Beirut /AFP Syrian government forces regained control on Saturday of areas they lost over the past two weeks to a rebel offensive on the edge of the northern city of Aleppo, ending a major attempt by insurgents to break the siege on eastern parts of the city, an activist group and pro-government media said. The insurgents had seized a …

  Quetta / AP At least 43 people died and 35 others were injured when a bomb exploded at a Sufi shrine in southern Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Saturday, officials said. The blast hit a crowd of worshippers participating in a ceremony at the shrine of Sufi saint Shah Noorani in Khuzdar district, some 760 kilometres (472 miles) south of …

  BAGHDAD / AP A suicide car bomber from the IS group attacked Iraqi special forces in Mosul on Saturday, setting off heavy fighting in the northern city. The early morning attack in the Qadisiya neighborhood, which the troops entered a day earlier, was followed by a barrage of gunfire, mortar rounds and rocket-propelled grenades, Iraqi officers said. Fighting was also …