JERUSALEM – The Islamic militant group Hamas has launched a Twitter hashtag campaign to build support in the West, but the effort seems to be backfiring. Hamas, which rules Gaza, launched (hashtag)AskHamas on Friday. The campaign promised responses from the group’s leaders, or as they called it, “Truth from the …

BRUSSELS – Tunisia is open to discuss a European Union request to step up migrant reception centers in the country as part of a wider EU initiative to cope with an influx of asylum seekers. Tunisian Foreign Minister Taieb Baccouche told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday the EU plan “will …

UNITED NATIONS – Congo’s foreign minister says friction with the U.N.’s largest peacekeeping force over human rights violations by two Congolese generals is not his country’s fault, and he says the time has come for Congo to take full responsibility for its security. Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda addressed the U.N. …

MADRID – Two fledgling parties that have shaken up Spain’s political scene were testing their voter appeal on Sunday in parliamentary elections in the unemployment-ravaged Andalusia region. The left-wing party Podemos party has links to Greece’s anti-austerity Syriza and hopes to replicate its rise to power. Podemos means “We Can.” …

UNITED NATIONS – Syria’s main Western-backed opposition group says it will not attend the next round of peace talks in Moscow on the Syrian conflict. The Syrian National Coalition’s representative to the U.N., Najib Ghadbian, told reporters Wednesday that his group had been invited to the second round of Moscow …

WASHINGTON – Bias, favoritism, critical fault lines between the State and Defense Departments — all have contributed to strong criticism over the choice of appointees to reconstruct Iraq, and whether they will be able to make a difference on the ground. Gen. Jay Garner, head of the Office of Reconstruction …

To watch “The Talking Points Memo” in the Screening Room click here. Hi. I’m Bill O’Reilly. Thank you for watching us tonight. The latest on the terror bombing [in Saudi Arabia], but first, a call to boycott Florida products. That’s the subject of this evening’s Talking Points Memo. Some Floridians, …

SAO PAULO – Brazil’s state-run oil company says it failed to reach its year-end production target even though its daily oil output increased 5.3 percent in 2014. The oil firm Petrobras said in a statement late Monday that last year’s daily output was about 2 million barrels compared with 1.9 …

ALGIERS, Algeria – Algerian police are struggling to contain more than a thousand protesters thronging the streets of the capital denouncing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Chanting “I am not Charlie, I am Muhammad,” protesters left their mosques after Friday prayers and gathered …

MANAMA, Bahrain – Nabeel Rajab, one of Bahrain’s best-known human rights activists, was sentenced to six months in jail Tuesday after being found guilty of insulting government ministries on Twitter. Rajab can remain free on bail for now as he appeals his case, said his lawyer, Jalila al-Sayed. But he …