SLAVYANSK , Ukraine: Ukraine's new leader threatened on Tuesday to revoke his truce after pro-Russian rebels downed an army helicopter despite ceasefire orders from their own commander, killing nine servicemen.

BAGHDAD: Sunni militants on Sunday captured two border crossings, one along the frontier with Jordan and the other with Syria, security and military officials said, as they pressed on with their offensive in one of Iraq's most restive regions.

 JERUSALEM: The Israeli military carried out airstrikes on a number of military targets inside Syria, including the military headquarters, in response to a cross-border attack that left an Israeli teenager dead, authorities said.

The pope excommunicated the mafia on Saturday, blasting a group that is thought to be the most powerful organized crime group in the world. It is the most severe condemnation of the mafia by a pope for two decades, after criticism over twenty years ago triggered revenge attacks in Italy.

WASHINGTON: The US house of representatives has defeated an amendment to the Defence Appropriations Bill to stop American funding to Pakistan.

 WASHINGTON: The House of Representatives late on Thursday voted to bar the National Security Agency from looking for Americans' communications without a warrant within a database of emails and phone calls it gathers while targeting foreigners, a technique critics have labeled a "backdoor search loophole."

SANAA: Clashes in Yemen between Shiite rebels and Islamist tribesmen supported by national army units have killed at least 85 people in one week, military officials and tribal leaders said.

QUETTA, Pakistan: At least 23 people including several Shia pilgrims were killed in a gun and suicide attack on the restive Pakistan-Iran border on late Sunday night, Pakistani officials said.

 VATICAN CITY: The Israeli and Palestinian presidents began an unprecedented meeting with Pope Francis on Sunday to pray together in the hope that the gesture will relaunch the Middle East peace process.

 LONDON: Art mogul Charles Saatchi has now been photographed with his girlfriend Trinny Woodall in tears following a heated exchange at Scott's restaurant in Mayfair-the same table where he was infamously photographed throttling his former wife and celeb chef Nigella Lawson in June 2013.