Even as internationally backed forces chip away at Islamic State-held territory in Syria, Iraq and Libya, the militants have demonstrated a stubborn resilience this week in the face of recent losses.

The IS forces dealt an embarrassing setback to the Syrian army near the militants' self-styled capital of Raqqa with a swift counteroffensive that rolled back incremental gains by troops loyal to President Bashar Assad.

Like many autistic children, Julian Brown has trouble reading emotions in people's faces, one of the biggest challenges for people with the neurological disorder.

Now the 10-year-old San Jose boy is getting help from "autism glass" — an experimental device that records and analyzes faces in real time and alerts him to the emotions they're expressing.

In a remote corner of Lebanon near the border with Syria, Lebanese troops have been quietly making steady progress, fighting against Islamic extremists holed up in the rugged mountains.

A spokesman and a state news agency say clashes in Libya between pro-government forces and the Islamic State militants, as well as an explosion at an ammunition depot, have killed over 60 people in just one day.

Hospital spokesman Abdel-Aziz Essa says 36 militiamen loyal to the U.N.-backed unity government died and 140 were wounded in Tuesday's battles with Islamic state militants in the city of Sirte, the last IS bastion in Libya.

Seventy-five years after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, which led to the deaths of tens of millions, Germany's foreign minister is warning "Europe is at risk of splitting along new divides."

In an op-ed printed Wednesday in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, Frank-Walter Steinmeier cautions "peace in Europe cannot be taken for granted, not even today."

Donald Trump is set to lambaste Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as a failed secretary of state out of step with Americans on trade and immigration.

Trump's address Wednesday morning at his hotel in New York's SoHo neighborhood marks his official opening salvo against Clinton in the general election. It comes as the presumptive Republican nominee faces growing questions about his readiness not just for the presidency, but for the campaign he will need to run to get there.

Iran's intelligence ministry said Monday it had thwarted a major jihadist plot to carry out bomb attacks in the capital Tehran and other parts of the country, state media reported.

"One of the biggest takfiri-Wahhabi terrorist plots was discovered and foiled," the official IRNA news agency quoted the ministry as saying, using terms applied by Iran to Sunni extremist groups.

Indonesia said it will continue to take "decisive" action against foreign ships operating illegally in waters under its jurisdiction after Beijing criticized its navy for shooting at Chinese fishing vessels.

Indonesian navy spokesman First Admiral Edi Sucipto on Monday confirmed an Indonesian warship fired warning shots at Chinese fishing vessels in waters off Indonesia's Natuna islands and detained one of the vessels and its seven crew members.

Salam Ashara and his family left Syria in early 2013, when no one expected the civil war in their country to rage for years with no signs of relenting and create the worst refugee crisis since World War II.

The Asharas were among the first families to settle in Zaatari, Jordan's first and now its largest refugee camp, with 80,000 residents. Zaatari has grown up around them as they forged new lives among the dust and dirt, preparing for years in exile.

New Zealand announced Monday that it plans to keep its small contingent of troops in Iraq for an additional 18 months as it continues to back the U.S.-led coalition's efforts to defeat the Islamic State group.

Last year, New Zealand deployed 143 military personnel on a two-year mission to train Iraqi security forces. That mission was due to end next May, but Prime Minister John Key said the troops would now stay until November 2018.