Hanoi / AFP President Barack Obama on Monday confirmed Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a US air strike, hailing his death as an “important milestone” in efforts to bring peace to Afghanistan. Saturday’s bombing raid, the first known American assault on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Pakistani soil, marks a major blow to the militant movement, …

  Istanbul / AFP Nearly half of the schools run by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees have been hit by conflict in the last five years, it said on Monday on the sidelines of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier reminded participants on the opening day of the two-day summit that attacks on …

  Beirut/ AFP More than 120 people were killed on Monday in a wave of bombings claimed by the IS group in northwestern Syria, the deadliest attacks yet in the regime’s coastal heartland. Seven near-simultaneous explosions targeted bus stations, hospitals and other civilian sites in the seaside cities of Jableh and Tartus, which until now had been relatively insulated from Syria’s …

  Vatican City / AFP Pope Francis met the grand imam of Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque at the Vatican on Monday in a historic encounter that was sealed with a hugely symbolic hug and exchange of kisses. The first Vatican meeting between the leader of the world’s Catholics and the highest authority in Sunni Islam marks the culmination of a significant improvement …

  Near Fallujah / AFP Iraqi forces battled the IS group on Monday in the opening stages of an operation to retake Fallujah, one of the toughest targets yet in Baghdad’s war against the extremists. As Iraqi forces struck targets in and around the extremist bastion, which saw deadly battles in 2004 between insurgents and American forces, IS claimed bombings …

The raw Sunni recruits in crisp camouflage uniforms, popping off rounds at the firing range at a US training camp here, illustrate the dilemma for the US as it seeks to form a strong military force to drive the IS from its capital, Raqqah. The US could try to build the Sunni army it would want, ideally, to capture Raqqah, …

  Greek lawmakers were pragmatic when they took the painful decision on Sunday to approve unpopular tax increases, a new privatisation fund, and free up sale of non-performing loans in exchange for much-needed bailout loans and debt relief. They will hit Greeks where it hurts, with increases in value added tax by one point to 24 per cent, more tax …

  Christopher Flavelle There may now be more campaigns devoted to selling a carbon tax than there are members of US Congress willing to support one. It’s unclear whether this shows progress toward an economy-wide price on carbon or how very far away it remains. The latest effort is the Climate Leadership Council, run by Ted Halstead, founder of the …

  A new study by researchers at Harvard University estimates that Chinese government employees fabricate 488 million social media posts each year. As the first rigorous analysis of China’s online propaganda machine, the team found that the “Fifty Cent Party” or Wumao Dang—a derogatory term used to describe contract workers popularly believed to be making fifty cents per post—largely consists …

  Dubai / Emirates Business For the second year in a row, Smart Dubai Office is partnering with the ArabNet Digital Summit to highlight digital transformation in the public and private sector and the potential for the Smart Economy. “We believe what we are doing today in Dubai will be the platform other cities will learn from,” declared HE Dr. …