Brussels / AFP The EU is set to give conditional approval on Wednesday for Turks to gain visa-free access to the Schengen zone, sources said, meeting a key demand by Ankara to keep a migrant crisis deal alive. The European Commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation EU, will say Turkey must still meet further measures to access the ...

  SHATI REFUGEE CAMP / AP Each day, millions of gallons of raw sewage pour into the Gaza Strip’s Mediterranean beachfront, spewing out of a metal pipe and turning miles of once-scenic coastline into a stagnant dead zone. The sewage has damaged Gaza’s limited fresh water supplies, decimated fishing zones, and after years of neglect, is now floating northward and ...

  Nablus / AP Israel on Tuesday destroyed the West Bank home of a Palestinian accused of aiding in the October 2015 murder of a Jewish settler couple in the Israeli-occupied territory. Palestinian Zeid Amr, aged 26 or 27, is accused of being part of a squad from the militant Hamas movement that ambushed and shot dead Naama and Eitam ...

  INDIANAPOLIS / AP Republican Ted Cruz faces a high-stakes test for his slumping presidential campaign in Tuesday’s Indiana primary, one of the last opportunities for the Texas senator to halt Donald Trump’s stunning march toward the GOP nomination. Cruz has spent the past week camped out in Indiana, securing the support of the state’s governor and announcing retired technology ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany’s top diplomat will host talks on Wednesday with his French counterpart, the UN’s Syria envoy and Syria’s main opposition leader, as concerns grow over the war-torn country’s faltering truce. Discussions will focus on “how the conditions for a continuation of the peace talks in Geneva can be met, as well as how a reduction of ...

  ISTANBUL / AP The Turkish military says its warplanes have pounded Kurdish rebel positions in northern Iraq, killing 18 militants. The airstrikes late Monday targeted Qandil, the mountainous stronghold of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK. Ankara and its Western allies designate the PKK as a terrorist organization. The organization has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state that ...

  Baghdad / AFP The IS group broke through Kurdish defences in northern Iraq on Tuesday and killed an American service member of the US-led coalition fighting the extremists, officials said. The service member, whom the Pentagon confirmed was American, was at least the third killed by enemy fire in Iraq since IS overran swathes of the country in 2014. ...

  Stuttgart / AFP Defence Secretary Ash Carter warned on Tuesday that NATO would defend its allies against Russian “aggression” as he presided over the passing of the alliance’s European command to a new general. Carter said NATO would “keep the door open for Russia” for cooperation on global security challenges if Moscow abandoned its “sabre-rattling”. “But it’s up to ...

  TOKYO / AP North Korea, the world’s last great master of Cold War-era spectacle, is likely to deliver a big one when its ruling party holds its first congress in 36 years later this week. What exactly is in store during the congress, which opens Friday and will be presided over by leader Kim Jong Un, remains a well-kept ...

  MADRID / AP Spain’s king signed a decree on Tuesday dissolving parliament and setting a new election for June 26 after legislators chosen in an inconclusive December vote failed to agree on the country’s next prime minister. King Felipe VI signed the order in the presence of parliamentary speaker Patxi Lopez after the midnight Monday deadline for installing a ...