AFP, SYDNEY:  Missing flight MH370 is almost certainly not in the current search zone in the remote Indian Ocean and may be further north, new analysis showed yesterday, but authorities indicated the hunt may not be expanded.No trace has been found in the massive underwater search off Australia…

AFP,WASHINGTON:  China has returned a US underwater probe it seized in the South China Sea, the Pentagon confirmed after Beijing’s capture of the craft prompted a dispute between the two powers. The Chinese navy handed over the drone near the location it had been seized, the Pentagon said,…

AFP, TOKYO:  Japan began killing about 122,000 farm birds yesterday to contain another outbreak of a highly contagious strain of avian flu, officials said. It is the sixth mass cull this winter, with nearly a million birds slaughtered in total as the virus has been detected at several farms across…

AFP, LUBUMBASHI:  Sustained gunfire erupted yesterday in Lubumbashi, DR Congo’s second-largest city, where large numbers of police have been deployed on the last day of President Joseph Kabila’s mandate, an AFP correspondent said.The firing started at 9:15am (0715 GMT) in the Matuba…

AFP,GENEVA:  Swiss police said yesterday they had halted a search for a shooter who injured three men in a Muslim prayer hall in Zurich, after identifying a body near the scene. “The perpetrator of the shooting at the Islamic Centre in Zurich on Monday has been identified,” Zurich cantonal…

AFP, BEIRUT:  At least 25,000 people have left the bombed-out eastern districts of Syria’s Aleppo since evacuations began last week, the International…

AFP, ADEN:  At least 22 people were killed in clashes between government forces and rebels on the outskirts of the flashpoint city of Taez in southwest Yemen, military sources said yesterday. The fighting late Monday north of Taez, held by loyalists but partly surrounded by Shiite Huthis and their…

AFP, MOSCOW: A Russian city declared a state of emergency Monday after 49 people seeking cheap alcohol died after drinking bath essence containing methanol, a toxic substance used in anti-freeze. The country’s Investigative Committee, a powerful panel of inquiry, has launched a probe into the…

AFP, KABUL:  An American-Canadian couple held hostage by the Taliban have appeared in a video for the first time with their two children born in captivity, pleading with President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump to secure their release.Canadian Joshua Boyle and his American wife Caitlan…