Aleppo / AFP Syria’s regime intensified air strikes on rebel-held areas of Aleppo province Monday as a UN envoy prepared to meet US and Russian officials to try to revive peace talks. France called for an immediate humanitarian truce in Aleppo city after civilian deaths in the provincial capital and after four hospitals were bombed there on Sunday. On …

  Jerusalem / AFP Israeli authorities have advanced plans for 770 new settlement homes in annexed east Jerusalem, officials and rights groups said on Monday, drawing condemnation from Palestinian leaders and the United Nations. The homes would expand the Gilo settlement on the southern perimeter of east Jerusalem. They are part of a larger plan for around 1,200 units approved some …

  Antananarivo / AFP A house fire during a party in central Madagascar killed 38 people including 16 children as the blaze ripped through a thatched roof, police said Monday. The victims—the youngest only six months old—were trapped inside the house in Ambalavato village of Ikalamavony district in the rural centre of the island. The party-goers, including several relatives of the …