Russia and the United States have not been able to agree a common approach to fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Aug. 5 after his second meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in recent days. Source Hurriyet Daily
Taliban fighters overran an army base in northern Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday, killing at least 17 soldiers with dozens feared captured in a stinging blow to security forces already struggling to push insurgents from eastern Ghazni. Source: Agence France Presse
An Afghan asylum-seeker was arrested after launching a drunken and frenzied knife attack in the sleepy southwestern French town of Perigueux, injuring four people including one seriously, police said Tuesday. Source: The Local
Amid a freeze in confidence-building measures ordered by the Hellenic Armed Forces General Staff (GEETHA) over the detention of two Greek soldiers and reports of Turkish vessels harassing Greek fishermen in the eastern Aegean, Athens is now bracing for Ankara’s plans in coming days to drill for gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean and, possibly, within Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Source: Ekathimerini
