Sembalun / AFP Hundreds of tourists have fled a volcanic eruption at a popular Indonesian hiking destination, an official said on Wednesday, expressing fears some may have stayed behind to document the natural wonder. Around 1,000 tourists, including about 600 foreigners, were believed to be in the area when Mount Barujari sent columns of ash and smoke shooting high ...

  Aleppo / AFP An air strike and artillery fire hit the two largest hospitals in rebel-held parts of Syria’s Aleppo on Wednesday, in what rights groups said was a deliberate strategy of targeting civilian infrastructure. President Bashar Al Assad’s forces and his ally Moscow have carried out a barrage of air strikes on opposition-controlled eastern Aleppo since Syria’s regime ...

  Jerusalem / AFP Israeli ex-president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres died on Wednesday, some two weeks after suffering a major stroke. Peres, who was 93, held nearly every major office in the country, serving twice as prime minister and also as president, a mostly ceremonial role, from 2007 to 2014. He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize jointly ...