Foreign ministers from Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France have called for a total ceasefire in eastern Ukraine as Russian President Vladimir Putin ruled out the “apocalyptic scenario” of all-out war. Top diplomats from the four countries, whose leaders hammered out the initial peace plan in the Belarussian capital Minsk 12 …

Britain will send military personnel to Ukraine over the course of next month to help advise and train Ukrainian government forces, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday. Speaking before a House of Commons committee, Cameron said up to 75 British service personnel divided into four teams would be deployed to a zone away from the area …

Pro-Russian forces massing near Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol are continuing to attack government troop positions, Kiev says, fuelling concerns for the fate of an internationally brokered ceasefire. Continued hostilities there and elsewhere meant a pull-back of heavy weapons could not go ahead as agreed, Ukrainian officials said. “As Ukrainian …

President Uhuru Kenyatta will make a three-day State visit to the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria from February 24, 2015. The visit comes after Kenya recently opened a resident mission in Algiers and posted Ambassador Moi Lemoshira to promote diplomatic relations between the two countries. Previously, Kenya’s embassy in Cairo …

Tunisian Prime Minister Habib Essid called on governors to discharge their missions in countering terrorism and protecting borders against any threat to the national security. « Tunisia’s major challenge today is security, which requires a firm action, » he said, Saturday, in his opening address of the Conference of Governors.

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will hold talks with his Indian counterpart in New Delhi on Tuesday to salvage a deal to supply 126 Dassault fighter jets that has stalled on the issue of local assembly of the aircraft. Under the terms of the contract, 18 of the Rafale planes will be sold ready …

The number of Egyptians returning home from Libya has so far reached 14,806 since 16 February, Brigadier General Fawzi Nayel, an official at Salloum Port said on Monday. Nayel added that the numbers are surveyed every 24 hours, with Egypt receiving 3,018 on Sunday. The border has witnessed increasing number of Egyptians …

The Cairo Criminal Court adjourned Monday the trial in the case widely known as the “prison break” trial, against ousted president Mohamed Morsi and 130 others, to a 25 February session. The case dates back to the early days of the 25 January Revolution in 2011, whereby the prosecution accuses …

France deployed an aircraft carrier in the Gulf today as part of the US-led military campaign against the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq, a defence ministry official said. “The integration of the Charles de Gaulle in the operation… (in Iraq) begins this morning,” a member of Defence Minister Jean-Yves …

US Vice President Joe Biden spoke separately Friday with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and President Petro Poroshenko to discuss the latest situation in eastern Ukraine, noted a statement from the White House. In the calls Biden “Strongly condemned the offensive by Russia-backed separatists in the Ukrainian town of Debaltseve, …