The United States on Friday strongly urged northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) to call off a controversial referendum on independence from Baghdad. The announcement comes hours after the KRG parliament voted to hold the poll next week despite opposition from the central government and Iraq’s neighbours.

The UN Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution welcoming recent efforts to bring opposing sides together in Libya – a conflict that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says is ripe for mediation to end years of chaos and restore peace.

Warplanes from allies Egypt and Saudi Arabia have begun joint war games that are coinciding with separate drills between Egypt and both the United States and Russia. Thursday’s announcement by Egypt’s official MENA news agency says the Saudi-Egyptian games are being held in Egypt and will last several days. It …