A US cruise ship carrying a healthcare worker who is being monitored for signs of ebola has returned to port in Texas.

President Barack Obama appointed an ebola tsar for the US, and the government said a Texas health worker who may have had contact with specimens from an ebola patient was isolated on a cruise ship.

The US-led coalition has intensified its aerial bombardment of Islamic State (IS) positions in the Syrian border town of Kobani as the extremist group fought street battles with Kurdish forces and reportedly rushed in reinforcements.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Hamas and the Islamic State group (IS) are “branches of the same poisonous tree,” both bent on world domination through terror, just as the Nazis were.

Islamic militants have posted a video online which claims to show the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff, who went missing in Syria last year.

Iraq’s government has plunged into a political crisis at a time it is fighting advances by Islamic State militants.

An Israeli air strike killed a militant leader in the Gaza Strip today, just hours ahead of a seven-hour truce announced by Israel which was meant to open a “humanitarian window” for aid.

A 15-year-old American boy is being held by Israel for allegedly playing a leading role in violent East Jerusalem protests.

A Hamas rocket exploded near Israel’s main airport, prompting a ban on flights from the US and many from Europe and Canada.

President Barack Obama has called for the international community to focus on ending the fighting in the Gaza Strip, as Secretary of State John Kerry headed to the Middle East to make a renewed push for a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.

Israel has fired missiles at the homes of four top Hamas leaders, the militant group said, in a resumed bombardment of Gaza following a failed Egyptian ceasefire effort.

People in Gaza fear further bombardment after Israel warned tens of thousands in the north and east to leave their homes.

President Barack Obama is urging Israelis and Palestinians to restrain themselves and put an end to acts of retribution in the recent round of violence.

The al Qaida breakaway group that has seized much of Syria and Iraq has formally declared the establishment of a new Islamic state.

The al-Qaida breakaway group that has seized much of north-eastern Syria and huge tracts of Iraq formally declared the establishment of a new Islamic state.

Sudan said the release of a Sudanese mother, whose death sentence for refusing to recant her Christian faith sparked global criticism, depends on the outcome of her legal appeal.

It is understood the search for 276 schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria is closing in on a forest near the eastern border.

Israel has broken off Middle East peace talks and brought the US-brokered process to the brink of collapse.

Israel has broken off Middle East peace talks and brought the US-brokered process to the brink of collapse.

Russia’s foreign minister has promised a firm response if its citizens or interests come under attack in Ukraine – a vow that came after Ukraine announced a renewal of its “anti-terror” campaign against those occupying buildings in its troubled east.

The US is repeating its willingness to send an envoy to seek the freedom of an American detainee in North Korea after a pro-Pyongyang newspaper reported that such a visit was being planned.

A pipe bomb believed to have been planted by Palestinian militants exploded on board a bus moments after passengers had left, in the most serious attack inside Israel in more than a year.

Russian president Vladimir Putin made a new attempt to woo Ukraine yesterday after the European Union and United States stepped up efforts to pull Kiev out of its former Soviet master’s orbit.

Israel’s prime minister has abruptly halted a plan to explore the potential construction of thousands of new homes in West Bank settlements.

The Obama administration is asking Congress to hold fire on enacting new sanctions against Iran, to give negotiators flexibility in current nuclear talks.

Americans and a 'British woman' – believed to be from the North – were among the terrorists who attacked a Nairobi shopping mall, killing more than 60 people, Kenya’s foreign minister said today.

Amid online “chatter” about terror threats, US diplomatic posts in 19 cities in the Muslim world will be closed at least through the end of this week, the State Department said.

The European Union’s top diplomat has had two hours of talks with Egypt’s ousted president, who has been held incommunicado since his overthrow in a July 3 military coup, the EU said today.

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has called the rerouting of his plane over suspicions that National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden was aboard a provocation to Latin America and urged European countries to “free themselves” from the United States.

Obama administration officials are split over whether to arm Syria’s rebel forces or make other military moves that would deepen US involvement in the conflict.

The American defence contractor who says he leaked information on classified US surveillance programmes could benefit from a quirk in Hong Kong law that would ensure a lengthy battle to deport him.

North Korea has proposed working-level talks with the South as the rivals move to mend ties that have plunged during recent years amid hardline stances by both countries.

New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme are having unintended consequences.

Thousands of Sunni Muslims fled a Syrian coastal town today, a day after reports circulated that dozens of people, including children, had been killed by pro-government gunmen in the area, activists said.

An American detained for nearly six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of “compulsory labour” for unspecified crimes against the state.

It may look to America like US president Barack Obama is off the campaign trail.

Barack Obama worked to hang on to his slim lead in the crucial battleground state of Ohio and bounce back from a disappointing debate performance that re-energised the campaign of Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Republicans lashed out at President Barack Obama and his administration chiefs over their evolving description of the deadly September 11 attack on the US consulate in Libya.

US Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney is trying to deflect questions about his record as a businessman who has kept part of his vast fortune in overseas accounts.

Polls suggest President Barack Obama holds only a small, perhaps meaningless, lead over Republican rival Mitt Romney in the race for the White House as he awaits a new jobs report.

MITT ROMNEY’S whisker-thin Iowa caucus victory was underwhelming in scope and anti-climactic in its finality — but it moved him closer to the Republican presidential nomination chiefly because of who finished fourth and fifth.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama asked his supporters today to help with recovery from Hurricane Ike and cancelled his plans to crack jokes on the TV comedy show Saturday Night Live in the aftermath of the storm.