Aleppo / AFP The Syrian army exchanged fire with rebels in battleground second city Aleppo even before the expiry at midnight on Wednesday of a Russian- and US-brokered ceasefire. Two people were wounded early Wednesday when regime aircraft strafed rebel positions in two eastern neighbourhoods of the divided city with heavy machinegun fire, an AFP correspondent reported. Late Tuesday, ...

  Dhaka / AP Clashes erupted in Bangladesh on Wednesday after the execution of a top hardliner leader, heightening tension in a country reeling from a string of killings of secular and liberal activists. Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-E-Islami party, was hanged at a Dhaka jail late Tuesday for the massacre of intellectuals during the 1971 independence war ...

Madrid / AFP Spain’s foreign minister on Wednesday described the EU’s deal with Turkey to stem the influx of migrants as a “botched job”, blasting Europe’s “inadequate” response to its worst migration crisis since World War II. Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said he was unhappy with leaving the solution to the crisis in the hands of a country outside the European ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany’s foreign minister said he hoped the warring sides in Ukraine’s conflict could agree to extend a shaky truce, ahead of peace talks in Berlin later Wednesday. Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he also wanted negotiators to move forward on organising local elections in eastern Ukraine, warning that each round of fruitless talks risks undermining a fragile peace ...

  London / AFP Queen Elizabeth II was caught on camera describing some Chinese officials as “very rude” in a rare diplomatic gaffe by the long-serving British monarch over a state visit that drummed up billions in Chinese investment. Her comments, aired on Wednesday, came just hours after Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday also made inadvertently public remarks, referring ...

  Early in his tenure as director of national intelligence, James Clapper could sometimes be heard complaining “I’m too old for this [expletive]!” He has now served almost six years as America’s top intelligence official, and when I asked him this week how much longer he would be in harness, he consulted his calendar and answered with relief, “265 days!” ...

  Hiroshima stands as an obnoxious reminder of atrocities of a nuclear war. It keeps warning us that such an apocalypse should never be repeated. With Barack Obama’s trip to Hiroshima this month — the first by a sitting US President — hopes are raised the visit would renew push for global nuclear disarmament in light of horror Hiroshima still ...

  Jonathan Bernstein Good for Donald Trump for getting an early start on his presidential transition team. Though Chris Christie may not be ideal for this particular job, it is a vital task, especially since Trump’s challenges will be unusually difficult, should he actually win the election. This is in part because, as Politico reported on Monday before the Christie ...

This spring, millions of Americans have learned to dread going to the airport. An unfortunate combination of surging passenger volumes and declining numbers of screeners have led to security lines that can average over an hour in length. Thousands of passengers are missing flights daily. Meanwhile, airports and airlines across the U.S. are struggling to contain passenger anger. In desperation ...

  Ritika Sharma / Emirates Business If you think a salesman glued to his smartphone, busy in social media, is hampering his company’s business, think again; this could not be the case at least in the UAE. A recent survey has revealed that UAE salespeople who spend around 4.8 hours per week on social media are actually boosting the sales ...