AFP, KANDAHAR: The death toll from a 27-hour Taliban siege of Kandahar airport has jumped to 50, Afghan officials said Thursday, after a conference in Pakistan shored up international support for reviving peace talks. Eleven suicide attackers on Tuesday breached the high-security complex which also…

AFP, AL-MALIKIYEH, Syria: A Kurdish-Arab coalition fighting the Islamic State jihadist group in northern Syria has announced the creation of a political wing, as momentum builds for a diplomatic solution to the war. The formation of the Syrian Democratic Council was agreed at a two-day conference in…

AFP, BERLIN: The first batch of German troops and aircraft took off Thursday for Turkey as part of a deployment in the battle against the Islamic State…

AFP, RIYADH: Gulf monarchs on Thursday endorsed a “political solution” for war-ravaged Syria, under an international framework agreed to last month. At the end of a two-day annual summit, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) rulers said they “support a political settlement... that guarantees…

AFP, SALALAH, Oman: A team of walkers set off on a 50-day trek from Oman on Thursday that will take them across the world’s largest sand desert,…

AFP, JERUSALEM: Israel and the United States on Thursday successfully tested a ballistic missile interceptor as the Jewish state seeks to upgrade its defences in the face of regional threats, officials said. The trial from an Israeli test range involved the Arrow 3 interceptor, designed to shoot down…