SOUTH OF MOSUL / AP Iraqi forces pushed deeper into western Mosul on Saturday amid stiff resistance from entrenched IS fighters, a commander on the scene said. Special forces Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi said that his troops are “moving very slowly” and that IS fighters are responding with car bombs, snipers and dozens of armed drones. Hundreds of civilian ...

  ANKARA / AP Turkey’s prime minister has officially launched his ruling party’s campaign for a “yes” vote in a referendum on ushering a presidential system, which critics fear will concentrate too many powers in the hands of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Binali Yildirim formally got campaigning going on Saturday telling supporters in a sports arena that the proposed new ...

  BERLIN / AP Angela Merkel’s conservatives have formally nominated the German chancellor as her party’s top candidate for the September parliamentary election in the region where she has her political base. The dpa news agency reported that Merkel won the support of 95 percent of delegates at a convention of the Christian Democrats’ branch in northeastern Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state ...

  Bloomberg Vice President Mike Pence told an influential group of Jewish Republicans gathered in Las Vegas that the US is “assessing” whether to move the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as he sought to assure a key constituency and political fundraising powerhouse of the administration’s commitment to their causes. “The president I know will be ...

  KUALA LUMPUR / AP Malaysian police said on Saturday that they would issue an arrest warrant for a North Korean diplomat if he refuses to cooperate with the investigation into the deadly attack on North Korean ruler Kim Jong Un’s exiled half brother. The investigation has unleashed a serious diplomatic fight between Malaysia and North Korea, a prime suspect in ...

  MANILA / AP Hundreds of left-wing and pro-democracy activists on Saturday marked the anniversary of the 1986 revolt that ousted Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos to warn about what they say are the incumbent president’s dictatorial tendencies and condemn his decision to allow Marcos to be buried in a heroes’ cemetery. More than 1,000 activists from different groups gathered at the ...

  Financial markets have been sending an interesting message about President Trump and Russia. After Trump’s election, investors seemed to be betting that sanctions against Moscow would soon be eased. But this confidence collapsed in late January, and Russian stocks plummeted. The numbers tell the story: From Nov. 7, the day before the election, to Jan. 27, the MICEX index ...

  The European Central Bank (ECB) just can’t get a break. After many years of unconventional monetary measures that have drawn lots of political criticism and attacks and forced it to intervene uncomfortably in the functioning and pricing of financial markets, it was hoping that a pickup in euro-zone economic activity would allow it to declare victory and gradually normalize ...

  Nearly a decade after a devastating financial crisis, the U.S. remains poorly prepared for a repeat. So it’s unsettling that Daniel Tarullo, the Federal Reserve official who has done the most to make the country’s banks stronger, plans to step down — and all the more important that President Donald Trump find a worthy replacement. The 2008 crisis exposed ...

  US Vice President Mike Pence told Republican Jewish Coalition that Washington is assessing whether to move American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump on the campaign trail had pledged to move the embassy, although he’s softened his stance since taking office in January. Pence assured the influential Jewish group that he alongwith President Trump will work ...