Baghdad / AFP IS group fighters “summarily executed” 13 civilians after villagers rose up against them at the start of the Iraqi army’s offensive to retake Mosul, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. The killings took place in the villages of Al-Hud and Al-Lazzagah, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Mosul on October 17, the day government forces launched ...

  Jerusalem / AFP Israel could advance plans this week for thousands more settlement homes in annexed east Jerusalem in defiance of a landmark UN resolution demanding an end to such activity. It would mark the first such approvals since Friday’s UN Security Council vote demanding a halt to Israeli settlement building in Palestinian territory. The resolution, which passed after the ...

  Taipei / AFP Taiwan’s defence minister warned on Tuesday that enemy threats were growing daily after China’s aircraft carrier and a flotilla of other warships passed south of the island in an exercise as tensions rise. After sailing south of Taiwan itself, the Liaoning and five other warships on Monday passed the Taiwan-administered Dongsha Islands in the South China ...