Washington / AFP After Iraqi security forces eventually recapture Mosul, the IS group will be left with only Raqa in neighboring Syria as a bastion, and the extremists’ self-proclaimed “caliphate” will be largely gone. The US-led coalition has been striking IS across both countries for more than two years, and has long held Raqa in its sights —an IS …

Rome / AFP Two Italians and a Canadian who were kidnapped in the south of conflict-torn Libya in September have been released and flown to Italy, the Italian government announced on Saturday. The Italians, Danilo Calonego, 66, and Bruno Cacace, 56, and Canadian Frank Poccia were freed during the night “due to the effective cooperation with local Libyan authorities,” it …

  Istanbul/ AFP An Istanbul court on Saturday ordered the imprisonment of nine staff from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, in an intensifying crackdown a day after the leaders of the country’s main pro-Kurdish party were also jailed. The arrests added to growing international alarm over the use of a state of emergency implemented in the wake of the failed July 15 …