Israel strikes kill dozens as Gaza death toll soars

GAZA CITY: Israeli strikes killed at least 13 women and children in Gaza on Tuesday, medics said, as the army announced the deaths of two more soldiers in the two-week conflict.

The fatalities, which were among nearly 40 on Tuesday alone, brought the total death toll to more than 600 Palestinians, according to Gaza´s emergency services, and 29 Israelis -- 27 soldiers and two civilians.

A child and three women, one of them pregnant, were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes in Zeitun, in the central Gaza Strip, and Beit Hanun, in the north, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

Diplomatic drive intensifies as Gaza death toll reaches to 350

GAZA: Fresh Israeli bombardments killed five people in Gaza Sunday, hiking the death toll from the assault to over 350.Israel pressed its air, sea and ground offensive against the besieged coastal territory.Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal was to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Qatar to discuss an Egyptian-proposed truce on Sunday, and the movement said it had received an invitation to Cairo for ceasefire talks.

Battle for Libya airport leaves at least 47 dead

Islamist-led militiamen have stepped up their assault on Libya's main airport, controlled by rival fighters, which the health ministry said on Monday had left at least 47 dead in a week.

The fighting, which erupted on July 13 and shut Tripoli international airport, also injured 120 people, according to figures for the week until Saturday.

Egypt Muslim Brotherhood chief given new death sentence

An Egyptian court on Thursday sentenced to death Muslim Brotherhood General Guide Mohammad Badie and 13 others over violence that killed 10 people in Cairo in summer 2013.

The court referred its decision to the country's Grand Mufti, who must give an opinion on death sentences before they can be confirmed.

Nigeria kidnappings 'outrageous, heartbreaking': Obama

KANO: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday described the kidnapping of more than 220 schoolgirls by militants in Nigeria as “heartbreaking” and “outrageous” as Washington deployed military experts in the hunt for the children.

Obama urged global action against Boko Haram and confirmed Nigerian leaders had accepted an offer to deploy US personnel there, soon after residents said the extremist group had seized eight more girls, aged between 12 and 15, again in the embattled northeast.

Four Shia Hazaras among seven gunned down in Quetta

QUETTA: At least seven people, including four members of the Shia Hazara community, were shot dead Monday in separate incidents of violence in Quetta, the capital of militancy-hit Balochistan province.

Gunmen opened fire at a vehicle in Quetta, killing four men belonging to the ethnic Shia Hazara community. In a separate incident later at night, gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead three and injured another person in the city’s Khudaidad Chowk area.