Thursday's attack on the Champs Elysees in Paris saw a gunman kill a policeman and wound two others in bloodshed claimed by the Islamic State group just days before an election.

Satellite dishes have been sprouting on the rooftops of east Mosul since it was retaken from the Islamic State group, who punished anyone caught with a dish with the lash.

"Now we know what is happening in the world," Mohammad Turki says as he installs one in the Al-Qahira district.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's narrow victory in a referendum to strengthen his powers is likely to swiftly test his already worsening relations with the European Union.

Turkey voted narrowly to Sunday expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a knife-edge poll that left the country bitterly divided.

If there were a global contest for winning elections, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would see himself as the undisputed -- and undefeated -- heavyweight champion of the world. 

Ebrahim Raisi, the leading candidate for Iran's hardliners in next month's presidential election, has left many wondering whether the country's fragile opening to the West could be under threat.

The United States has dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bomb, otherwise known as the 'Mother of All Bombs', on an Islamic State stronghold in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province.

It is the first time the bomb, developed in the early days of the Iraq war, has been used in combat.

Turkey votes on Sunday in a referendum on expanding the powers of the presidency under Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But the outcome could more broadly influence all aspects of the country's future.

Coming 94 years after the foundation of modern Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the referendum is a landmark vote that may affect relations with the West, a peace process with Kurds and dynamics inside society.

From the bloody repression of pro-democracy demonstrations to the rise of jihadists and intervention by regional and world powers, here are 10 key developments in Syria's devastating civil war.

The twin bombings of churches in Egypt suggest that Islamic State group jihadists are lashing out as they find themselves coming under increasing pressure in Iraq and Syria, analysts say.

The group's Egyptian affiliate which claimed Sunday's attacks in the Nile Delta cities of Tanta and Alexandria has been centred in the Sinai Peninsula, where it has killed hundreds of policemen and soldiers.