KABUL / AFP Officials say Afghan forces have repelled a Taliban assault on the northern city of Kunduz, which the insurgents had briefly seized last year. Gen. Qasim Jangalbagh, the provincial police chief, said on Saturday that security in Kunduz city has improved and that the Taliban were defeated in other parts of Kunduz province. Abdul Wasay Basil, spokesman for ...

Baghdad / AFP A group of Iraqi lawmakers said they would not take part in a Saturday parliament session to select a replacement for the speaker, apparently leaving it without the necessary quorum. Iraq was on course to have two rival claimants to the speakership, further increasing chaos in parliament, which has already seen a vote to sack speaker Salim Al ...

  United Nations / AFP The UN Security Council strongly condemned North Korea’s test-firing of a missile on Friday, saying that the launch violated UN resolutions even if it was a failure. The council demanded that North Korea refrain from further actions in violation of resolutions barring Pyongyang from developing ballistic missile technology. In a unanimous statement, the council said ...