Mexico faced growing international pressure Tuesday to solve the disappearance of 43 students who vanished after they were attacked by police linked to a drug gang.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called Saudi Arabia’s foreign affairs minister Tuesday and "clarified" his diplomatic gaffe in which he suggested Saudi Arabia and other key allies had financed the Islamic State group, the White House said.

Canadian lawmakers voted Tuesday to join the international coalition launching air strikes on the Islamic State group in Iraq.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday said moves were underway to ban "race hate" preachers from entering the country to prevent them peddling "alien and extremist" ideologies.

Nora was a good high school student who dreamed of becoming a doctor. But when she left to wage jihad in Syria, her family soon discovered she had been leading a double life.

The United States said Tuesday it was "horrific" watching in real time the battle for the Syrian border town of Kobane, insisting it did not want to see the city fall to Islamic militants.
The blitz on Kobane by the Islamic State group follows a three-week siege that sent 190,000 refugees streaming into Turkey -- and despite U.S.-led coalition air attacks, the town appears on the verge of falling.

Iran said Tuesday it had seized explosives destined for an attack on one of its holy cities and that more than 130 members of militant extremist groups had been arrested.

The U.S. military has started flying attack helicopters against Islamic State militants in Iraq for the first time, officials said Monday, marking an escalation in the air war that puts American troops at higher risk.

A former French intelligence officer who defected to Al-Qaida was targeted by U.S. strikes in Syria last month, U.S. press group McClatchy said, in a report almost immediately denied by Paris.
According to the report, European intelligence sources describe the former agent -- who allegedly defected from either French military intelligence services or the country's foreign spy agency the DGSE -- as the "highest ranking defector ever to go over to the terrorist group."

Strong typhoon Phanfone slammed into Japan on Monday, packing gusts and huge waves that have already swept three U.S. military officials out to sea, as it made a beeline for Tokyo.
