The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria finds itself under growing pressure on several fronts, facing battlefield setbacks in both countries. In a new audio message Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State, has warned of difficult times ahead, saying “the whole world” is united against the Islamic State. Al-Baghdadi’s 24-minute message — his first since ...

Two train stations in Munich, Germany, were evacuated and train service stopped on New Year’s Eve, a spokesman for the Munich police said, citing concerns of a possible terror plot. Police have received “concrete information that strongly indicates that there are possible plans for terror attacks in Munich, specifically against the main train station and the railway station in (the ...

Firefighters battled a blaze that engulfed a luxury hotel in Dubai Thursday night while a spectacular New Year’s fireworks display lit up the night sky nearby. Orange tentacles of flames engulfed a large section of the high-end Address hotel soon after the fire started around 9:30 p.m. (12:30 p.m. ET). Witnesses said they heard explosions as the fire raged. Hours ...

WRITTEN BY KALAHAN DENG Christains in Iraq were 1.5 million,but now, they are least than that by far.Why? because of persecution that is directed against Christians by ISIS. Perfumed smoke fills the aisle as the priest swings incense back and forth in the thurible, a small metal canister suspended from chains that holds the pungent smoke. It is something priest ...

Did Kuwait Airways just scrap an entire flight service to avoid carrying Israeli passengers? The airline has this week pulled its connection between New York’s JFK airport and London Heathrow after U.S. authorities threatened legal action over alleged discrimination. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in September warned the Kuwaiti carrier that it had “unlawfully discriminated” against a passenger using ...

Chicago police — under intense scrutiny in recent months over officer-involved shootings — were involved in another on Saturday morning, an incident that left two people dead, police said. The latest officer-involved shooting happened around 4:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. ET) Saturday near West Garfield Park, Chicago police spokeswoman Ana Pacheco said. In a later press release, police explained that officers ...

Police in India have charged 15 people with murder in connection with the killing of a Muslim man for allegedly eating beef. In September, a mob attacked Mohammad Akhlaq, a 50-year-old blacksmith, for allegedly eating and storing beef at his home. His was one of the two Muslim households in that neighborhood of more than 6,000 people. The incident took ...

The calendar says it’s nearly Christmas, but the damage looks more like spring. A powerful storm system roared across parts of the South, claiming at least 14 lives in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas and injuring scores more. The Storm Prediction Center said at least 14 tornadoes hit Mississippi on Wednesday, but a single twister did most of the damage. It ...

You may not have seen Sunday night’s Miss Universe pageant to have heard about host Steve Harvey’s major gaffe in naming, then crowning, the wrong contestant as the winner. The embarrassing blunder has been making the rounds on social media for the last 18 hours, sending #MissUniverse2015 skyrocketing to the top of the list of topics trending on Twitter. Of ...

Disgusted, yes. Shocked, no. That’s what Kevin McConnell feels after learning that Ethan Couch — the teenager who killed four people and injured several others, including McConnell’s then 12-year-old son Lucas, while driving drunk on a Texas road — is on the lam. In the McConnells’ view, Couch was never held accountable. Not meeting with his probation officer and fleeing ...