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  Tel aviv / AFP Israel’s air force targeted gunman linked to the IS group in Syria overnight, the army said on Monday, after they fired on an Israeli soldier in the occupied Golan Heights. “Overnight the (Israeli air force) targeted an abandoned UN building that has been used by the IS as an operations centre along the border in the ...

  Ankara / AP The UN’s expert on torture was on Monday beginning a week-long visit to Turkey following claims prisoners have been ill-treated in the wake of the July failed coup. Nils Melzer, special rapporteur on torture, arrived in Turkey on Sunday and will speak with alleged victims and inspect detention facilities, the United Nations in Ankara said. His visit, ...

  Bartalla / AFP An Iraqi officer shuffled through identity cards as he sat at a battered desk by the side of the dust-blown highway heading east from the city of Mosul. Six men in dirt-spattered tracksuits huddled nearby, waiting on a concrete slab, part of the latest convoy of civilians to flee fighting as government forces try to oust IS ...

  Imamnazar /AFP Asian neighbours Turkmenistan and Afghanistan on Monday opened the first section of a $2 billion link connecting their two countries by rail for the first time and set to extend to Tajikistan. Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani attended the colourful celebrations featuring Turkmen traditional dancers. A train pulling 46 freight cars completed ...

  Kolkata / AP Tens of thousands of people turned out on Monday for nationwide protests against India’s controversial ban on high-value banknotes, which opposition party organisers say has caused a “financial emergency”. India is still reeling from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shock decision nearly three weeks ago to pull 86 percent of the currency from circulation overnight, triggering a chronic ...

  Dhaka /AFP Multiple boats packed with Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar were turned back by Bangladesh border guards on Monday, despite appeals by the country’s opposition to provide shelter to the persecuted Muslim minority. Thousands of desperate Rohingya from Myanmar’s western Rakhine state have flooded over the border into Bangladesh in the last week, bringing with them horrifying ...

  For a man who had been reported dead so many times before, and whose vision of the world had shrunk long ago to the size of a t-shirt, Fidel Castro triggered a remarkable commotion when he died this weekend at age 90. Nowhere were the paeans more heartfelt than in Latin America. “A great one has died,” wrote Ecuador’s ...

  The holidays and year-end tax considerations make this the season of giving. And there are indications Americans will be more generous than ever. In 2015, Americans donated a record $373.25 billion in charitable contributions, up a little more than 4 percent from the year before, according to Giving USA, the most reliable chronicler of philanthropy. More than seven in ...

Africa and the world cannot afford a failing economy in the continent’s most populous nation. Yet that is exactly what Nigeria might be getting: Its economy is on track to shrink by 1.7 percent this year, the official unemployment rate has more than doubled over the last two years, and inflation is at an 11-year high. Nigeria’s Horrors and Hopes ...

  Preparing a future generation that is well-equipped to face fresh challenges while building up on a diversified economy is the best way to bring about sustainable development in the country. The UAE’s boost to the knowledge-based economy stems from the fact that to ensure diversification of economy, the country’s educational set-up has to be strengthened. The Ministry of Education ...