Tags: Syria

More than 25,000 foreign fighters from some 100 countries are linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State, with Syria and Iraq comprising a "veritable international finishing school for extremists," United Nations experts reported to the U.N. Security Council.

Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy on Sunday, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

Tasneem Hussein was a soft-spoken university student in Khartoum when the transformation slowly began. After returning to Sudan from Britain to study pharmacology, she swapped her jeans for the head-to-toe niqab covering. But no one expected to hear reports of her abandoning her studies and a privileged life to help Islamic State wage jihad in Syria.