Politics

  Saint Petersburg / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday looked to rebuild ties as they met for the first time since Ankara downed one of Moscow’s warplanes in November. Erdogan’s visit to Putin’s hometown of Saint Petersburg is also his first foreign trip since the failed coup against him last month that ...

  Aden / AFP Air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition have forced Al-Qaeda fighters out of a key town in southern Yemen, a security official said on Tuesday. “Al-Qaeda militants have withdrawn from Azzan, the second city in Shabwa province, after coalition raids targeted their gatherings in the city” on Monday night, the official said. A resident said by telephone ...

  Paris / AFP France will supply 30 military helicopters to Kuwait in a deal worth over one billion euros ($1.1 billion) that French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian signed in the Gulf state on Tuesday. The agreement to buy the versatile Airbus Caracal helicopters is part of a 2.5 billion euro package of deals that the two countries agreed ...

  Washington / AFP The US-led military effort against the IS group started exactly two years ago, aimed at halting the extremists as they swept across Iraq, leaving a trail of human butchery and destruction in their wake. It was supposed to have been a swift and narrow campaign that would help local forces deal a “lasting defeat” to IS ...

  Quetta / AFP A Taliban suicide bomb packed with ball bearings tore through a Pakistani hospital on Monday and killed at least 70 people, as witnesses described tearful staff rushing towards the smoking blast site to help the wounded. The bomber struck a crowd of some 200 people gathered at the Civil Hospital in the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta ...

  Beirut/ AFP Syrian regime forces and rebel factions sent hundreds of reinforcements to Aleppo on Monday as opposition fighters announced an all-out offensive to take the country’s second city. The battle for Syria’s former economic powerhouse is intensifying after an opposition advance at the weekend broke through a three-week government siege of the city’s rebel-held east, dealing a major ...

  Tehran / AFP Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, rumoured to be planning a political comeback, has asked Barack Obama to return $2 billion of assets frozen in the US in a letter made public on Monday. Ahmadinejad wrote that despite early promises by the US president to improve ties with Iran “the same hostile policies along with the same ...

  Washington / AFP Democrat Hillary Clinton has widened her lead over White House rival Donald Trump to eight points after both parties’ nominating conventions, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll out Sunday. Clinton led Trump 50 to 42 percent among registered voters, according to the telephone survey carried out August 1-4. She got a strong bounce in the ...

  Kathmandu / AFP A helicopter crashed into a hillside in Nepal on Monday, killing all seven people on board including a baby, an airline official said. The Fishtail Air helicopter carrying six locals to Kathmandu lost contact with air traffic control about 30 minutes after taking off from the western district of Gorkha. Rescuers have reached the crash site ...

  Montreal / AFP Anti-globalization activists will gather in Montreal on Tuesday for the first World Social Forum (WSF) to be held in the northern hemisphere, hoping the location will provide fresh impetus for the movement. A march through downtown Montreal is to kick off the event, which was first held in Brazil in 2001 seeking to promote alternatives to ...