Eurasia

Turkey will provide the U.N. Security Council and fellow members of the NATO military alliance with details of the circumstances of its shooting down on Monday of a Syrian helicopter, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said. Turkish warplanes shot down the Syrian Mi-17 helicopter after it violated Turkish airspace following repeated warnings, Deputy Prime Minister …

The Turkish Air Force shot down a Syrian helicopter on Sept. 16 at the border after the helicopter violated Turkish airspace, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said. Turkish military aircraft taking off from a base in Malatya shot the M-17 helicopter after it allegedly continued to violate Turkish airspace despite …

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday called on Egypt to reopen the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip after six days of closure. Abbas discussed issue, which affected students, patients and humanitarian workers, with Mohamed Tuhami, chief of the Egyptian security intelligence services, who promised to solve the problem …

Egyptian security forces took control of a southern town besieged by supporters of the former president, Mohammed Morsi, as suspected militants struck at police in Sinai with a blast that wounded nine people. Military troops and police secured the entrances to Dalga, a town of more than 100,000 people, gaining …

The UN Security Council is hearing reports that caches of weapons and ammunition left over from the collapse of Muammar Qadhafi’s Libyan regime are being flown and shipped into Syria.

Representatives of armed groups from northern Mali have been attending a pre-consultative meeting held by the Malian Presidency in the capital Bamako since Sunday, according to official sources. Participants include delegates of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), the Supreme Council of Azawad Unity (HCUA), the Azawad …

Youths affiliated to Mali’s main Tuareg separatist group on Sunday tried to prevent a plane carrying three ministers from landing in their northern bastion of Kidal and later pelted their convoy with rocks, officials and witnesses said.

Tunisia is negotiating to borrow up to 500 million euros from the European Union and the United States has also expressed willingness to guarantee loans in 2014, the finance minister said. Tunisia’s budget deficit should narrow to 6.5 per cent next year from 7.4 per cent of GDP expected in …

Troops on Monday stormed a central Egyptian town held for over a month by hardline supporters of ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi who had launched a campaign against Christian residents, officials said. Soldiers and police entered the town of Delga in the central Minya province just after dawn searching homes and …

UN chief Ban Ki-moon will on Monday present a report on Syria’s chemical weapons, increasing pressure on the Assad regime, as support grows for a US-Russian initiative to avert war. Ban will unveil the findings of a UN investigation team to the UN Security Council in New York at 11:15am …