(Reuters) – Islamic State’s defeat in Kobani and other recent setbacks in Syria suggest the group is under strain but far from collapse in the Syrian half of its self-declared caliphate. Islamic State’s high-profile defeat by Kurdish militia backed by U.S.-led air strikes capped a four-month battle that cost Islamic State 2,000 of its fighters, according to […]readmore
The suspect at the center of the Sydney hostage drama winding down Tuesday has long been on law enforcement officials’ radar. Man Haron Monis, an Iranian-born refugee and self-styled sheik, was alleged to have taken at least a dozen people hostage and holding them for nearly 17 hours at the downtown Lindt Chocolate Cafe. Security […]readmore
A daylong standoff in Sydney, Australia, ended after heavily armed police stormed the cafe where a man reportedly held at least a dozen people hostage, leaving two hostages and the gunman dead. Heavy gunfire and loud bangs from stun grenades filled the air around 2 a.m. local time (1500 GMT on Monday) after security forces […]readmore
Hundreds of armed police in Sydney, Australia, have sealed off an area of the central business district where gunmen are holding what appears to be more than three dozen people hostage inside a cafe. Live television from the scene showed people inside a Lindt chocolate cafe standing with their hands pushed up against the windows. […]readmore
Kurdish fighters in northern Syria are getting reinforcements in their month-long battle with Islamic State militants in the border city of Kobani. A group of about 50 rebels from the Free Syrian Army arrived Wednesday in Kobani after crossing into Syria from Turkey. They join the fight there against the Islamic State group after spending […]readmore
Heavily armed Canadian police backed by armored vehicles surrounded the country’s parliament buildings in Ottawa, after at least one gunman shot a soldier guarding the nearby National War Memorial. After opening fire at the War Memorial, witnesses said the gunman escaped in the direction of the parliament buildings, and multiple reports said there was an […]readmore
Observers of Wednesday morning’s total lunar eclipse might be able to catch sight of an extremely rare cosmic sight. On Oct. 8, Interested skywatchers should attempt to see the total eclipse of the moon and the rising sun simultaneously. The little-used name for this effect is called a «selenelion,» a phenomenon that celestial geometry says cannot happen. […]readmore
Turkey’s president says the Syrian border town of Kobani is on the verge of falling to Islamic State militants. Kurdish fighters have been defending the town for three weeks from the approaching militant offensive. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Tuesday that the ultra-radical Sunni militant group will take control of the area along […]readmore
Two Japanese scientists and a Japanese-born American scientist have been awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physics for inventing the environmentally-friendly blue light emitting diodes, commonly known as LEDs. Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura were honored for their work in the 1990s in creating bright, energy-efficient white light from semiconductors, succeeding where scores […]readmore
BANGKOK—An internal document of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) foresees sex offenders who prey on children taking advantage of Southeast Asia’s planned economic integration in the coming years, posing a rising challenge for law enforcement that already struggle to address such crimes. Southeast Asia’s planned economic integration is promoted as a key […]readmore