London / AFP The British government announced fresh investment in research and development on Monday, ahead of the first post-Brexit budget which is expected to signal a move away from the previous administration’s rigid fiscal targets. The government will increase research and development spending worth £2 billion ($2.5 billion, 2.3 billion euros) annually until 2020, Prime Minister Theresa May’s ...

  Aleppo / AFP Syrian regime forces advanced quickly in rebel-held areas of Aleppo on Monday, pressing a new offensive in defiance of international concern over the fate of the city and its residents. More than 100 civilians have been killed in the east since the regime’s latest offensive began on Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights ...

  Damascus / AFP US President Barack Obama said he is “not optimistic” about Syria’s future, as the UN warned time is running out to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in Aleppo which has been pounded by air strikes for nearly a week. Government forces launched a ferocious assault last Tuesday to recapture eastern Aleppo, killing 115 civilians so far. In ...

  Sanaa / AFP A 48-hour ceasefire ended on Monday in Yemen after failing to stem violence across the country, with both sides blaming each other for deadly “violations” of the US-backed truce. The ceasefire, aimed at ending the chaos and bloodshed that has gripped Yemen since March 2015, came into effect on Saturday following the intervention of US Secretary ...

  Ankara / AFP Turkish police detained on Monday the pro-Kurdish co-mayor of Mardin, state media reported, the latest municipal chief of a major southeastern city to be taken into custody in a growing crackdown. Ahmet Turk was detained along with Emin Irmak, co-mayor of central Artuklu district in Mardin, as part of a “terror probe”, the official news agency ...

  Yangon / AFP More than 1,000 houses in Rohingya villages have been razed in northwestern Myanmar, according to analysis of satellite images from Human Rights Watch released on Monday that fly in the face of government denials. Troops have poured into a strip of land along the Bangladesh border, an area which is largely home to the stateless Muslim ...

Seoul / AFP South Korea’s main opposition party voted on Monday to seek the impeachment of President Park Geun-Hye after prosecutors named her a criminal suspect in a snowballing corruption case. But it remains unclear exactly when Park’s opponents will formally try to start the process, a difficult and lengthy one with no guarantee about the outcome. Members of the Democratic ...

  Washington / AFP As Donald Trump builds the team he has promised will drain the Washington swamp, the president-elect may temper concerns provoked by early controversial picks by hiring a respected but tough-talking Marine general. As the Republican billionaire’s motley crew of advisors gathered once again on Monday at his Trump Tower offices in New York, talk was of retired ...

  Washington / AFP One policeman was shot dead and three others shot and wounded in four US cities, coinciding with an epidemic of racially-tinged gun violence involving law enforcement. Police were shot in San Antonio, Texas, Sanibel, Florida, and in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and Gladstone, local police departments said. There was no known connection between the shootings. ...

  Manila / AFP Children as young as nine could be jailed in the Philippines for certain crimes under a proposed law backed by the president, sparking concern on Monday from the United Nations and rights groups. President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies have been pushing to pass laws by December that would restore the death penalty and lower the minimum age of ...