Moscow / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone with the leaders of Turkey and Iraq about battle for Mosul, where Iraqi forces are fighting to oust the IS group, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. Putin “wished the Iraqi army and its allies complete success in their objectives,” the Kremlin said in a statement on his conversations with Turkish …

  Aden / AFP Heavy fighting rocked Yemen hours before a UN-brokered ceasefire was due to begin on Wednesday, as warring parties come under mounting pressure to end a conflict that has raged for more than two years. The truce will be the sixth attempt to end the bloodshed. Civilians have paid the highest price in a country that was …

  Donetsk / AFP Thousands of pro-Russian rebels and supporters in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday turned out to bid farewell to notorious rebel commander Arseny Pavlov, who was killed in a weekend bombing. Some 5,000 people queued outside Donetsk’s opera theatre to pay last respects to the 33-year-old Russian, known as “Motorola”, who died Sunday when a homemade device exploded …