Syria

The warning came via text message, urging the sick and wounded to flee before a "strategically planned assault using high precision weapons occurs within 24 hours."

Rebels were also given an ultimatum to lay down their arms and renounce their leadership, or be killed.

The message was likely sent by the Syrian government as the regime is likely the only party capable of sending a mass text to the entire population.

US Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, who commands US air operations across the Middle East, characterized the incident as a "near miss."

Both planes were flying at hundreds of miles an hour with their lights off on the night of October 17. The US military plane came within less than half a mile of the Russian jet, close enough to be in the jet wash of the Russian plane, according to US military officials.

The Russian fighter jet was escorting a Russian spy plane, according to Harrigian.

But these efforts have been complicated in recent weeks by one of Washington's oldest allies in the region: Turkey.

The Turkish government is lashing out against factions currently battling ISIS. Ankara has been engaged in a very public war of words with the government in Iraq. At the same time, the Turkish military has been bombing US-backed Kurdish militants in Syria.

Part of this policy stems from Turkey's unenviable position, living alongside two of the bloodiest, most destabilizing conflicts the Middle East has seen in a generation.

The leaked report says helicopters dropped barrel bombs holding chlorine gas, a prohibited weapon, on the north-west province of Idlib in March 2015.

An earlier report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) blamed the Syrian government for two other gas attacks in 2015.

The government has not yet commented.

Syria agreed to destroy its chemical weapons in 2013 under the terms of an agreement negotiated between Moscow and Washington.

Two British naval ships are shadowing the vessels. The Ministry of Defence said they would be "man-marked every step of the way" while near UK waters.

A Russian tug, believed to be in convoy with the taskforce, entered the channel first off the coast near Ramsgate.

EU leaders have strongly condemned Russia's involvement in bombing the Syrian city of Aleppo.

The ships are within international waters but Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said the UK would "be watching as part of our steadfast commitment to keep Britain safe".

Security and defence analysts IHS say the group's control has shrunk by 28% since its height in January 2015.

In the first nine months of this year, IS' territory fell from 78,000 sq km (30,115 sq miles) to 65,500 sq km - an area equivalent to the size of Sri Lanka - IHS analysts said.

However, IS losses have slowed in the three months to October.

IS has lost just 2,800 sq km (1,080 sq miles) since July.

The slowdown appears to coincide with Russia reducing the number of air strikes against IS targets, IHS has observed.

Syria's 1-0 victory on Thursday shocked fans in the Chinese city of Xi'an who took to the streets.

China has said it wants to become a "world football superpower".

But the loss means the team could now miss out on a place in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

China is ranked 78th in the world whereas Syria is 114th, just ahead of North Korea. The Chinese team faces Uzbekistan on 11 October which will decide if they qualify.

Bashar al-Assad's regime released a promotional video Friday with panoramic views of government-held parts of Aleppo, accompanied by an acoustic version of the theme music to the popular HBO television series.

Showcased in the video are aerial shots of wide green boulevards and swimming pools. It's a far cry from the rebel-held eastern part of the city, where 250,000 people live with daily airstrikes, according to the UN, and where whole blocks of neighborhoods have been destroyed.

Betting site William Hill, the Daily Telegraph, Independent and La Repubblica newspapers and broadcaster CNBC were among those affected.

The attack was carried out by targeting a third-party widget used by the sites.

The companies affected have stressed that their visitors' personal data remained safe.

A worker at Gigya, a California-based customer identity management service, confirmed to the BBC that the hackers had mounted the attack by changing its domain name system entry.

This was during a meeting last week with a group of Syrian civilians, according to an audio recording obtained by CNN.

But Kerry also expressed sympathy for the Syrians' demands that the United States intervene more forcefully amid Syrian and Russian airstrikes against civilians, telling the group that he "lost the argument" for using military force against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.