BEIRUT / AP US-backed Syrian fighters on Monday cut the main road between the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, which is controlled by the IS group, and the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, which is partially held by IS, as they press against the extremists’ territory in Syria. But despite the fresh blockade on the Raqqa-Deir el-Zour road, IS ...

  PESHAWAR / AP Militants attacked several Pakistani military posts in tribal regions along the Afghan border, killing six soldiers, the army said on Monday. Pakistani troops repulsed the attackers, who had crossed overnight from Afghanistan into the Mohmand tribal region where three military posts were ambushed, the army statement said. It added that 10 of the attackers were believed ...

  KUALA LUMPUR / AP Malaysia is protecting its “sovereignty and dignity” by expelling the North Korean ambassador, the prime minister said on Monday, as relations between the countries unraveled further over the poisoning of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of North Korea’s leader. North Korea announced shortly before the deadline for its ambassador to leave Malaysia on ...

  MOSCOW / AP Claims by President Donald Trump that his phones were wiretapped by his predecessor, Barack Obama, during the 2016 election campaign are a purely domestic matter for the United States, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday. The claim came amid revelations about contacts between Trump aides and Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., both ...

  MANILA / AP A retired Philippine police officer testified on Monday that President Rodrigo Duterte and his men were linked to nearly 200 killings that the officer and a “death squad” carried out when Duterte was mayor of a southern city. Arturo Lascanas outlined at a Senate inquiry some of the key killings he and others allegedly staged “with ...

  BERLIN / AP Germany’s government on Monday condemned remarks by Turkey’s president accusing officials of “Nazi practices,” days after a local authority prevented a Turkish minister from addressing a rally there. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statements “absolutely unacceptable.” “Germany cannot be outmatched regarding the rule of law, tolerance and liberalism,” he ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has continued to make improvements in the fuel efficiency of its fleet, resulting in substantial reductions in carbon dioxide emissions and reinforcing the sustainability credentials of the airline. The airline’s dedicated fuel efficiency team drove numerous initiatives across all operational functions of the business, ...

  Bloomberg UK holidaymakers are weathering the impact of last year’s Brexit’s vote on the pound, with passenger numbers on EasyJet Plc’s ski routes and city-break flights surging last month, according to the discount carrier. Traffic from Britain to winter sports centers gained 12 percent in February, exceeding the 10.5 percent increase across the network, EasyJet said Monday. Group-wide travel ...

  Bloomberg Puma SE and Under Armour Inc. have switched sides. Helped by endorsements from Rihanna and Kylie Jenner, the German sportswear maker is in comeback mode. Its profits are reviving and its shares are surging — a mirror image to its similarly sized U.S. rival, which is reeling from a sales slowdown and a stock slump. Puma’s celebrity-fueled approach ...

  Bloomberg Kenya’s government opposes using regulation to force East Africa’s biggest mobile operator Safaricom Ltd. to be broken up, after a draft study found the company is dominant in the country’s telecommunications industry, Information, Communications and Technology Secretary Joseph Mucheru said. The government disapproves of measures that would stifle innovation as it wants companies to expand by investing in ...