Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed that littoral states widen North-South transit corridor through digging a canal between the Caspian and the Black seas.

KABUL, Afghanistan: A mother who tried to stop her son from carrying out a suicide bomb attack triggered an explosion in the family’s home in southern Afghanistan that killed the would-be bomber, his mother and three siblings, police said.

Influential Shiite cleric Ammar Hakim held talks in Ramadi on Sunday with a powerful Sunni tribal sheikh, which observers said were highly symbolic for reconciliation in war-torn Iraq.