Forces allied with Libya's unity government are closing in on Islamic State group fighters in Sirte in a month-long operation aimed at ousting the jihadists from their North African stronghold.

Instead of going to school, Walid and Ibrahim spend hours each day rummaging through houses destroyed in Gaza's wars in search of scrap to raise a few shekels for their families.

It was one of the most awkward moments of a press conference that was full of them: when an American journalist asked Cuban President Raul Castro about the fate of political prisoners on the island.

For the first time in more than two years, Awash al-Aboud looked out at her village in northern Syria wearing a fearless grin instead of the black veil imposed by the Islamic State group.

The elderly woman was among hundreds of residents who returned this week to villages recaptured by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab alliance advancing on the jihadist stronghold of Manbij.

Iraq's Shiite militias have so far been operating on the periphery of jihadist-held Fallujah but their role in the battle to retake the city has been the center of attention.

Officially, they fight under the umbrella of the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) paramilitary force and the prime minister's command, but their participation in the operation was the subject of controversy even before it began.

Italy's anti-establishment Five Star movement (M5S), riding high on a first round victory in Rome's mayoral race and the second biggest political force in the country, is a broad church, lying outside the traditional left-right paradigm.

- Where does the movement come from?

The United Nations will on Sunday ask the Syrian government to allow airdrops of humanitarian aid -- an operation that military experts say is complex, risky and not always that effective.

Hillary Clinton, about to clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, rallied with supporters Saturday in this California farmtown. But the real party occurred in nearby Los Angeles, where thousands of young voters gathered to see their hero Bernie Sanders.

Both politicians have been criss-crossing the largest state in the union ahead of Tuesday's primary, and while it is Clinton who is all but certain to prevail in their national battle, Sanders still appears to draw larger and more energized crowds.

A seemingly endless parade of violent protests, transport strikes and paralyzed infrastructure in recent months has once again given the impression of France as a country that cannot be governed.

But how much does the cliche reflect reality?

A Paris meeting Friday on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the latest attempt to tackle one of the world's most stubborn diplomatic issues.