London / AFP A reporter for Britain’s Times newspaper who hit the headlines after being kidnapped and shot in Syria said on Saturday that a recent Facebook video appeared to show the gunman was now a US-backed rebel. Anthony Loyd was seized along with photographer Jack Hill in 2014 as they were returning to Turkey after several days working in ...

  Naypyidaw/ AFP Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi concluded a landmark peace summit with ethnic rebels on Saturday, calling it the first step on what promises to be a tough road to peace. The conference in the capital Naypyidaw was Suu Kyi’s first big drive to end ethnic minority insurgencies that have rumbled across Myanmar’s frontier states for nearly seven decades. ...

  Davao / AFP Philippine authorities on Saturday blamed a notorious group of militants for the bombing of a night market in President Rodrigo Duterte’s home town that killed at least 14 people. An improvised explosive device tore through the bustling market in the heart of Davao city and close to one of its top hotels just before 11:00pm (1500 GMT) ...