WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Sunday's referendum on Crimea would never be recognized by the United States.

By Mariam Karouny and Stephen Kalin BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian forces backed by Hezbollah militants took full control of the town of Yabroud on Sunday after driving out rebels, helping President Bashar al-Assad secure the land route connecting the capital Damascus with Aleppo and the Mediterranean coast. The fall of Yabroud, the last rebel bastion near the Lebanese border, could sever a vital insurgent supply line from Lebanon and consolidate government control over a swathe of territory from Damascus to the central city of Homs. A suicide bomber killed three people in a strike on a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley on Sunday. Radical Sunni groups have pledged to attack the Shi'ite Muslim militant group in Lebanon until it withdraws from Syria.

JUPITER, Fla. (AP) — New York Mets pitcher Jonathon Niese left his start against St. Louis with a sore elbow and will head back to New York for tests, the latest setback for the left-hander in what he described as "the spring training from hell."