Police arrested five men in dawn raids in a town in southern France on suspicion of belonging to a jihadist cell recruiting people to fight alongside Islamist extremists in Iraq and Syria.
Having murdered one of its Japanese hostages, Haruna Yukawa, the Islamic State issued an audio recording purportedly of the other, Kenji Goto, pleading for his life and making a new demand. Yukawa had been "slaughtered," said the man claiming to be Goto.
The world price of crude oil, which has been around 100 dollars a barrel for the past 6 years, has suddenly collapsed and is now tending below 50 dollars. Many are trying to understand this rapid decrease and have proposed various explanations.
BEIRUT -- Sweden's Minister for International Development Cooperation Isabella Lovin announced additional assistance for Lebanon following a visit to an informal settlement of around 600 Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley.
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan sent a "Letter to the Syriac People" from his prison cell last week, calling on Syriacs [Assyrians] and Kurds to join forces in building a joint nation in Mesopotamia.
The Iraqi Prime Minister, during the World Economic Forum, declared that his country's collaboration with the Iranian military in waging war against the Islamic State is no secret.