For years, trains ferried millions of dollars in phosphate past Nouredine Ezzidine's Tunisian town, where young men like him idle their days in cafes over cigarettes and coffee, desperate for work. After seven years with no job, the mechanics graduate had had enough. He joined protesters who...

 Four Egyptian soldiers have been killed in the Sinai Peninsula, where the local branch of ISIS regularly attacks security forces, the army said on Sunday. The troops were killed during operations around El-Arish, close to the border with the Gaza Strip, army spokesman Brigadier General...

(The Guardian)- Islamic State’s doctrine of survival is based on a simple notion: defeat on the battlefield must always leave behind the seeds for a comeback. Whether the operation to retake Mosul will be the beginning of the end for Isis or the beginning of a new cycle hinges largely on...

Iraqi troops and security forces advanced towards Mosul from the south and southeast of the city on Sunday, Iraqi officials said, backed by air and ground support from a U.S.-led coalition as they edged closer to the Islamic State stronghold. A military statement said the army's ninth...

 Iran's vice president and environment chief, Massoumeh Ebtekar, has told AFP that the West's failure to fully implement the nuclear deal and lift sanctions are endangering her country's efforts to meet climate targets. In an exclusive interview, Ebtekar said Iran had already seen...

Yemen has endured thousands of air strikes and the deaths of more than 10,000 people in a 19-month war that has also unleashed hunger on the desperately poor country - but its biggest challenge may be yet to come. The conflict has led to Yemen's de facto partition, with rival armies and...

A follower of ISIS was responsible for a stabbing attack on two youths in the German city of Hamburg two weeks ago, the militant group's Amaq news agency said Sunday. In the incident, the unknown perpetrator attacked a young couple sitting under a bridge at the Alster river in downtown...

Iraq’s Shiite militias said Saturday that they had joined the operation to recapture the Islamic State-held city of Mosul, a move that could whip up sectarian and regional tensions in an already complex battle. Militia leaders said that they launched an offensive toward the town of Tal Afar,...

A car exploded in the eastern city of Benghazi late Saturday, killing six people including a political activist close to a powerful genera fighting Islamic extremists, officials said. The explosion rocked the downtown Benghazi district of al-Kesh which is lined with busy cafes. The blast...

(The Daily Star)- A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 struck central Italy early Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, but there were no immediate reports of any casualties. The quake -- which was felt from Rome to Venice -- struck at 0640 GMT six kilometers (3.5 miles)...

Three astronauts landed safely in Kazakhstan Sunday following a 115-day mission aboard the the International Space Station, including U.S. astronaut Kate Rubins, the first person to sequence DNA in space. Russian mission control confirmed the touchdown of NASA's Rubins, Roscosmos' Anatoly...

Saudi-led coalition air strikes hit a rebel-held security building in Yemen's west on Saturday, killing at least 30 prisoners and insurgents, military officials said. The two air strikes destroyed the building in Zaidia, north of the western port city of Hodeidah, which houses a prison holding...

(The Guardian)- The teddy bear, garish but cuddly, is propped on top of the explosives it was designed to hide and detonate. An adult would probably have walked by, but to a child the wide eyes and fuzzy orange fur would have been irresistible. “Why would Isis use something nice, like a bear...

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey was aiming to reinforce its troops deployments in its Iraqi border town of Silopi and that it would have a "different response" for Shiite militia groups if they cause terror in the Iraqi city of Tal Afar. Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite paramilitary...

(Independent)- More people died from violent crime in Brazil than in the Syrian conflict in 2015, a Brazilian monitor has claimed. There were 58,383 violent deaths in Brazil that year, according a report by the Brazilian Forum for Public Security, while the Syrian Observatory for Human...

Sergio Aguero and Ilkay Gundogan each scored twice as Manchester City crushed West Bromwich Albion 4-0 on Saturday to reclaim first place in the Premier League from Arsenal. Arsenal won 4-1 at Sunderland, with substitute Olivier Giroud and Alexis Sanchez both scoring twice, but City's win...

(The Daily Star)- Egypt's Foreign Minister has protested remarks by the chief of the world's largest bloc of Muslim countries, for mocking Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. Sameh Shukry warned Iyad Madani, the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, on Saturday that Egypt...

An Iraqi adviser hinted Saturday that Iraqi forces might enter Syrian territories to fight the Daesh militant group.  Speaking at a forum in Najaf in central Iraq, Faleh al-Fayyad, a national security adviser to the Iraqi government, said Iraqi forces were making progress in the ongoing...

A Russian military spokesman is blaming the United States for a near-collision of the countries' warplanes in Syrian airspace. Major-General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement Saturday that the Oct. 17 incident involved a Sukhoi-35, Russia's most advanced fighter jet, and an American E-3...

(The Guardian)- At 9.48am on Thursday 21 July this year, Dean Evans sent his stepfather, Steve Howell, a text message. “Alright?” it read. “Just letting you know I’m OK.” It was the first time Howell had heard from the 22-year-old in nearly a month. But then, he was in Syria, on the frontline in...