Ankara / AFP President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey could join a US-led operation in Syria to retake the IS group’s stronghold of Raqa only if Kurdish fighters are not involved, a newspaper reported Sunday. US support for Kurdish forces in Syria is a sore point for Ankara, which considers such fighters to be “terrorists” linked to the Kurdish …

  BAGHDAD / AP A suicide bomber in Iraq killed at least seven people who were setting up tents on Sunday ahead of a major Shiite religious observance next month, officials said. The bomber struck as residents of Baghdad’s western Eskan neighborhood were preparing for Ashoura, which commemorates the 7th century death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, …

  NEW DELHI / AP India’s prime minister said on Sunday that his country will ratify the Paris Agreement on climate change early next month. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government will ratify the agreement Oct. 2, coinciding with the birth anniversary of India’s independence leader Mohandas Gandhi. Modi made the announcement at a meeting of his Bharatiya Janata Party’s …