Roundup
Latest stories
Terrain, Geopolitics Make for Tricky Last Battle on IS

The Islamic State group's empire has shrunk fast this year but the rump of its "caliphate" on the Iraq-Syria border is a hostile jihadist heartland where competing regional interests converge.

W140 Full Story
Al-Qaim: Last IS Bastion in Iraq

The desert towns of al-Qaim and Rawa near Syria's border in the Euphrates Valley, where Iraqi forces launched operations Thursday, constitute the final Islamic State group bastion in the country.

W140 Full Story
Catalan Leader Pressured from All Sides

The battle between Spain's central government and the separatist leaders of Catalonia escalates day after day, forcing Catalan society to take a stand.

W140 Full Story
The October Revolution that Brought Lenin to Power

A century ago, on October 25, 1917, Lenin's Marxist Bolsheviks took control of Russia's imperial capital, launching the October Revolution that led to the creation of the Soviet Union.

W140 Full Story
Free But in Ruins, Uphill Struggle to Rebuild Syria's Raqa

The Islamic State group's former Syrian stronghold Raqa has been captured, but it lies ruined, littered with explosives, and lacking electricity or running water for residents desperate to return.

Aid groups and the United Nations say clearing and rebuilding what was once the jihadist group's de facto Syrian capital will be a massive, expensive effort, and it could be months before life resumes.

W140 Full Story
Key Players in Catalan Independence Crisis

Catalonia's government has until 0800 GMT on Thursday to tell Madrid whether or not he is declaring independence from Spain.

W140 Full Story
After Raqa, What's Next for the US Military in Syria

The Islamic State group's defeat in Raqa, their de facto Syrian capital, raises a thorny question for the US forces that have been training and arming the victorious local fighters: What comes next?

W140 Full Story
Who's Who in the Syria Conflict

Syria's war has spiraled into a complex multi-sided conflict since it began with anti-government protests in March 2011, drawing in regional and international powers including the United States and Russia. 

W140 Full Story
IS Jihadists Sliding from Defeat to Defeat

The Islamic State group seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014, but its self-declared caliphate has now been crushed and it has lost its de facto Syrian capital Raqa. 

W140 Full Story
Five Facts on Former IS Syrian Bastion Raqa

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.

W140 Full Story