Eurasia

Clashes between rebels and pro-government forces and Saudi-led air strikes killed at least 85 people in Yemen, medics and military sources said today, after Riyadh pledged to fund a UN aid appeal. The United Nations says hundreds of people have died and thousands of families have fled their homes since …

French President Francois Hollande said April 19 that negotiations with Moscow were under way to find a solution to a dispute over the sale of two Mistral warships, frozen over the Ukraine crisis. “We are busy negotiating a solution to the crisis,” over the 1.2 billion euro ($1.5 billion) sale, …

Pakistan on Thursday expressed readiness to help in implementation of a UN Security Council resolution on Yemen which banned arms supply to the Shia Houthi rebels in the war-torn country. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif chaired a high-level meeting on the Yemen situation here. According to an official statement, the meeting …

Over 2,000 families have been forced to flee the Iraqi city of Ramadi owing to heavy clashes between the Islamic State (IS) militants and government forces. Most of the displaced families headed to capital Baghdad and settled in predominantly Sunni districts in southern and western Baghdad, a security source said.

At least 76 people were killed in Yemen today as Saudi-led warplanes pounded rebels heading to bolster an assault on loyalists in Aden and fighting raged in Taez, officials said. At least 20 rebels were killed, and two tanks and four armoured vehicles destroyed, in the overnight air strikes on …

French President Francois Hollande will discuss the Ukraine crisis with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin during a visit to Armenia on April 24. A source in Hollande’s office said April 17 that Putin and Hollande will attend a ceremony in Yerevan marking the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry on Thursday called on Malian parties to sign the peace agreement signed on March 1 in Algiers by the Malian government and three Malian armed groups, saying it is the best way to achieving peace and national reconciliation in Mali.

UN envoy Bernardino Leon on Thursday shuttled between delegates of Libya’s rival parliaments in Morocco as he pushed for a unity government to stem growing unrest in their country. Libya has been divided since the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Gaddafi, with rival governments and parliaments and armed groups …

Nigeria’s outgoing president told the United Nations on Thursday not to focus on deploying an international force to fight Boko Haram but instead help victims of its terror. President Goodluck Jonathan met with the U.N. special representative for West Africa, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, as Nigeria is accused of blocking a …

Fighters from Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram killed at least 10 people in overnight attacks on two villages in neighbouring northern Cameroon, two senior army sources said on Friday. Soldiers from Nigeria, alongside troops from neighbours Chad, Niger and Cameroon, have driven Boko Haram out of many border areas seized …