At least 70 civilians were killed in clashes between government forces and independence-seeking insurgents in Ukraine’s Donetsk region over the past three days, authorities said Thursday. According to the press service of Donetsk City Council, another 116 people were wounded as a result of fighting since Monday.

Syrian government troops captured a fiercely contested suburb of the capital Thursday after five months of heavy fighting, flushing rebels from their last hideouts and quickly moving to crush pockets of resistance in the surrounding countryside, activists and state media said. The fall of Mleiha, located some 10 km southeast …

A massive Russian “humanitarian” convoy closed in on Ukraine’s border today despite doubts over whether the trucks would be allowed across, and as deadly fighting rocked rebel-held strongholds. The nearly 300 vehicles headed towards southeastern Ukraine, even as intense shelling there in the insurgent bastions of Donetsk and Lugansk ~ …