Lawyers

• Turkey denies Turkish troops entering Syria

  Turkey denies sending troops to Syria. Turkish defense minister says neither the country plans to work with Kurdish fighters despite call for cooperation from the U.S.

• Iraqi forces try to seal off Islamic State around Tikrit

  Thousands of Iraqi soldiers and Shi'ite militiamen sought to seal off Islamic State fighters in Tikrit and nearby towns on Tuesday, the second day of Iraq's biggest offensive yet against a stronghold of the radical Sunni Islamist militants.

• Westerners join Iraqi Christian militia to fight Islamic State

  Saint Michael, the archangel of battle, is tattooed across the back of a U.S. army veteran who recently returned to Iraq and joined a Christian militia fighting Islamic State in what he sees as a biblical war between good and evil.

• Kurdish deal with Turkey within reach but legal guarantees key: Ocalan

  A settlement to end a three-decade insurgency by Kurdish militants in Turkey could be reached within months if the government puts in place legal guarantees for Kurdish rights, a jailed militant leader was quoted as saying on Sunday.

• Assad's warnings start to ring true in Turkey

  When Sunni rebels rose up against Syria's Bashar al-Assad in 2011, Turkey reclassified its protégé as a pariah, expecting him to lose power within months and join the autocrats of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen on the scrap heap of the "Arab Spring".

• Philippine Islamist militants threaten to behead German on October 17

  Al-Qaeda linked Islamist militants in the Philippines said on Thursday they will kill one of two German captives on Oct. 17 unless their demands are met.

• Kurds issue new call to arms against Islamic State in Syria

  Kurdish militants in Turkey have issued a new call to arms to defend a border town in northern Syria from advancing Islamic State fighters, and the Turkish authorities and United Nations prepared on Sunday for a surge in refugees.

• Britain's Cameron to chair emergency meeting after hostage killed

  Prime Minister David Cameron is to chair a meeting of the government's emergency response committee on Sunday to discuss an Islamic State (IS) video showing the beheading of British aid worker David Haines.

• Ahead of speech, Obama briefs Congress on Islamic State strategy

  President Barack Obama told leaders of Congress on Tuesday that he did not need for them to authorize his strategy to fight Islamic State, ahead of a speech to Americans that may herald expanded operations against the group in Iraq and perhaps Syria.

• Iraq refiles case in U.S. court over disputed Kurdish crude

  Iraq has refiled in U.S. court to gain control of $100 million of Kurdish crude oil on a tanker near Texas, days after the court ruled it lacked jurisdiction to seize the cargo but said it could hear arguments over who is the oil's rightful owner.