WASHINGTON / AP The Pentagon wants to expand the military’s ability to battle al-Qaida-linked militants in Somalia, potentially putting US forces closer to the fight against a stubborn extremist group that has plotted attacks against America, senior US officials said. The recommendations sent to the White House would allow US special operations forces to increase assistance to the Somali National ...

  Moscow / AFP A convicted Russian opposition activist who says he was tortured in prison was freed on Sunday and has vowed to keep up the fight for human rights in Russia. Ildar Dadin was released from his jail in the remote Altai region in southern Siberia after Russia’s Supreme Court annulled his 2½-year sentence last week because of procedural ...

  NEW DELHI / AP India’s top diplomat will visit Washington this week for talks with the new US administration, an Indian foreign ministry official said on Sunday. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar is expected to discuss with American officials India’s concerns over proposed US legislation that could make it harder for companies to replace American workers with those from India and ...

  There was a brief moment after Donald Trump’s election when it was conceivable to ask whether he would strive to be a “uniter” or a “divider.” The moment passed quickly as Trump made it clear that he does not intend to abandon the style of politics — insulting and divisive — that got him elected. His declaration last week ...

  It’s nearly a decade since Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Group Plc was bailed out. Today, the lender is still owned by taxpayers, shunned by shareholders and ruled by regulators. The management team has little else it can really do but keep shrinking and hope the bank can eventually buck a nine-year run of losses. These are noble objectives, ...

  Say this for Donald Trump: He is forcing Europeans to think more seriously about how to protect and defend their continent. The US president’s disparagement of NATO goes too far, and his focus on getting Europeans to spend more on defense is misplaced. That said, European nations have for too long treated their defense budgets as an extension of ...

  Kim Jong Nam, the oldest half-brother of North Korean’s leader Kim Jong Un, was murdered in Malaysia more than a week ago. Initial report said that two unidentified women killed Kim Jong Nam at Kuala Lumpur’s airport with a poison needle and fled the scene. Kim Jong Nam, the eldest son of former leader Kim Jong Il, had lived ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Gulf stocks generally moved little in thin trade on Sunday but new listings surged on Saudi Arabia’s secondary market as that bourse, which has less onerous listing requirements than the main Riyadh market, opened its doors for the first time. The main Saudi index edged up 0.1 percent. Real estate investment trusts, which have been soaring ...

  Bloomberg China’s insurance regulator banned Evergrande Life Insurance Co. from stock investments for one year, stepping up its crackdown on the industry’s most “radical” investors in a bid to rein in risks. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission also lowered Evergrande Life’s ceiling on equity holdings to 20 percent of assets, from a 30 percent requirement, and barred two executives ...

  Bloomberg Aflac Inc., the largest seller of supplemental health insurance, has started betting on infrastructure debt at its US and Japan businesses. The insurer, which pushed into that asset class in the fourth quarter, invested $13 million in the debt last year at its Japan operation and $2 million at its US business, according to a regulatory filing. Aflac ...