Brussels / AFP Belgium has charged three people with trying to go to Syria and join extremists there, press reports said on Sunday. Police arrested four people on Saturday after raids in Jumet, near the southern city of Charleroi, on suspicion that they planned to go to either war-torn Syria or Libya. The reports said one person had been released …

Tripoli / AFP The designated head of Libya’s UN-backed unity government has met the country’s controversial army chief, retired General Khalifa Haftar, as he prepares to submit a new cabinet lineup. Fayez Al Sarraj’s official Facebook page said he met Haftar on Saturday as part of a series of meetings to assess “the opinions, fears and worries of influential sides …

Tokyo / AFP Japan has doubled the number of F-15 fighter jets deployed on the southern island of Okinawa, near disputed islands in the East China Sea, the defence ministry said Sunday. Japan’s Air Self-Defence Force now has about 40 F-15s on Okinawa’s Naha base, according to the defence ministry. The move comes as Japan and China have routinely clashed …