The Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas movement has cancelled its upcoming anniversary celebrations, for the first time since it came to power six years ago, as the territory grapples with economic woes. Hamas said it would be inappropriate to hold the annual celebrations, used to display the group's control on the region, as deep economic challenges rip the crowded coastal strip. "The decision to cancel the rally is a message of solidarity recognising the difficult circumstances experienced by our people in Gaza," Hamas official Ashraf Abu Zayed was quoted by AP news agency as saying.

The Israeli Army shared its first comic book titled Hamas in Comics: Terror and Tyranny in Gaza, commemorating the so-called Operation "Pillar of Defense", an eight-day military offensive in the Gaza Strip. According to a post on the army's blog, the comic aims to "show you the terrorist organisation like you've never seen it before".

Taliban militants gunned down and killed six people in Afghanistan working on a government-backed literacy project in the northern province of Faryab, officials said on Wednesday. The insurgent group is stepping up attacks on state workers ahead of presidential elections due in April 2014, fanning security concerns as foreign troops prepare to withdraw from the country by the end of next year.

The United States and Afghanistan are close to finalizing a deal that would set guidelines for the two countries' relationship after 2014, when the bulk of American forces are supposed to leave the country—more than a dozen years and hundreds of billions of dollars later.

Two Islamist groups in Nigeria have been added to the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations for killing thousands of people and threatening Westerners in West Africa, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Boko Haram and a splinter group, Ansaru, were named to the federal roster of terrorist groups after U.S. officials determined that they had received training and some financing from the Al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa.

Al Qaeda is building its most dangerous stronghold ever in the borderlands between Syria and Iraq. Hundreds of new jihadist fighters are flocking to this battlefield in the heartland of the Middle East. And with the civil wars in both countries all but certain to endure for the foreseeable future, the danger from this stronghold is growing.

France said on Sunday two French journalists found dead in the northern Mali region of Kidal had been “coldly assassinated” by militants and vowed to step up security measures in the area. Radio journalists Claude Verlon and Ghislaine Dupont were abducted after interviewing a member of the MNLA Tuareg separatist group in northern Mali.

China's domestic security chief has blamed a Muslim Uighur separatist group for planning a "violent terrorist incident" this week on Beijing's Tiananmen Square that killed five people and injured dozens of others. Meng Jianzhu, a member of the 25-member Politburo with responsibility for domestic security, said Friday that the incident had been organized by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. The group is based in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.