Arbil / AFP US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter arrived in Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan on Sunday to review the ongoing military offensive to retake the extremist bastion of Mosul. As the Pentagon chief went into talks with Kurdish leader Massud Barzani, US officials said Kurdish peshmerga forces had almost reached their goals in the week-old offensive. The battle …

  Lagos / AFP Nigerian troops have thwarted an attempted hijack of a vessel in the restive Niger Delta and separately arrested five pipeline vandals, a spokesman said on Sunday. “Troops of Operation Base 2 repelled a hijack of a vessel (MT VAJARA) by heavily armed bandits in Ramos River, around Agge area of Delta state,” Lieutenant Commander Thomas Otuji said …

  Calais / AFP With only hours to go before workers begin to demolish France’s “Jungle” migrant camp on Monday, officials are racing to process as many young people as possible to be transferred to Britain. The pace is therefore brisk at the camp outside Calais: young migrants are shown into a container where British Home Office officials have set up …