The U.S. government is continuing to advocate for the Patriot missile defense system offered by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin in a Turkish tender after Turkey cited disagreements with the Chinese firm that initially won the bid, a senior U.S. official has said.

A United Nations report on Thursday said four months of fighting by militias in Libya’s two biggest cities, Tripoli and Benghazi, has forced some 250 000 people to flee, including 100 000 who have been internally displaced.

Russia still has about 1,000 troops in eastern Ukraine, backed up by another 20,000 on the border, NATO said Thursday, despite Kiev reporting that Moscow had withdrawn the bulk of its forces. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Wednesday that Moscow had withdrawn 70 percent of its forces following a ceasefire he had …