For Karam al-Masri, AFP's reporter, photographer and videojournalist in rebel-held Aleppo, the past five years have been a series of tragedies: detention by the regime, and then the Islamic State group, the death of his parents in an air strike, the siege of his hometown, hunger and bombardment. 

Once an economic powerhouse, Aleppo and its surrounding countryside have suffered some of the bloodiest violence in Syria's five-year conflict that has cost more than 300,000 lives.

Mutwali Mohamed watched helplessly as his wife and son slipped under the waves after the crowded migrant boat they boarded capsized off Egypt's coast on its voyage to Italy.

Almost 48 hours after a deadly attack on an aid convoy in Syria that killed about 20 civilians, Russia still furiously denies its jets or Syrian regime planes were responsible.

Here is what we know about Monday's attack that forced the U.N. to suspend its aid deliveries inside the war-torn country:

A ceasefire billed as the "last chance" to halt Syria's five-year war collapsed on Monday night as air strikes battered Aleppo and a U.N. aid convoy was hit near the city.

A ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington is due to take effect in Syria at sundown on Monday, the latest bid to end fighting between government forces and non-jihadist rebels. 

The 9/11 attacks of 2001 forever changed America and upended its foreign and national security policy, leaving the country for the past 15 years in a war against jihadists -- without ending the upheaval in the Middle East.

Barack Obama, who will leave the White House in January, is the president who tried to get the U.S. military out of the quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan -- devastating "war on terror" conflicts launched by his predecessor George W. Bush in the wake of the suicide plane strikes that killed nearly 3,000 people.

A Syria ceasefire deal agreed by the United States and Russia could mark a "turning point" in the five-year conflict if implemented, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday.

North Korea's nuclear threat has grown significantly following its latest and largest nuclear test and a series of missile launches, analysts say, with some South Korean newspapers even theorizing about an atomic attack on Seoul.

The South Korean capital stayed calm Saturday, with residents immune to near-daily threats from their neighbor, but newspapers and analysts saw Friday's test as a game-changer.

Long cast in supporting roles in the shadow of their male counterparts, women are taking an increasingly active role in the organisation and execution of attacks by jihadist groups.

That much emerges clearly from Thursday's arrest of three heavily radicalised women plotting an attack in central Paris using a car laden with gas cylinders.