A U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, the Syrian Democratic Forces, said it had fully captured the Islamic State group's former Syrian stronghold Raqa on Tuesday.

The rescue of an abducted US-Canadian family in Pakistan last week has spotlighted their captors the Haqqani network, former CIA assets now considered one of the most dangerous factions fighting US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Iraqi forces have launched a major military operation in Kirkuk province, three weeks into a deepening crisis between Baghdad and the country's Kurds since their September 25 independence referendum.

The crisis between Iraq's central government and the autonomous Kurdish region is rooted in a long-standing dispute over territory stretching from the Syrian border to the frontier with Iran.

The reported death of Islamic State's top leader in Southeast Asia is a major blow to the jihadists but analysts warn it remains a potent threat, with battle-hardened fighters set to return from the Middle East.

Once the last Islamic State group fighters are ousted from Syria's Raqa, the unconventional forces battling the jihadists say they'll have batteries and masking tape to thank for their victory. 

Austria's hard-right Freedom Party has a shot at sharing power after elections on Sunday, having narrowly lost out in a presidential vote last year.

President Donald Trump's decision to not re-certify the Iranian nuclear deal marks yet another key moment in relations between Iran and America, which has seen decades of mistrust and mutual recriminations. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani mentioned many of them in his reaction to Trump's decision Friday night.

Here are some of the key moments of that relationship:

Catalonia, which may be poised to declare independence from Spain, is one of the powerhouses of the Spanish economy, buoyed by industry, research and tourism but burdened with heavy debt.

The Islamic State group may soon be defeated in Iraq and Syria but a "virtual caliphate" could be harder to conquer, experts and officials have warned. 

The jihadist propaganda machine will continue to exist in hidden corners of the dark web, inciting sympathisers to action, they say.