Syria called local truces near Damascus and in a northern province on Friday but no halt to combat on the main battlefield in Aleppo, after a surge in fighting the United Nations said showed “monstrous disregard” for civilian lives.

A London-based Muslim preacher has demanded a formal apology from the British premier for labeling him a ISIL supporter in the parliament in the run-up to the mayoral elections.

Smear campaigns targeting Muslim politicians across Europe, which have seen many forced to quit, highlight an attitude of intolerance toward Muslims.

At least 20 people were killed on Saturday in a spate of attacks across Iraq’s capital.

A major Taliban suicide bomb and gun attack on a government security office in central Kabul during rush hour on Tuesday killed at least 28 people and wounded more than 320, a week after the militant group announced a spring offensive.

Air strikes on two markets in northwest Syria have killed more than 50 people, local sources told Al Jazeera, as Syria’s opposition negotiators said they were leaving peace talks that were held in Geneva.

Switzerland has suspended the citizenship process for the family of two teenage Syrian brothers after the boys’ refusal to shake hands with their female teachers for religious reasons.

A visiting Saudi religious official and Turkey’s top cleric on Tuesday said that by working together, the two countries can solve the problem of Islamophobia.

A college student who came to the United States as an Iraqi refugee was removed from a Southwest Airlines flight in California earlier this month after another passenger became alarmed when she heard him speaking Arabic.

A bomb blew up a bus and set fire to another in Jerusalem on Monday, wounding 16 people in an attack that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked to a six-month-old wave of Palestinian street violence.