Seoul / AFP North Korea on Thursday conducted what appeared to be a failed test—its second in a week—of a powerful medium-range missile that experts warn could be deployed as early as next year. South Korean and US military monitors said the missile—believed to be an intermediate-range Musudan—exploded shortly after take-off at around 6:30 am Pyongyang time. The attempted launch ...

  Bloomberg Malaysia Airlines Bhd. said it will use six surplus Airbus Group SE A380 superjumbos to form the core of a fleet of 700-seat jets dedicated to transporting Muslim travelers on the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. Peter Bellew, the carrier’s chief executive officer, met Airbus’s senior management in Toulouse, France, on Wednesday to hammer out details of the ...

  Bloomberg Nestle SA forecast the slowest full-year sales growth in more than a decade as food companies worldwide struggle against consumer resistance to price increases. Revenue will gain about 3.5 percent on an organic basis in 2016, the Vevey, Switzerland-based maker of Nespresso coffee said in a statement on Thursday, abandoning a goal for an increase of about 4.2 ...

  New York / AFP US apparel group Gap Inc. will close its Banana Republic stores in Britain as it streamlines its brick-and-mortar presence outside North America in response to weak sales. Gap will shut all eight Banana Republic stores in Britain, a Gap spokeswoman said. The majority of closures will take place by the end of January. The apparel ...

  Bloomberg UK retail sales stagnated for a second month in September as soaring prices and warm weather hit demand for clothing. The figures, from the Office for National Statistics Thursday, also showed that sales excluding auto fuel were unchanged from August. Small increases on both measures had been expected by economists. Clothing and footwear sales fell 2.8 percent after ...

  Aleppo / AFP A “humanitarian pause” began on Thursday in the Syrian army’s Russian-backed assault on rebel-held areas of Aleppo but clashes continued and there were no signs residents were heeding calls to leave. The unilateral ceasefire took effect at 8:00 am 0500 GMT) and was to last at least 11 hours, with the aim of allowing civilians and fighters ...

  Kabul / AFP The UN on Thursday warned anew of a deteriorating crisis of displacement in Afghanistan as the conflict escalates, imploring the government and international donors to step up support especially for a “lost generation” of children. More than 323,000 Afghans were internally displaced across the country in the first 10 months of this year, according to UN ...

  Celle / AFP A teenage girl went on trial in Germany on Thursday for stabbing a police officer, an assault allegedly “ordered” by the IS organisation but which was not claimed by the extremist group. The court in the northern city of Celle ruled at the start of the proceedings against Safia S., 16, that they would take place ...

  Nawaran/AFP Kurdish forces launched a major assault on Thursday on a town held by the IS group near Mosul, opening a new front in the offensive to wrest back the extremists’ last Iraqi bastion. Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi told an international meeting in Paris that the offensive was “advancing faster than expected” as it entered its fourth day. France ...

  Jakarta / AFP Indonesian police shot dead a man carrying knives and suspected pipe bombs after he launched a daylight assault on officers near Jakarta on Thursday, an official said, in an attack later claimed by the IS group. The man was shot three times as he stabbed wildly at officers on a busy intersection in Tangerang, a satellite ...