* Obama set to speed arms, training to Iraq tribes after rout Following capture of key city of Ramadi by Islamic State forces, Washington wants to see a swift counter-attack.
* Apocalyptic skies return above Chile after second volcano erupts More astonishing images of a volcanic eruption have emerged from Chile, this time from Villarrica in southern Chile.
* U.S. Weighing Punishments for Russia's Nuclear Violations The Obama administration is considering a range of options to respond to Russia's ongoing violation of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty. Part of the response could involve deploying new U.S. weapons to Eastern Europe.
* Ukraine's Poroshenko talks of 'real war' with Russia Ukraine's president has told the BBC his country is now in a "real war" with Russia - and that Ukrainians should prepare for a Russian offensive.
* Anti-Semitic imagery on sale in Moscow hotels Simon Wiesenthal Center demands that Russia take legal measures against producers and distributors of neo-Nazi products sold in Holiday Inn and Hilton gift shops.
* Christians in the Middle East rank high on Peoples Under Threat list The risk for Christians noted to be especially high in Iraq.
* Existence of Jewish people "in doubt" due to low conversion rate, report finds More than 50% of former Soviet Union conversion candidates drop out, according to Israel Democracy Institute report.
* Islamic State 'closes in' on Syria's Palmyra Islamic State militants are reported to have seized a third of the Syrian town next to Palmyra, one of the Middle East's greatest archaeological sites.
* Gates: "We don't have a strategy at all" in Middle East Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared "we don't have a strategy at all" in the Middle East on Tuesday's "Morning Joe" on MSNBC.
* Pentagon intelligence report warning of Benghazi attack was circulating on day it happened At the very time President Obama, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top leaders were blaming spontaneous protests for the deadly Benghazi attack, the Defense Department broadly circulated a detailed intelligence report that said an Al Qaida-linked group planned the assault 10 days beforehand.