BEIRUT: The international coalition battling the Islamic State group will begin a final push on the jihadists' Syrian stronghold Raqa in the coming days, French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday, reports AFP. But on the ground, the US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance spearheading the…

London: British scientists have made a world-first breakthrough in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, reports BBC. Researchers in Oxford and Birmingham say they can isolate different strains of the disease using a process called genome sequencing. It means patients who may have waited months to get the…

Jindo: South Korea's sunken Sewol ferry was sailed away from its watery grave yesterday, beginning its final journey nearly three years after it went…

Washington: The Trump administration has issued a permit to energy company TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline, reports BBC. The State Department said it had found the project, which was blocked by former US President Barack Obama, to be in the US national interest. The 1,180mile (1,900km)…

Delhi: An MP who beat an airline employee repeatedly with a slipper has been banned on five major Indian airlines, reports BBC. Ravindra Gaikwad said he "hit him 25 times with my sandal" for "arrogance" after failing to get a business class seat on an Air India flight. Air India,…

Cairo: Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been freed from detention, six years after being overthrown, reports BBC. Mr Mubarak left a military…