Rebels, Christian militiamen, local fighters: a cluster of Syrian Arabs united by their hatred for the Islamic State group have cast their lot with Kurdish forces to defeat the jihadists.

A vote in favor of Brexit could embolden surging populist parties across Europe hoping to follow in Britain's footsteps and either leave the EU or significantly cut its powers, experts warn.

A complicated picture has emerged of 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who opened fire in a gay Orlando nightclub. The attack left 49 dead and dozens more wounded in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

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The murder of 50 people in Orlando, Florida is the latest U.S. violence linked to Islamist extremists over the past quarter of a century.

On Monday, the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the Florida shooting, in which 49 people were killed, saying in a radio bulletin that it was carried out by "one of the soldiers of the caliphate."

Forces allied with Libya's unity government are closing in on Islamic State group fighters in Sirte in a month-long operation aimed at ousting the jihadists from their North African stronghold.

Instead of going to school, Walid and Ibrahim spend hours each day rummaging through houses destroyed in Gaza's wars in search of scrap to raise a few shekels for their families.

It was one of the most awkward moments of a press conference that was full of them: when an American journalist asked Cuban President Raul Castro about the fate of political prisoners on the island.

For the first time in more than two years, Awash al-Aboud looked out at her village in northern Syria wearing a fearless grin instead of the black veil imposed by the Islamic State group.

The elderly woman was among hundreds of residents who returned this week to villages recaptured by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance advancing on the jihadist stronghold of Manbij.

Iraq's Shiite militias have so far been operating on the periphery of jihadist-held Fallujah but their role in the battle to retake the city has been the center of attention.

Officially, they fight under the umbrella of the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) paramilitary force and the prime minister's command, but their participation in the operation was the subject of controversy even before it began.

Italy's anti-establishment Five Star movement (M5S), riding high on a first round victory in Rome's mayoral race and the second biggest political force in the country, is a broad church, lying outside the traditional left-right paradigm.

- Where does the movement come from?