Aleppo / AFP Hundreds of elite Syrian troops moved into east Aleppo on Thursday ahead of a push into the most densely populated areas, after the UN warned the city risked becoming a “giant graveyard”. Despite fierce global criticism, forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad have pressed an assault to retake control of all of Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial …

  Moscow / AFP President Vladimir Putin adopted a conciliatory tone to international rivals in a key speech on Thursday, saying Russia needed has “never looked for enemies” in the international community. “We do not want confrontation with anyone. It is not needed—not by us, our partners, the international community,” Putin said during an address on the state of the nation. …

  Istanbul / AFP Moscow and Damascus were not behind an air strike in northern Syria that killed four Turkish soldiers, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday. “Neither Russia nor Syria, its air force, had anything to do with this,” Lavrov told a news conference in the southern Turkish resort of Alanya, alongside his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. …