The Islamic State group has been driven from most of the swathes of territory it once held in Iraq and Syria, now reduced to pockets of the area that once formed its "caliphate."

It was supposed to be a day of fun -- trick-or-treating in fancy dress on the annual candy haul. But Halloween turned into a nightmare after a truck driver killed eight people in one of New York's trendiest neighborhoods.

In the wake of what New York's mayor called a "cowardly act of terror," children were evacuated from one nearby elementary school with nervous parents after a 29-year-old man mowed down pedestrians and cyclists before smashing into a school bus.

Islamist movement Hamas handed over control of Gaza Strip border crossings to the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday under a reconciliation agreement aimed at ending a 10-year rift with rivals Fatah.

A pickup driver ploughed a truck into cyclists and pedestrians in New York on Tuesday, killing eight people in the first deadly "act of terror" in the city since September 11, 2001.

Vehicles have previously been used as weapons of terror, often by supporters of the Islamic State (IS) group, attacking nations in the US-led coalition fighting the jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has its roots in the late 19th century when Jews fleeing anti-Semitism in Russia and central Europe began emigrating to Palestine.

Islamic State militants, routed from one urban stronghold after another in Syria, have recently been moving deeper into Syria's remote desert, where experts say they are regrouping and preparing their next incarnation.

The Sunni militants' self-proclaimed "caliphate" with its contiguous stretch of land — linking major cities such as Syria's Raqqa and Iraq's Mosul — may have been vanquished, but many agree this territorial defeat will not mark the end of IS.

Spain's Senate is due Friday to approve drastic measures allowing the central government to seize direct control of Catalonia as it tries to stop regional leaders from pressing ahead with independence.

Spain's Senate is set Friday to approve a series of measures to take over Catalonia's regional powers, as the central government takes drastic action to halt moves towards independence.

The measures have been drafted by Madrid under the never-before-used Article 155 of the constitution, devised to rein in rebel regions.

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.

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.