UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The Security Council was to debate changes Thursday to a draft resolution toughening UN sanctions on Iran as sponsors stressed the importance of a united response to Tehran’s nuclear defiance.

BASRA (Reuters) — Gunmen clashed on Thursday in the port city of Basra, the hub of Iraq’s great southern oil field that is the source of most of the country’s wealth.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) — The Somali government said on Thursday that Al Qaeda had made a young Islamist commander its leader in Mogadishu as fighting raged for a second day in the coastal capital.