Kurdish fighters said they had taken the town of Bashiqa near Mosul from Islamic State on Sunday as coalition forces pressed their offensive against the jihadists' last stronghold in Iraq. An American official said Masoud Barzani, President of the Iraqi Kurdish region, had told U.S. Defense...

A cartoon which appeared on social media shows a drowning Egyptian, only his hand protruding from the depths, waving for help. The next strips show President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi diving in, taking the drowning man's watch and turning away. The cartoon captures the mood of desperation and...

(The Daily Star)- The U.S.-led coalition Sunday denied carrying out an airstrike that killed 15 women at a Shiite place of worship in northern Iraq this week. Russia pointed an accusatory finger at the coalition a day after Friday's incident, in which local officials said women at a shrine...

The pope says the cruelty of the fighting in the Iraqi city of Mosul "makes us cry, leaves us without words." Pope Francis told some 50,000 faithful gathered Sunday for the Angelus blessing that he was "pained by the murder in cold blood of numerous sons of this beloved land, among them many...