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.

In the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun, site of an alleged chemical weapons attack, residents still mourning their dead on Friday welcomed U.S. strikes as a way to pressure Damascus.

US missiles targeted Syrian forces Friday in response to a suspected chemical attack that killed up to 86 people earlier this week.

It was the first direct US strike against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's devastating six-year war.

From strong messages of support to fierce condemnation, here are the main global reactions to a US strike on a Syria air base in response to a suspected chemical attack. 

- Against -RUSSIA: Unsurprisingly, the main ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was robust in its opposition to the strike.

An air strike hit rebel-held Khan Sheikhun in northwestern Syria on Tuesday morning, leaving dozens of civilians dead from a suspected chemical weapons attack.

Gently placing flowers outside a Saint Petersburg metro station to honour the 14 people killed in Monday's devastating suicide bombing, Ksenia Zashikhina ponders what might have been.