Five years after Sunni-ruled Bahrain crushed a popular uprising by the Shiite majority, the kingdom is locked in a political impasse exacerbated by an economic crisis, analysts say.

They see an urgent need for a compromise between the rulers and the opposition, after the Arab Spring touched the small Gulf state on February 14, 2011.

North and South Korea's perennially volatile relations seem headed for a new and potentially dangerous low, with all official lines of communication cut off and a host of tension-raising issues on the near horizon.

The two rivals, who have remained technically at war over the past six decades, have faced and weathered numerous crises in the past, but the current situation feels particularly grim in the wake of the North's recent nuclear test and long-range rocket launch.

As dawn breaks over the Greek island of Kos, 20 soldiers and five bulldozers wait to start construction work on a site that has become a flashpoint for the tourist hub on the frontline of Europe's migrant crisis. 

The construction of the so-called "hotspot" has been held up by opposition from the mayor and local residents, but site overseer Vassilis Klamponis said his team is going as fast as they can.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, who resigned as French prime minister two years ago to take the blame for a sputtering economy, has been rewarded for his loyalty to embattled President Francois Hollande with the foreign affairs portfolio.

Seen as a safe pair of hands but with little diplomatic experience -- or charisma -- the understated Ayrault, 66, will be expected to negotiate diplomatic minefields including Syria and Libya, as well as EU talks to ward off a potential "Brexit".

On the night of August 13, 2013, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad Haddad sat in a stairwell of a building next to Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque, and said: "We need a miracle."

Police moved in to disperse a sprawling Islamist protest camp in the mosque and an adjacent square the next morning, and within 12 hours about 700 demonstrators had been shot dead.

Donald Trump is a billionaire real estate tycoon with bravado to spare, a former reality television star who says winning is everything.

The unlikely Republican presidential frontrunner now can claim his first victory in the political arena after notching up a win in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday -- to the horror of the political establishment.

The siege of Aleppo has taken the West even further from achieving its key goals in Syria of stemming the refugee flow, removing the Assad regime and tackling the Islamic State group, experts say.

As the joint forces of Russia, Iran, Hizbullah and Syria encircle the divided northern Syrian city, the so-called "moderate" opposition faces a potentially devastating turning point in its five-year war against the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Five years after being ousted after a mass uprising, Egypt's ex-president Hosni Mubarak is in a military hospital suite and his clan has been nearly rehabilitated under an even more repressive regime.

Mubarak stepped down on February 11, 2011 after 18 days of street protests against the police abuses and corruption that marred the Arab world's largest country during 30 years of Mubarak rule.

Official moves towards the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea in the wake of Pyongyang's latest rocket launch will increase pressure on Beijing to bring its errant neighbor to heel, analysts say.

But they also highlight the inherent dangers of disunity in dealing with North Korea's growing military threat, and could presage an arms build up if China feels threatened by the roll-out.

North Korea on Sunday launched a long-range rocket seen by much of the outside world as a covert test of ballistic missile technology for a future weapons system capable of striking the US mainland.

These are key dates in the reclusive nation's missile program: