Antananarivo / AFP A house fire during a party in central Madagascar killed 38 people including 16 children as the blaze ripped through a thatched roof, police said Monday. The victims—the youngest only six months old—were trapped inside the house in Ambalavato village of Ikalamavony district in the rural centre of the island. The party-goers, including several relatives of the …

  Ansbach / AFP A failed Syrian asylum seeker who blew himself up outside a German music festival had made a video pledging allegiance to the IS group, in the second attack claimed by the extremists in Germany in a week. The 27-year-old assailant wounded 15 people, four of them seriously, near a cafe in the southern city of Ansbach on …

Kabul / AFP Civilian casualties in Afghanistan soared to a record high in the first half of 2016, the UN said on Monday, with children in particular paying a heavy price for growing insecurity as the conflict escalates. The UN report, which comes days after the deadliest attack in Kabul since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001, cited …