An Iraqi Kurdish plan to hold a September 25 independence referendum, which has hit a legal roadblock with just a week to go, is more of a tool to pressure Baghdad than a step towards actual secession, observers say.

Iraq's Kurdish region, which will hold a referendum on statehood on September 25, has been autonomous since 1991 and has played a major role in the war against jihadists.

As the Islamic State group seems to crumble across Syria, a top Russian commander points to a pulverised tank once used by the jihadists as proof of his country's essential role in their demise.

Nearly 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled renewed violence in Myanmar, crossing the border in Bangladesh in waves following a military crackdown the UN says amounts to ethnic cleansing.

German-Turkish ties have plunged to an all-time low since last year's failed coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the subsequent crackdown on alleged plotters and state enemies.

Qatar's ruling emir is on his first trip abroad since a diplomatic crisis erupted in June between his nation and four Arab countries.

Here's a look at the ongoing crisis, the worst to grip the region since Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Violence coursing through western Myanmar has sparked an exodus of hundreds of thousands of stateless Muslim Rohingya, generating international alarm at the blistering animosity fuelling a cycle of bloodshed in the region.

The U.N. Security Council has unanimously adopted new sanctions on North Korea, including restrictions on oil shipments, to punish Pyongyang for its sixth and largest nuclear test.

The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), the militant group which tipped Myanmar's Rakhine state into a crisis, on Sunday declared a unilateral ceasefire until October 9.

The Catalan government signed a decree on Wednesday calling an independence referendum on October 1, which Madrid has vowed to stop.

Here are the key dates in the history of the wealthy Spanish region's independence drive.