The United States and its partners are focusing their military might on stopping the spread of the group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and on disrupting IS operations in Syria. Behind the scenes, however, efforts also are underway to prevent the violence from spreading back to Europe and the United States.  

A leftist Russian party has prepared a parliamentary motion calling for immediate military, technical and humanitarian aid to the governments of Syria and Iraq in their fight against Islamic terrorists.

It's a shift in the administration’s approach to an offensive already under way in Iraq and Syria.

In foreign affairs, Obama has publicly adopted “soft diplomacy” as his way of resolving crises. Key to this approach is “leading from behind,” that is, pressuring or convincing other countries or international organizations to take the lead in crisis response, with the US becoming just one of several partners. 

The Philippines cites the kidnapping of peacekeepers and health issues like Ebola as top issues that must be reviewed in UN peacekeeping.

An international conference on the Syrian refugee crisis vowed Tuesday to extend long-term financial aid to countries struggling with what the U.N. calls the world’s “most dramatic humanitarian crisis,” but did not commit to an overall figure.

Hundreds of young Muslim women from the west who travelled to Syria to marry fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, known as Isis, are part of what experts call, the “soft-power” of the militants. Isis has used social media to attract new recruits and build an image of the group as a reincarnation of the just and righteous state to which many Muslims aspire.

The award, the Cultural Heritage Rescue Prize, was established by Francesco Rutelli, of Italy’s Associazione Priorità Cultura and the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, to reward “the courage and determination of those fighting to preserve culture as universal heritage,” according to the organizers, who decided to give the inaugural award to a person or organization involved in the Syrian conflict.