United Nations / AFP The UN Security Council on Tuesday urged the international community to live up to its “moral and political obligation” to aid Iraqi civilians who fled an operation against the IS group in Fallujah. Council members “welcomed the successful counteroffensive” launched by Iraqi forces and coalition partners on May 22-23 to retake Fallujah, a key extremist ...

  Seoul, South Korea / AFP Nuclear-armed North Korea conducted two back-to-back tests of a powerful new medium-range missile on Wednesday, with both achieving a significant increase in flight distance over previous failed launches, South Korea’s Defence Ministry said. Both tests were believed to be of a much-hyped, intermediate-range Musudan missile — theoretically capable of reaching US bases as far away ...

  New Delhi / AFP India successfully launched on Wednesday a rocket carrying a record 20 satellites as its famously frugal space agency looks to grab a larger slice of the lucrative commercial space market. The rocket blasted off from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota carrying satellites from the US, Germany, Canada and Indonesia, the most in a single Indian mission. ...