Beirut / AFP Clashes around Syria’s second city Aleppo have killed at least 16 pro-regime fighters and 19 members of Al-Qaeda’s affiliate and allied rebel groups within a 24-hour period, a monitor said on Sunday. “Fierce fighting raged past midnight (Sunday) on several fronts in the south of Aleppo province,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah ...

Philippines / AFP A Philippine offensive against the extremist Abu Sayyaf group after a spate of kidnappings has left 18 soldiers and five fighters dead in the worst violence in the troubled south this year, authorities said on Sunday. Saturday’s clashes on the strife-torn island of Basilan came after an April 8 ransom deadline set by Abu Sayyaf, who had ...

Taipei / AFP Hundreds of Taiwanese rallied on Sunday to show support for retaining the death penalty, after the beheading of a child in a street attack shocked the island. Demonstrators dressed in black and held white roses in mourning for the four-year-old girl murdered on March 28 near a Taipei metro station. Many wore stickers reading “Death penalty is ...