United Nations / AFP The UN Security Council strongly condemned North Korea for test-firing ballistic missiles and agreed to take “significant measures” in response the latest series of launches. The 15-member council issued the toughly-worded condemnation in a unanimous statement drafted by the United States and backed by China, Pyongyang’s main ally. Council members agreed to “continue to closely ...

  Idomeni / AFP Inside the sleepy canteen of Idomeni, the Greek railway post on the border with Macedonia, the ring of a phone breaks the endless silence. Stratos, the manager, jots down the order: five portions of okra, three of chicken, four salads, 10 bottles of water. There is no address. The delivery is made out to the wooded hills ...

  Geneva / AFP Washington and Moscow have made key steps towards agreeing a new ceasefire in Syria, but a final deal has not been reached, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart said after talks. Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the comments after the marathon talks at a luxury hotel on the shores of ...

  Moscow / AFP At least 16 migrant workers mostly from Kyrgyzstan died in a fire that broke out at a Moscow warehouse early Saturday, Russian authorities said. “When the fire was being put out, a room that had been cut off by the flames was discovered,” TASS news agency quoted the regional branch of the emergency ministry’s press service ...

  N’Djamena / AFP Four Chadian soldiers have been killed after a mine planted by Boko Haram extremists destroyed their vehicle, a security source said on Saturday. “An army car hit a mine planted by Boko Haram at Kaiga Kindji, near the border of Chad and Niger. There were four dead and a dozen wounded,” said the security source, who ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkey on Saturday sent more tanks into Syria to bolster a military offensive against extremists and Kurdish fighters, as a diplomatic push for a new ceasefire in Syria gathered pace. An AFP photographer in the village of Karkamis on the Turkish side of the border saw six more tanks roll over the frontier as mop-up operations continued ...

  Beirut / AFP A first group of rebels and their families evacuated from the Syrian town of Daraya after four years of government siege have reached opposition-held territory, a monitor said on Saturday. At least five buses carrying fighters and their families arrived in the rebel-held city of Idlib in the northwest, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. ...

  Srinagar / AFP Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have arrested a top separatist leader, his aide said on Saturday, as the region’s chief minister met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and defended a 50-day lockdown on the region. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chief cleric and head of All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, a political coalition opposed to the Indian rule of Kashmir, ...

  Tunis / AFP Tunisia’s new Prime Minister Youssef Chahed and members of his cabinet were sworn in on Saturday, the presidency said, after approval from parliament. The prime minister and his 26 ministers swore to “work devotedly for the good of Tunisia” and to “respect its constitution and laws”, it said. Chahed, at 40, is the country’s youngest prime ...

  Dubai / Emirates Business MEED has announced the inauguration of Innovation Live!, the first initiative of its kind designed to converge government and business innovation ideologies and subsequently find solutions in the sustainable energy, smart cities, education, healthcare, transport and industrial diversification sectors. The Innovation Live! Summit, the focal event of the initiative, will be an anchor event in ...