Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, who according to U.S. officials was probably killed in a drone strike, took over as head of the insurgent movement last July following the revelation that the group's founder Mullah Omar had been dead for two years.

Venezuela's armed forces, which are conducting exercises against perceived internal and external threats, hold immense power in the government of President Nicolas Maduro and notably have interests in the vital oil sector.

The military boasts Russian and Chinese systems, including Sukhoi strike jet fighters, missiles and tanks.

U.S. President Barack Obama will try to turn the page on a war-strewn history with Vietnam and Japan when he begins a two nation Asia visit Monday, including a somber pilgrimage to Hiroshima, site of the world's first nuclear attack.

This will be the tenth trip to Asia by America's self-declared "Pacific President," who unapologetically sees America's future tethered to the region.

Egyptian search teams on Friday found wreckage and debris including body parts from an EgyptAir plane that mysteriously crashed into the eastern Mediterranean carrying 66 people, but investigators remain baffled about what brought it down.

Turkey's incoming prime minister Binali Yildirim is a longstanding and faithful ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has shown the president unstinting loyalty even before he won the highest office.

The appointment of Yildirim to lead the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and thus lead the government signals a move to a more pliant premiership for Erdogan than was the case under the outgoing Ahmet Davutoglu, who feuded with the Turkish strongman on one too many issues and earlier this month threw in the towel.

Searches were under way in the eastern Mediterranean on Thursday after an EgyptAir flight vanished from radar screens, with a Greek aviation source saying it had crashed south of Karpathos island.

The flight, which had 66 people on board, was headed to Cairo after taking off from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Several scenarios could explain the mysterious crash of the EgyptAir flight into the Mediterranean en route from Paris to Cairo early Thursday, but aviation experts say a terror attack is the most probable.

Both France and Egypt have been leading targets for Islamist extremists in recent months.

The Islamic State group, on the defensive and under heavy pressure in Iraq, has struck back with bloody attacks in Baghdad, where persistent gaps in security increase the city's exposure.

In doing so, IS can portray itself as still being on the offensive, draw attention away from the setbacks it has suffered, and obtain media attention unrelated to losses.

U.S. authorities and Internet giants are boosting attempts to counter the Islamic State group's online propaganda, though it is unclear how effective these efforts are in hampering the jihadists' public-relations machine.

With calls to jihad and highly produced videos of IS fighters in battle or killing captives, the IS group has long used the Internet and social media to recruit fighters for its so-called caliphate in Iraq and Syria, and to incite individuals around the world to commit terrorist attacks.

America's "veepstakes" are under way. Running mates have not played a decisive role in helping win the White House in a generation, but will they do so this year?

Democrat Hillary Clinton's presidential bid is positively lackluster when compared to the Donald Trump spectacle, but the ex-secretary of state could give her campaign a jolt with an inspired choice of running mate.