Politics

  Aden / AFP Twin bombings claimed by the IS group hit Yemeni forces in Aden on Monday, killing at least 41 people in the latest of a spate of attacks in the southern city. The attacks in Aden—which is serving as the temporary government headquarters after rebels forced authorities from the capital—follow a major military operation against extremists in ...

  Hanoi / AFP President Barack Obama on Monday confirmed Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US air strike, hailing his death as an “important milestone” in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. Saturday’s bombing raid, the first known American assault on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Pakistani soil, marks a major blow to the militant movement, ...

  Istanbul / AFP Nearly half of the schools run by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees have been hit by conflict in the last five years, it said on Monday on the sidelines of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier reminded participants on the opening day of the two-day summit that attacks on ...

  Beirut/ AFP More than 120 people were killed on Monday in a wave of bombings claimed by the IS group in northwestern Syria, the deadliest attacks yet in the regime’s coastal heartland. Seven near-simultaneous explosions targeted bus stations, hospitals and other civilian sites in the seaside cities of Jableh and Tartus, which until now had been relatively insulated from Syria’s ...

  Vatican City / AFP Pope Francis met the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque at the Vatican on Monday in a historic encounter that was sealed with a hugely symbolic hug and exchange of kisses. The first Vatican meeting between the leader of the world’s Catholics and the highest authority in Sunni Islam marks the culmination of a significant improvement ...

  Near Fallujah / AFP Iraqi forces battled the IS group on Monday in the opening stages of an operation to retake Fallujah, one of the toughest targets yet in Baghdad’s war against the extremists. As Iraqi forces struck targets in and around the extremist bastion, which saw deadly battles in 2004 between insurgents and American forces, IS claimed bombings ...

  Kabul / AFP Afghanistan’s spy agency on Sunday said Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US bombing raid, the first confirmation from regional officials of his death, which marks a potential blow to the resurgent militant movement. The Taliban have not commented officially on the very rare American drone attack deep inside Pakistan on Saturday, authorised by ...

  CAIRO / AP An IS group spokesman has urged sympathizers in Europe and the US to launch attacks on civilians there if they are unable to travel to the group’s self-declared Caliphate in Syria and Iraq. In a 31-minute audio message released late Saturday by the IS media arm Al Furqan, Abu Mohammed Al Adnani says the US-led war against ...

  CAIRO / AP Egypt’s president says a submarine belonging to his country’s Oil Ministry has left for the site of the crash of EgyptAir Flight-804 in the eastern Mediterranean. President Abdel-Fattah El Sissi says the submarine has the capacity to operate at a depth of 3,000 meters (9842 feet) below the surface. He says the submarine left Sunday to ...

  NICOSIA / AP Cypriots are voting for a new parliament amid public disillusionment with what many see as a discredited political establishment. Some 543,000 voters are eligible to cast ballots on Sunday for 56 lawmakers, but opinion polls have shown a large undecided vote. The vote won’t result in a change of government under Cyprus’ presidential system. Opinion polls ...