AFP, BEIJING: A little girl protected by the embrace of her dead father was the last survivor pulled out of the rubble of collapsed multi-storey buildings in China, reports said Tuesday. She was found deep in the debris of four six-storey residential buildings more than 12 hours after they crumbled…

AFP, BANGKOK: Thailand’s junta chief appealed for calm Tuesday after police warned of a plot to target Bangkok with car bombs, sparking a security alert across the capital including at airports. An unusually detailed police memo was handed to reporters on Monday warning that an unidentified group…

AFP, LASHKAR GAH: Afghanistan has deployed hundreds of commandos backed by NATO air strikes in Lashkar Gah to flush out Taliban insurgents from the strategic city after the militants killed 14 people in a coordinated attack, officials said Tuesday.The assault Monday marked the militants’ latest…

AFP, MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin has cancelled a planned visit to Paris, the Kremlin said Tuesday, after French President Francois Hollande accused Syrian troops of committing a “war crime” in Aleppo with Russia’s support.“The president has decided to cancel this visit,”…

AFP, ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s government has imposed a travel ban on a leading journalist after he sparked an uproar by reporting that civilian officials had clashed with the military over its covert support for militants.Cyril Almeida, an assistant editor at Dawn, the country’s oldest and…

AFP, NAIROBI: Hundreds of Ethiopian troops pulled out of a town in central Somalia Tuesday, at least the second location vacated by their forces in recent weeks, a Somali security official said. Security official Abdirisak Moalim Ahmed said Ethiopian soldiers present in El-Ali, Hiran region, as part…

AFP, WASHINGTON: A deadly air strike by a Saudi-led coalition on a funeral in Yemen embarrassed Washington and undermined its efforts to pressure Moscow…