AFP, TEHRAN: Iran has sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden off Yemen's coast to protect commercial vessels, Iranian media said Thursday, at a time of heightened tension for the United States in the region. The announcement came as Washington said it had destroyed radar sites controlled by the Iran-backed…

AFP, WASHINGTON: Despite repeated setbacks on the path to peace in war-wracked Syria, world and regional powers will give diplomacy another chance in weekend talks in Europe, organized by the US and Russia, to try to secure a ceasefire that sticks. Washington and Moscow, which officially cut off bilateral…

AFP, ISTANBUL:  Israel and Turkey on Thursday agreed to open discussions on building a gas pipeline to pump Israeli gas to Europe, as the Israeli energy minister made the first ministerial visit since a crisis in ties. Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz met his Turkish counterpart Berat Albayrak…

AFP, BANGKOK: Crown Prince Maha Vajira­longkorn will succeed his father, Thailand's junta chief said Thursday, following the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej after a long battle with ill health. "The government will proceed with the succession.  The government will inform the…

AFP, Nigeria: Twenty-one of the schoolgirls kidnapped in 2014 by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria, have been freed, the president's spokesman has confirmed. Garba Shehu said the release was "the outcome of negotiations between the administration and Islamist militants". The freed students…

AFP, MALÉ, Maldives: The Maldives angrily quit the Commonwealth on Thursday after years of wrangling over its human rights record since the toppling of its first democratically-elected leader four years ago. The troubled honeymoon island nation said it had been treated "unjustly and unfairly"…

The Indian army says two armed militants who had taken up positions in a government building in Indian-administered Kashmir have been killed. This followed a three-day standoff between the soldiers and militants near the town of Pampore on Wednesday. An army spokesman said the building was searched…