Italy called on Wednesday for urgent international action to halt Libya's slide into chaos and said it was ready to help monitor a ceasefire and train local armed forces.
The United States and Turkey have reached a tentative agreement to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition fighters and expect to sign the pact soon, U.S. and Turkish officials said on Tuesday with Ankara predicting a signing in days.
Pope Francis expressed deep sadness at the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, departing from the script of an address on Monday to emphasise the unity of all Christians regardless of the denomination they follow.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi called for a United Nations resolution mandating an international coalition to intervene in Libya after its jets bombed Islamic State targets there.
Iran has denied a Wall Street Journal report that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently responded to a letter sent in October by U.S. President Barack Obama suggesting cooperation with Iran in fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Egyptian jets bombed Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday, a day after the group there released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, drawing Cairo directly into the conflict across its border.
Two U.S. presidents named Bush have legacies dominated by wars in Iraq. That leaves a potential third, Jeb Bush, facing a uniquely sharp dilemma over how to tackle the current crisis in that region, having to explain how he would step up the fight against Islamic State militants without getting bogged down in another war.
Libya's internationally recognized prime minister called for the West to launch air strikes to defeat Islamist militants who control Tripoli and have driven his government out of the capital.
Saint Michael, the archangel of battle, is tattooed across the back of a U.S. army veteran who recently returned to Iraq and joined a Christian militia fighting Islamic State in what he sees as a biblical war between good and evil.
Islamic State released a video on Sunday purporting to show the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya, violence likely to deepen Cairo's concerns over security threats from militants thriving in the neighboring country's chaos.
France will give its highest award, the Legion d'honneur, to the head of Morocco's domestic intelligence, Abdellatif Hammouchi, who faces lawsuits over alleged torture.
Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-led air strikes have regained control of at least 163 villages around the Syrian town of Kobani after driving back Islamic State militants in the past three weeks, a group monitoring the conflict said on Saturday.
A Bosnian Muslim cleric accused of recruiting fighters for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq went on trial on Wednesday under a new law that is designed to stop people joining militants in the Middle East.
A Japanese photo journalist whose passport was confiscated by the government ahead of a planned trip to Syria said his case sets a dangerous precedent for other journalists traveling abroad to report on foreign wars.
By rapidly appointing two heirs, Saudi Arabia's King Salman has pressed pause on "succession Sudoku", as one leading local journalist calls speculation over whose star is rising and whose waning in the large and secretive Al Saud ruling family.
Republicans exploring a 2016 White House run are pounding away at President Barack Obama's strategy for stopping Islamic State militants but, wary of Americans' war fatigue, are so far providing few specifics on what they would do differently.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday sent Congress his long-awaited formal request to authorize military force against Islamic State, meeting swift resistance from Republicans as well as his fellow Democrats wary of another war in the Middle East.
A Belgian court will deliver its verdict on Wednesday in a trial of 46 people charged with belonging to a terrorist organization that recruited young men to fight with Islamist militants in Syria.
U.S. President Barack Obama will propose to Congress on Wednesday a new three-year authorization for the use of force against Islamic State with limits on U.S. combat troops' involvement, lawmakers and congressional aides said.
Newsweek magazine's Twitter account was the victim of hackers on Tuesday who posted a threat to U.S. President Barack Obama and his family and the words "CyberCaliphate" and "Je suis IS," a reference to Islamic State and the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The White House will ask Congress by Wednesday for new authority to use force against Islamic State fighters, congressional aides said on Monday, paving the way for lawmakers' first vote on the scope of a campaign that is already six months old.
