Butig / AFP Troops on Sunday fired artillery at positions held by an extremist faction in the southern Philippines as more soldiers deployed against the group, which staged a deadly bombing in President Rodrigo Duterte’s home city. Troops used 105 mm artillery to blast the positions of the Maute group in the nearly deserted town of Butig in the …

  Banjul / AFP As The Gambia sees a surge in support for the opposition ahead of presidential polls days away, a spate of arrests in the run-up has shown the cost of dissent. President Yahya Jammeh seized power in a 1994 coup and has targeted opponents and several of his own ministers, while surviving multiple attempts to remove him from …

  The work ethic is such a central part of the American character that it’s hard to imagine it fading. But that’s what seems to be happening in one important part of the labor force. Among men 25-to-54 — so-called prime-age male workers — about one in eight are dropouts. They don’t have a job and, unlike the officially unemployed, …