Eurasia

Mali’s Tuareg-led rebel alliance signed a landmark deal on Saturday to end years of unrest in a nation driven by ethnic divisions and in the grip of a jihadist insurgency. The Algiers Accord aims to bring stability to the country’s vast northern desert, cradle of several Tuareg uprisings since the …

The European Union on Monday extended economic sanctions against Russia until January to keep pressure on Moscow over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, drawing a rebuke and a warning of retaliation from Russian officials. An EU statement said the decision was taken without debate by the bloc’s foreign ministers at …

The main issue for NATO defence ministers during their meeting in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday will be how NATO is adapting to a new and more challenging security environment, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. Speaking at a press conference at the NATO headquarters here on Monday, Stoltenberg said …

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon held “an important meeting” for the first time with all the 28 EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg Monday which also covered development sin Syria , Libya and Yemen. Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini noted that this is …

Al-Shabaab militants launched a major suicide attack on Sunday against a military intelligence base in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, setting off a car bomb before storming inside, security officials said. The interior ministry said the three attackers, one of them a suicide bomber, were all killed in the raid, and that …

Libya’s self-declared government in Tripoli carried out air strikes on Islamic State militant positions in the city of Sirte, hitting a building where fighters had gathered, officials and witnesses said. Officials could not give any immediate confirmation of casualties from the late Sunday night strikes. Witnesses reported they were accurate …

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday he was “confident” Egypt will receive Apache gunships soon, as he made a surprise visit to Cairo. Kerry became the highest-ranking American official to visit Egypt since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power after overwhelmingly winning an election in May.

Syrian Kurdish fighters and rebel allies overnight seized a key base held by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) north of its Raqqa stronghold, in a new blow for the jihadists. The capture of the Brigade 93 base comes just a week after ISIL was expelled from …

French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian visited Mali to show his support for a landmark peace deal agreed in the former colony to end years of unrest and ethnic divisions. Just two days after Mali’s Tuareg-led rebel alliance added its signature to the Algiers Accord — aimed at stabilising Mali’s …

“Enormously concerned” over recent increase in tensions between India and Pakistan, US Secretary of State John Kerry has spoken with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to work out how to tamp them down, acknowledging that the latter had just finished a conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The increase …