Moscow / AFP US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov said on Friday they had agreed on “concrete steps” to salvage a failing truce and tackle extremist groups in Syria but refrained from laying out their deal. The top diplomats emerged from 12-hour marathon talks saying they agreed on the way forward, but Kerry stressed that …

  Muzaffarbad / AFP A Pakistani social media celebrity whose selfies polarised the deeply conservative Muslim country has been murdered by her brother in a suspected honour killing, officials said Saturday, prompting shock and revulsion. Qandeel Baloch, praised by many of the country’s youth for her willingness to break social taboos but condemned by conservatives, was strangled near the city …

  Srinagar / AFP Police seized tens of thousands of newspapers in Indian-controlled Kashmir early Saturday and detained printing press workers, ramping up an information blackout after a week of unrest left 39 dead, officials and media outlets said. Teams of officers swooped on major newspaper offices in the restive region overnight, seizing printing plates in an attempt to curb …