Nuku’alofa/ AFP Rescuers launched an air and sea search on Tuesday for a boat missing in Pacific waters off Tonga carrying 11 people, including up to five children. Tongan police said the boat set off from the capital Nuku’alofa with another vessel on Monday afternoon and was due to arrive overnight in Fonoifua island, about 90 kilometres (55 miles) ...

  Lebanon / AFP Lebanese troops raided makeshift refugee camps near a predominantly Christian village on the border with Syria on Tuesday a day after two waves of suicide attacks. But Interior Minister Nuhad Mashnuq said the attackers who carried out Monday’s violence had come from inside Syria, not refugee settlements nearby. “We are worried that there are more terrorists, so ...

  Moscow / AFP Russian President Vladimir Putin is to hold his first phone call with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan since Ankara downed one of Moscow’s warplanes in Syria, the Kremlin said Tuesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the conversation would take place on Wednesday at the “initiative of the Russian side” after the Turkish strongman sent a letter ...