Kunduz / AFP Explosions echoed across Kunduz as Afghan commandos began to push back a Taliban assault on Monday, forcing residents to shelter in their homes one year after militants briefly seized the strategic provincial capital. Government helicopters were targeting gunmen from the air in a bid to repel the attack, a day before President Ashraf Ghani is due …

  Moscow / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered a halt to an agreement with the United States on plutonium disposal, citing Washington’s “unfriendly actions”. The deal, signed in 2000, was meant to allow both nuclear powers to dispose of weapons-grade plutonium from their defence programmes, a move seen as a key step in the disarmament process. The two …

  Bogota / AFP Colombian voters rejected a peace deal with communist FARC rebels, near-complete referendum results indicated, unexpectedly blasting away what the government hoped would be a historic end to the 52-year conflict. Reversing the trend of earlier opinion polls, voters appeared to have narrowly defied the government’s pleas for a new era of peace in the South American country. …