WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States plans to speed up assistance to Lebanon’s army but has no plans as yet to increase current military aid to deal with the latest crisis, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s cabinet is likely to cancel measures on Wednesday that angered the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement and triggered the worst internal conflict since the country’s civil war, political sources said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki flew to the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday to oversee a big offensive against al Qaeda in what the U.S. military says is the group’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Hezbollah’s humbling of Lebanon’s U.S.-backed government has dealt a further blow to American credibility in the region less than a year after Hamas Islamists seized Gaza from Palestinian leaders supported by Washington.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has named his team of close advisers, with key posts going mostly to officials who performed similar roles for previous Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told his new government on Wednesday to step up efforts to help small- and medium-size businesses choked by red tape and corruption.

GAZA (Reuters) – The Israeli military killed two Hamas militants and two Palestinian civilians on Wednesday in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, medical workers said.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Palestinian militant groups will meet in Egypt next week to consider Israel’s response to a Hamas ceasefire offer in the Gaza Strip, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said on Wednesday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Clashes between security forces and Shi’ite gunmen killed six people and wounded 28 in Baghdad overnight, Iraqi police said on Wednesday.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan will ask international donors for $50 billion in aid at a conference in Paris next month, President Hamid Karzai’s senior economic advisor said.