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The battle continues to rage for the Kurdish town of Kobani, Syria, on the Turkish border, between Kurdish militia, backed by U.S. airstrikes, and the Islamic State (IS). The outcome of this battle will determine who controls key points along the border connecting Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. As has been widely reported, the Turkish government is backing IS to block the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria, bordering the Kurdish region in Iraq, which has already established quasi-independence.

Jean-Claude Juncker's team: will this be the new European Commission?

The fiercest fighting in days shook the Syrian border town of Kobani overnight as Islamic State militants attacked Kurdish fighters with mortars and car bombs, sources in the town and a monitoring group said on Sunday.

In accordance with the Decision of the European Parliament and the EU's Council of Ministers, which sets out the criteria for the European Capital of Culture, Bulgaria and Italy are the two Member States which will share the title in 2019. The final selection in Bulgaria took place in September, with the panel recommending that Plovdiv should be awarded the title.

A UN peacekeeper from Niger on patrol in Gao, Mali.

A scavenger picks through garbage in a low-income neighbourhood of Jakarta, Indonesia.

Separate attacks in Egypt have killed two police officers and wounded nearly a dozen other people.

Islamist militant group Boko Haram is in talks with the Nigerian government to release more than 200 girls abducted six months ago and negotiate a cease-fire to a deadly insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.