Aleppo / AFP Syrian regime forces advanced against rebels during intense street battles in the heart of Aleppo on Tuesday, after the United States abandoned talks with Russia aimed at reviving a ceasefire deal. The UN rights chief appealed for action to halt the “ghastly avalanche of violence” unfolding in Syria’s second city, which is reeling from some of ...

  Hasakeh / AFP A suicide bomber struck a wedding in northeast Syria as the bride and groom were exchanging vows, killing 34 people and wounding dozens, the local Kurdish government said. The bomber blew himself up late Monday in the village of Tall Tawil in Hasakeh province where a Kurdish party official was getting married. The IS extremist group ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkey on Tuesday suspended more than 12,000 police officers over alleged links to Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, accused of masterminding the failed July coup, in the latest move under the controversial state of emergency. Meanwhile, a prominent pro-Kurdish television channel was raided and broadcasts cut under the emergency laws, over accusations of supporting Kurdish militants. Of ...

  Cairo / AFP Egyptian police shot dead two members of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of them a senior leader of the outlawed group, the interior ministry said on Tuesday. The ministry charged that Mohamed Kamal headed the military wing of the movement of ousted president Mohamed Morsi, although the group has always denied having one. It said that he ...

  Kunduz / AFP Afghan forces were conducting clearing operations in Kunduz early on Tuesday, warning that Taliban militants were hiding in civilian homes after an hours-long assault on the city repelled with the help of NATO air support. Helicopters hovered over the strategic provincial capital and special forces were stationed in the main square, but with fighting still in the ...

  Washington / AFP Donald Trump’s presidential hopes suffered a punishing new setback as authorities clamped down on his charitable foundation, while Hillary Clinton seized the offensive to brand him an unscrupulous businessman. With just five weeks to go before the November 8 election, Trump is seeking to climb out of one of the darkest periods of his White House campaign ...

  Berlin / AFP WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed on Tuesday to publish new “significant” documents related to the US presidential elections ahead of the November 8 vote, as the online leaking platform celebrated its 10th birthday in defiant mood. Taking aim at critics accusing him and his organisation of manipulation, Assange pledged he would not be muzzled as he sought ...

  Yangon / AFP Myanmar on Tuesday scrapped a law used by the former military government to silence political activists, which threatened jail for anyone who endangered public morality or execution for damaging telephone lines. The Emergency Provisions Act, passed in 1950 after Myanmar won independence from Britain, became the military’s weapon of choice to silence dissent during its half ...

  London / AFP Ten countries accounting for 2.5 percent of world GDP are hosting more than half the world’s refugees, Amnesty International said on Tuesday as it slammed what it called the selfishness of wealthy nations. In a report on the plight faced by the world’s 21 million refugees, the London-based human rights body lamented that countries immediately neighbouring crisis ...

  Strasbourg / AFP The European Parliament on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed the ratification of the Paris climate deal, in a vote attended by UN chief Ban Ki-moon that paves the way for the landmark pact to come into force globally. The vote of 610 for, 38 against and 31 abstentions puts the European Union on track to hand over its ...