The French Presidency announced on Tuesday the death of France’s ninth solider in the Mali conflict which began 18 months ago. President Francois Hollande’s office said that a non-commissioned officer was killed Monday while on a reconnaissance mission and he expressed “deep sadness” upon learning of the report and sent …

Ukrainian military forces have waged a massive artillery fire at east Ukraine’s Donetsk regional city of Kramatorsk overnight to Wednesday. “A strong gunfire had been waged at the city which was literally showered with shells. Powerful blasts were heard with a frequency like in automatic fire,” a representative of people’s militia said.

China’s President Xi Jinping on Tuesday invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit China in November and called for a “negotiated resolution” to the boundary dispute “at an early date”, as the two leaders held their first ever meeting in Brazil.