BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) — The Rev. Ian Paisley, once the loud voice of Protestant opposition to compromise with Catholics in Northern Ireland, has been taken to a hospital, his wife said Monday.

BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S. closed its Syrian embassy Monday and Britain recalled its ambassador to Damascus in a dramatic escalation of Western pressure on President Bashar Assad to give up power, just days after diplomatic efforts at the United Nations to end the crisis collapsed.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — The main Palestinian political rivals on Monday took a major step toward healing their bitter rift, agreeing that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would head an interim unity government to prepare for general elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

BEIRUT (AP) — Government forces shelled the central Syrian city of Homs on Monday, striking a makeshift medical clinic and residential areas and killing at least 17 people in the third day of a new assault on the epicenter of the country's uprising, activists said.

OSLO, Norway (AP) — The right-wing extremist who has admitted killing 77 people in the worst peacetime massacre that Norway has ever seen told a court Monday that he deserved a medal of honor for the bloodshed and demanded to be set free.

SABANA DE LA MAR, Dominican Republic (AP) — Rescuers have recovered 17 bodies and pulled 13 survivors from white-capped waters off this coastal town after an overloaded boat carrying migrants from the Dominican Republic capsized, officials said Sunday.

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — A state-run Yemeni newspaper's office is being occupied by armed men who kicked out the paper's editors and journalists in order to reinstate the outgoing president's picture on the front page.

SABANA DE LA MAR, Dominican Republic (AP) — Sixteen bodies have been recovered and 11 people have been rescued in waters off this coastal town after an overloaded boat carrying migrants from the Dominican Republic capsized, rescue officials said Sunday.

JERUSALEM (AP) — For the first time in nearly two decades of escalating tensions over Iran's nuclear program, world leaders are genuinely concerned that an Israeli military attack on the Islamic Republic could be imminent — an action that many fear might trigger a wider war, terrorism and global economic havoc.

HELSINKI (AP) — A conservative former finance minister was headed toward a clear victory in Finland's presidential election Sunday, according to partial results and a TV election forecast.

BEIRUT (AP) — The United States proposed an international coalition to support Syria's opposition Sunday after Russia and China blocked a U.N. attempt to end nearly 11 months of bloodshed, raising fears that violence will escalate. Rebel soldiers said force was now the only way to oust President Bashar Assad, while the regime vowed to press its military crackdown.

HELSINKI (AP) — Finland's public broadcaster says that Finland's former finance minister Sauli Niinisto is leading presidential runoff in a preliminary count of advance votes.