Bartalla / AFP Iraqi special forces advanced on the eastern city limits of Mosul on Monday, tightening the noose as the offensive to retake the IS group stronghold entered its third week. Elite counter-terrorism forces were facing mortar fire as they pushed from the Christian town of Bartalla towards Mosul’s eastern suburbs, AFP correspondents at the front said. As an ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkish police detained the editor-in-chief of the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, state media reported on Monday, while the daily said several of its writers were taken into police custody. Murat Sabuncu was detained while authorities searched for executive board chairman Akin Atalay and writer Guray Oz, the official news agency Anadolu said. The daily said Oz had in ...

  Kabul /AFP Afghanistan is losing a multi-billion dollar war on drugs as it combats terrorism, a minister warned, denouncing a lack of political will and dwindling foreign aid to fight narcotics. The comments from Baz Mohammad Ahmadi, deputy minister of interior for counter-narcotics, come after the UN last week reported a 10 percent jump in opium cultivation this year ...