All Terrorism & Security

Opium output in Afghanistan, the world's largest producer, is forecast this year to be 17 percent higher than in 2013, possibly because security personnel were pulled off opium crop eradication duty.

The European Leadership Network chronicled some 40 incidents over the past eight months, saying that Russian forces 'seem to have been authorized to act in a much more aggressive way.'

Worshipers under 35 were barred from the Al Aqsa shrine in Jerusalem on Friday as the Israeli government tried to tamp down anger among both Palestinians and Jordanian officials over access to the site.

A young Christian couple was accused of having desecrated a Quran on Tuesday and brutally murdered by a village crowd. Pakistan leader Nawaz Sharif vowed the attackers would be punished.

Israel's foreign ministry rejected the allegations and questioned why Hamas wasn't accused of terrorism. The report was published on the day of another apparent terror attack along Jerusalem's rail line.

Robert Hannigan called on US Internet giants to do more to help fight the militants using their networks to recruit new members abroad. The companies' cooperation has dropped off since Edward Snowden's intelligence leaks became public.

Alexander Zakharchenko and Igor Plotnitsky won sizable majorities in Donetsk and Luhansk in controversial elections Sunday. Kiev and the West denounced the results, having called the votes illegitimate from the start. 

The brutality of the Islamic State, which it's relying on to terrify Iraqi Sunnis into submission, continued with the recent murder of 322 captives, Iraqi officials say.

Israel reopened access to the Al Aqsa Mosque to Palestinian women and men over 50 years old for Friday prayers, but security forces are on alert after Fatah and Hamas called for 'a day of rage.'

Police said the Palestinian man attempted to assassinate Yehuda Glick, a controversial rabbi who advocates for greater Jewish access to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City, a holy site for both Muslims and Jews. 

Two hundred Free Syrian Army fighters entered the besieged Syrian border town Wednesday. Turkey is also allowing Kurdish peshmerga fighters from Iraq to transit through Turkey to Kobane.

Turkey's prime minister told the BBC that the US-led coalition against Islamic State must broaden its mandate to target the overthrow of Syria's president. The battle for Kobane on the Syria-Turkish border is ongoing. 

Human Rights Watch says more than 7,000 civilians have died since 2009 at the hands of the extremist group. Nigeria recently announced a cease-fire that it said would allow for the release of more than 200 schoolgirls abducted in April. 

The Nigerian government claimed earlier this week that it had reached a cease-fire deal with the Islamist group. But the reported kidnapping of between 20 and 70 more schoolgirls, on top of the more than 200 it already holds, is souring hopes for peace.

Canadian officials have identified Michael Zehaf-Bibeau as the gunman killed in a shooting at Parliament. He had been blocked from traveling abroad amid concerns he was attempting to join up with extremists.

A day after Umbrella Movement protest leaders and Hong Kong city officials met for talks, students try another tactic. Protest sites in the city-state remain in place despite a police crackdown and a court injunction to remove barricades.

A fragile cease-fire in eastern Ukraine hasn't ended the fighting. Human Rights Watch says Ukraine's army has fired cluster bombs into populated areas and has called on Kiev to sign an international treaty banning their use.

The battle for the ethnic-Kurdish city of Kobane on the Turkish-Syria border could see Iraqi Kurds join the fray in greater numbers after Turkey's decision, a reversal of its previous policy. 

The hurricane is on track to hit the island as a Category 3 storm Friday night. Forecasters expect heavy winds and significant flooding.

The battle for Kobane, a Syrian border town, may have tipped in favor of Kurdish militia seeking to fend off militants from the self-styled Islamic State. US-led airstrikes have played a role.