For three days it was all smiles as the Palestinian prime minister held talks in Gaza with Hamas but as the symbolic visit draws to a close the real work for reconciliation is just beginning.

Former Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, who died Tuesday aged 83, was a charismatic leader of the Kurdish independence struggle who became Iraq's first non-Arab head of state.

For or against independence, Catalans are reeling from police violence during an independence referendum banned by Madrid but far from locking horns with the Spanish government, they call for dialogue.

The Islamic State group is under attack across the remaining parts of its self-proclaimed caliphate, but what happens to its thousands of fighters as their group loses grip on territory?

Facing multiple offensives, the jihadist group has lost the Libyan city of Sirte, Iraq's Mosul and Ramadi, and is now on the verge of being ousted from its former Syrian stronghold Raqa.

Ties between Palestinian rivals Fatah, a secular party, and the Islamist Hamas have been tense for a decade, at times erupting into deadly conflict.

The Islamic State group has lost swathes of territory in its self-declared "caliphate" in recent months, including its former Iraqi hub Mosul and most of its Syrian bastion Raqa.

It is under attack in its remaining enclaves in Iraq and is facing parallel Russian- and US-backed offensives in Syria. Here are the main battlefronts:

A Palestinian gunman opened fire at an entrance to the Israeli settlement of Har Adar in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, killing three security personnel and wounding another.

Here are some key questions and answers on Israeli settlements:

U.S.-led forces invaded Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 2003 after claims it was harboring weapons of mass destruction.

When Hamas announced this week it would accept demands from rivals Fatah in a bid for Palestinian reconciliation, it was the latest in months of shifts from the Islamist group.

The Islamic State group has lost swathes of territory in its self-declared "caliphate" in recent months, including its former Iraqi hub Mosul and most of its Syrian bastion Raqa.