Kabul / AFP The Afghan Taliban announced on Tuesday the start of their “spring offensive” even as the government in Kabul tries to bring the insurgents back to the negotiating table to end their drawn-out conflict. The Taliban said in a statement they would “employ large-scale attacks on enemy positions across the country” during the offensive they have dubbed “Operation ...

TRIOPLI / AP Italy’s foreign minister has arrived in Tripoli, marking the first visit by a European official to Libya since a UN-backed government convened in the capital. Libyan officials say Paolo Gentiloni was received at Matiga airport on Tuesday by deputies of Fayez Serraj, the head of a unity government that Western countries hope can unite Libya and combat ...

Tehran / AFP UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura arrived in Tehran on Tuesday for talks with a key backer of President Bashar Al Assad on the eve of fresh peace negotiations in Geneva. De Mistura will meet Iran’s deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, Iranian media reported, ahead of the latest effort to end five years of fighting that ...

ANKARA / AP Turkish artillery units on Tuesday shelled IS group targets across the border in Syria, officials said, hours after rockets fired from Syria struck a Turkish border town, wounding eight people. Two rockets hit the town of Kilis early in the day in the third such cross-border incident at the town in the past five days. One rocket ...

New Delhi / AFP US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his Indian counterpart agreed on Tuesday to strengthen their cooperation on maritime security, as concerns grow in Washington over Beijing’s growing military ambitions. Carter is in New Delhi to bolster a strategic relationship Washington considers crucial in the face of what it sees as China’s rising assertiveness, particularly in the ...

BEIRUT / AP Pro-government forces in Syria launched an offensive on Tuesday to retake a strategic hilltop village south of Aleppo from insurgents, including Al-Qaida’s local affiliate. Al-Manar TV, run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which is fighting alongside Syrian government forces, reported the offensive to retake Tel Al Ais. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist-run monitoring group, ...

Libreville / AFP The number of children used by Nigeria’s Boko Haram to stage suicide bombings has risen more than 10-fold in one of the most “horrific” aspects of the insurgency, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Experts said the group, which has been weakened by a multinational military offensive, is now trying to spread terror by using children for ...

As Republicans head toward what could be a stalemated convention, they might recall how the party healed itself in 1952 in what was known as the “winter of discontent.” The Republicans drafted a military leader, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, as their presidential candidate. The looming showdown between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz is a potential “train wreck,” to quote my ...

In its drive to diversify economy, the UAE’s government has outlined several strategies, notably the scheme to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by giving foreign investors attractive incentives. Annual Investment Meeting (AIM), a world leading emerging markets’ FDI platform, is being held in Dubai within this context. It connects the top FDI investors, experts, and practitioners in the world. The ...

Brennan O’Connor SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Investor confidence in the long-delayed Dawei special economic zone (DSEZ) is growing after Japan signed on as a third equal partner with Myanmar and Thailand this December. Japan’s backing may finally kick start construction of the billion dollar project that has been crippled by funding shortfalls since 2013. If it’s ever finished, the deep-seaport ...