Hasakeh / AFP Syrian government warplanes were in the air again on Saturday over the flashpoint northeastern city of Hasakeh, despite a US warning against new strikes that might endanger its military advisers. In another escalation of the five-year war, regime planes this week bombarded positions held by US-backed Kurdish forces in the city fighting the IS extremist group. …

  Kunduz / AFP Taliban militants on Saturday captured a district in northeastern Kunduz province, near the provincial capital where militants scored their biggest victory in 14 years last September. The militants, waging a bloody insurgency to topple the Western-backed Kabul government, have intensified their attacks nationwide and tightened their grip on the besieged capital of Helmand province southwest of Kunduz …

  Washington / AFP US Vice President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko in a phonecall urged a speedy resolution to the conflict with pro-Russian separatists amid a spike in tensions with Moscow, the White House said. Biden and Poroshenko “expressed concern over the recent surge in fighting in eastern Ukraine, where ceasefire violations by combined Russian-separatist forces are at …