(Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel resigned on Monday, leaving under pressure as President Barack Obama faces critical national security challenges, including fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and revising plans to exit Afghanistan . It was the first...

(BBC News)- At least 36 civilians have been killed in air strikes by Syrian government warplanes on the Islamic State-held northern city of Raqqa, activists say. Most of the casualties were caused by two strikes in quick succession on an industrial area, the UK-based...

(Reuters) - Islamic State insurgents battled Iraqi forces in the center of Baiji on Tuesday, a week after the army broke their prolonged siege of the country's largest oil refinery just outside the town, an army officer and residents said. The renewed fighting in Baiji by the...

(Reuters) - Tunisian secularist leader Beji Caid Essebsi beat incumbent President Moncef Marzouki in the first round of landmark presidential elections, but the two men will have to meet again in a December run-off, early results showed on Tuesday. Essebsi, from the Nidaa...