Iran's supreme leader has signalled a decisive shift in favour of relations with China and Russia, indicating that patience is running out with efforts to improve ties with the West. 

One of the most popular slogans during the 1979 revolution was "Neither East nor West", a defiant vow that Iran would no longer favour either of the world's major forces at the time -- American-style capitalism or Soviet Communism.

Armenia and Turkey are at odds over whether the World War I massacres and deportations of Armenians by their Ottoman rulers should be described as genocide. 

From champagne bottles to attempting to bribe a judge -- a series of different allegations have entangled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent months.

The death of Russian citizens in Syria from a US coalition strike last week, which has been played down by both Moscow and Washington, has exposed the role of Russian mercenaries in the multi-front conflict.

A gunman opened fire at a high school in southern Florida on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people. 

The Trump administration, increasingly concerned that the 74-strong coalition it cobbled together to destroy the Islamic State group is losing sight of the prime objective, is pressing its partners to refocus efforts, overcome rivalries and concentrate on the task at hand: the eradication from Iraq and Syria of the extremist group.

The alarm U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to sound at a coalition gathering in Kuwait on Tuesday comes with the fight at a critical moment and the mission shifting from offensive military operations to stabilization. Distractions are adding up, such as Turkey's fighting with U.S.-backed Kurdish rebels in Syria and renewed spillover from Syria's civil war. Meanwhile, hostilities between noncoalition actors — Iran, its proxies in Syria, and Israel — risk creating a new conflict in an already crowded battlespace.

A confrontation at the weekend in Syria has turned up the heat between arch-foes Israel and Iran, but neither side seems to want a war for now, analysts said.

Israel is believed to have carried out several raids inside Syria since 2013, mostly targeting its Lebanese arch-foe Hezbollah, a key ally of the Syrian government.

Al-Qaida's global network remains "remarkably resilient," posing more of a threat in some regions than the Islamic State group, UN sanctions monitors said in a report seen by AFP on Wednesday.

President Donald Trump delivered his maiden State of the Union address on Tuesday, calling for national unity, strong borders and a powerful U.S. military to repel threats to America.