Hua Hin / AFP Thai authorities on Saturday hunted for culprits behind a wave of bombings targeting popular holiday destinations, as businesses braced for the economic fallout from the attacks on the crucial tourism industry. The kingdom was on edge after 11 small bombs and a series of suspected arson attacks exploded across five southern provinces on Thursday night and …

  Arbil / AFP The nephew of the governor of a key province where Iraqi forces are battling the IS group has been gunned down in the country’s north, officials said on Saturday. The shooting in Iraqi Kurdish regional capital Arbil came just hours after Nowfal Al Aqoub, the governor of Nineveh, made controversial remarks about children being fathered by IS …

  Islamabad / AFP Six crew members of a Pakistani government helicopter which crash-landed in Afghanistan’s volatile east have been released, an official said on Saturday, after they were taken hostage by the Afghan Taliban. The crew “was released in an inter-tribe exchange on the Pakistan-Afghan border (and) arrived in Islamabad today,” foreign ministry spokesman Nafees Zakaria said in a statement. …