Anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny has cemented his status as leader of Russia's opposition movement by organizing the largest unauthorized protest in recent years against President Vladimir Putin's rule.

President Donald Trump suffered a bitter defeat Friday in his first major legislative challenge as Republican lawmakers shot down his effort to repeal Obamacare. It was the latest in a string of major setbacks to have hit his two-month-old presidency.

As an international coalition prepares a final push to drive the Islamic State (IS) group from Raqa, here are five facts about the northern Syrian city:

What happened to the leaders whose power was challenged in the so-called Arab Spring that began in late 2010?

Ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, toppled in a 2011 revolt then jailed, was freed on Friday in a country still coming to terms with the consequences of the uprising that ended his 30-year rule.

The thorniest point in a declaration by EU leaders at a summit in Rome this week to mark the bloc's 60th birthday is about a so-called multi-speed union.

As the EU turns 60 amid a divorce from Britain and other mid-life crises, the question is increasingly not how it can bounce back, but how it can survive.

Today's European Union is the product of efforts led by France and Germany in the wake of World War II to bring peace to a continent that had seen centuries of war.

In fluorescent uniforms, dozens of inmates blink in the afternoon sun as they line up in the yard for lunch, the low murmur of their chatter punctuated suddenly by a solitary plaintive cry.

"This is horrible!" the voice cries out, before another quickly follows: "We aren't criminals!"

Israel said its warplanes struck several targets in Syria early Friday, prompting retaliatory missiles launches, in the most serious incident between the two countries since the Syrian conflict erupted six years ago.

In Aleppo, portraits of Russian President Vladimir Putin hang shoulder-to-shoulder with those of his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad, signalling Moscow's rise at the expense of Damascus's other ally, Iran.

The rivalry between the two primary backers of the Syrian government is becoming increasingly palpable, according to Syrian officials and a Russian analyst.