Amid moves to end the Syrian war and kick-start Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Secretary of State John Kerry is traveling back to the Middle East next week, a top US official said Friday. The new top US diplomat will also make his first trip to Africa since replacing Hillary Clinton in early February. Kerry will first visit Oman for talks with Omani officials on Tuesday, before then heading to Jordan, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Unidentified gunmen on Thursday kidnapped three Egyptian policemen and four soldiers in the Sinai peninsula, security officials said. The servicemen were travelling to Cairo when the minibuses they were in were stopped at gunpoint in Al-Wadi al-Akhdar region which lies east of El-Areesh in north Sinai, they said. The three captured policemen are from the Central Security Forces, the branch of the interior ministry used to quell protest. The four other men belong to the armed forces. The two groups were travelling in separate minibuses, officials said.

OTTAWA - A 70-year-old Palestinian man who built a family in Canada while fighting deportation for more than a quarter century was removed from the country over the weekend. Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad was transported by charter flight to Lebanon, said Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, who described the protracted case as "almost a comedy of errors." "After a 26-year stay in Canada, we finally succeeded in deporting this convicted, terrorist killer," Kenney told an Ottawa news conference.

By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has asked Russia not to sell Syria an advanced air defense system which would help President Bashar al-Assad fend off foreign military intervention as he battles a more than two-year-old rebellion, Israeli officials said on Thursday. Citing U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Israel had told Washington that Syria had already began payments for a $900 million purchase of the S-300 and an initial delivery was due within three months.