World News

Militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a splinter al Qaeda group, launched an overnight attack on Mosul seizing control of the governor’s headquarters, television stations, as well as freeing hundreds of prisoners held in jails.

Pakistan’s Taliban insurgents claimed responsibility for an attack on a security academy at Karachi’s airport on Tuesday, less than 48 hours after an all-night siege by Taliban gunmen at Pakistan’s busiest airport that killed more than 30 people.

Russia and China are continuing to work closely to strengthen the BRICS economic bloc, which has made notable progress in many aspects in the last year, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said in Beijing.

Ukrainian border guards stand grim-faced and nervous at the remote Marynivka checkpoint on the frontier with Russia, fearing an attack by pro-Moscow separatists at any time.

Global equity markets edged higher on Monday, boosting a gauge of world stock performance to near an all-time high, as low interest rates bolstered sentiment even as U.S. Treasury yields rose.

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have reportedly kidnapped 20 women from a nomadic settlement in northeast Nigeria near the town of Chibok, where the Islamic militants abducted more than 300 schoolgirls and young women on April 15.

Eighty percent of the opposition fighters in Syria have “a clear Islamist agenda,” a senior Israeli intelligence officer said on Monday, noting that Iran continues to aspire to nuclear weapons despite abiding by a provisional agreement signed with the superpowers.

Iran’s negotiations with six global powers regarding its nuclear program may need to be extended for another six months if no agreement is reached by a July 20 deadline, a senior Iranian official said on Monday.

Boko Haram targeted several villages in Nigeria this week, which has reportedly killed at least 110 people in recent attacks. Boko Haram has killed thousands over the past five years in its efforts to create an Islamist state in the region.

Pope Francis hosted the Israeli and Palestinian Presidents at the Vatican for an unprecedented prayer meeting among Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The Pakistani Taliban on Monday claimed responsibility for a brazen five-hour assault on the country’s busiest airport that saw gunmen disguised as police guards storm the international terminal in Karachi, set off explosions and kill 18 people.

Russian companies are preparing to switch contracts to renminbi and other Asian currencies amid fears that western sanctions may freeze them out of the US dollar market, according to two top bankers.

Pope Francis invited Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian Authority Leader Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday to pray together in the hope that the gesture would help relaunch the Middle East peace process. The following is the full text of Pope Francis’ speech on Sunday.

For the first time in history, Islamic prayers and readings from the Quran will be heard at the Vatican on Sunday, in a move by Pope Francis to usher in peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

A series of car bombs exploded across Iraq’s capital Saturday night, killing at least 52 people in a day of violence that saw militants storm a university in the country’s restive Anbar province and take dozens hostage, authorities said.

Ukraine’s new president on Saturday called for pro-Russian rebels in the country’s east to lay down their arms and welcomed dialogue with the insurgents, but said he wouldn’t negotiate with those he called “gangsters and killers” and struck a defiant tone on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

The U.S. is reassembling key members of the diplomatic team that held secret negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, leading to a breakthrough agreement, and sending them to Geneva for direct talks with representatives from Tehran in hopes of making progress toward a comprehensive final deal.

Ten supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy were sentenced to death Saturday by a criminal court in Cairo, according to state-run Al-Ahram Online.

Leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations decided Thursday to tighten defenses against the risk of terror attacks by European jihadists returning from the Syrian front.

The Spanish government has approved a draft bill that proposes to grant citizenship to descendants of Spanish Jews who were forced into exile 500 years ago.