The United States has named a “manager” for its intelligence operations against Venezuela and Cuba. North Korea and Iran are the only other countries that have been assigned so-called “mission managers”, who supervise intelligence operations against them.

WASHINGTON — A US-backed diplomatic pact to end more than a month of war between Israel and Islamist fighters in Lebanon may stop the worst of the killing and retire the daily television images of burning buildings and suffocated children.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Three back-to-back explosions killed 47 people and wounded more than 70 Sunday night in a mostly Shiite neighbourhood in southern Baghdad, police said.