your baby’s basinet.

MEXICO CITY – President Barack Obama sought on Thursday to tamp down a potential rift with Mexico over a dramatic shift in the cross-border fight against drug trafficking and organized crime, acceding that Mexicans had the right to determine how best to tackle the violence that has plagued their country.

HOUSTON – Shots were fired near a ticket counter at Houston's largest airport on Thursday, critically injuring one armed man and sending people in the terminal scrambling and screaming, a Houston police spokesman and witnesses said.

WASHINGTON – The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid fell last week to seasonally adjusted 324,000, the lowest since January 2008. The drop points to fewer layoffs and possibly more hiring.

JERUSALEM – Israel’s prime minister gave a cool reception Wednesday to a new Arab Mideast peace initiative, saying the conflict with the Palestinians isn’t about territory, but rather the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize Israel as the Jewish homeland.

BURKESVILLE, Ky. – In southern Kentucky, where children get their first guns even before they start first grade, Stephanie Sparks paid little attention as her 5-year-old son, Kristian, played with the rifle he was given last year. Then, as she stepped onto the front porch while cleaning the kitchen, "she heard the gun go off," a coroner said.

NEW YORK – Violence, gore and gunplay were staples on prime-time TV even in the most sensitive period directly after the Newtown school shooting.

WASHINGTON – Despite President Barack Obama’s new vow, closing the Guantanamo Bay prison is still a tough sell in Congress. So the White House may look instead toward smaller steps like transferring some terror suspects back overseas.

5-year-old shoots 2-year-old sister in Kentucky