DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior leader of Yemen's al Qaeda branch was killed on Thursday in a raid by a U.S. drone strike in central Yemen, an official of the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi said.

WASHINGTON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week to a two-month low, pointing to labor market strength that could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates by December.

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Six people were wounded, five of them children, when a rocket hit the Turkish border town of Kilis on Thursday, the local governor, Ismail Catakli, said in a statement.

DUBAI (Reuters) - An appeals court on Thursday dismissed a challenge to the dissolution of Bahrain's main Shi'ite Muslim opposition group, a newspaper reported, in effect affirming a lower court decision condemned by the United States and the United Nations in July.

BEIRUT, Sept 22 (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with AP News broadcast on Thursday that Syria's war will "drag on" as long as it is part of a global conflict funded and interfered in by other countries.

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbia has arrested 16 people suspected of trafficking refugees from the Middle East, Asia and Africa, as part of increased efforts to stem the flow of illegal migrants trying to reach Western Europe, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

POLISTENA, Italy (Reuters) - Benedetto Zoccola wore a wiretap to put a mob boss in jail. To pay him back, the mafia planted a small bomb on the window sill of his office last year.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, responding to a surge in Haitian immigrants, will end special protections for them dating back to a 2010 earthquake that devastated that nation, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said on Thursday.

GENEVA, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The United Nations hopes countries backing the Syria peace process will agree on Thursday to salvage the ceasefire, enabling a return to peace talks within weeks, U.N. Deputy Special Envoy for Syria Ramzy Ezzeldin Ramzy said.