Somali government forces backed by African Union troops have recaptured a strategic island on the country’s south coast from Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels, officials and witnesses said Monday. A statement from the AU’s AMISON force said Kudha island, situated in the autonomous Lower Juba region and around 70 kilometres (40 miles) …

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have given orders for work on creating a free trade zone between Ukraine and Turkey to be expedited, Erdogan said in Kyiv, after talks with Poroshenko.

General Philip Breedlove, Commander of Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe of NATO command operations, Sunday said that small arms shipments to Ukraine are still an option. “I do not think that any tool of the US or any other power should necessarily be off the table,” he told the Brussels …