AFP, BERLIN: Under growing domestic pressure over her open-door policy on refugees, Germany’s Angela Merkel has come out swinging, insisting “we will manage” the crisis set to define her nearly decade-old chancellorship. Usually calm and measured if not dull, Merkel spoke passionately…

AFP, SANAA: A suspected Saudi-led air strike killed at least 13 people at a wedding in a rebel-held town in Yemen, witnesses and the rebels said Thursday, even as UN peace efforts made headway. The Saudi-led coalition, under mounting criticism over the civilian death toll of its bombing campaign against…

AFP, JAKARTA: Indonesia agreed yesterday to accept international help to combat forest fires cloaking Southeast Asia in haze, after weeks of failed attempts to douse the blazes that have infuriated its neighbours. Officials said Singapore and Russia had already offered help and talks were under way…

AFP, ANKARA: Turkey is giving a European Union plan to assist the country in hosting over two million Syrian refugees only a lukewarm reception, indicating funding needs to be drastically increased and lamenting shortfalls in help over previous years. The EU hopes that helping refugees inside Turkey…

Popularity of ‘Putin the Shiite’ sky high in Iraq AFP, BAGHDAD: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bullish entry into the Syrian conflict has worked wonders for his popularity in neighbouring Iraq, where some await “Hajji Putin” like a saviour. Sitting at his easel in his…