The Kurdish regional government in Iraq plans to send some 150 peshmerga fighters to Kobani through Turkey over the next few days to support Syrian Kurds there defending against ISIL militants. Fuad Hussein, the chief of staff for Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani, said the fighters would take light weapons …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday discussed the situation in Ukraine with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation, the German government said. Merkel underlined the necessity to fully implement the Minsk deal reached between Ukraine’s government and insurgents, saying elections in the east of the country must be …

Russia still has troops in eastern Ukraine and retains a very capable force on the border despite a partial withdrawal, NATO’s military commander said on Friday. “We’ve seen a pretty good withdrawal of the Russian forces from inside Ukraine but, make no mistake, there remain Russian forces inside eastern Ukraine,” …