* Task of stopping Turkey passes from Trump to Putin. Syrian army defends threatened Kurdish towns President Donald Trump's decision to pull US troops back from the Turkish-Kurdish confrontation on Sunday, Oct.13 produced a lightning realignment of big power strength on the battlefield of NE Syria.
* Saudi Visit Showcases Putin's Growing Middle East Influence Asked about concerns Riyadh was cozying up to Moscow, Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir said he saw no contradiction.
* 'Genie out of the bottle': Fears Turkey's Syrian offensive could trigger IS 'resurgence' An abrupt departure by US forces from northern Syria has created instability in an area where around 12,000 IS fighters are being detained.
* Neo-Ottoman Turkey's 'String of Pearls' Since 2015, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been pushing for Syrian "safe zones" and "buffer zones" for humanitarian purposes.
* Analysis: The dark side of 'America First' should worry Israel In retrospect, no one should be shocked by the news that the United States has given the green light to Turkey for a military incursion aimed at sweeping Kurdish forces out of northern Syria.
* Kurdish forces announce deal with Damascus after US pullout Nearly a week after the U.S. announced the decision to pull out its troops from northern Syria to make way for a Turkish incursion, Kurdish forces in the country have reportedly agreed to a new deal with Damascus in a desperate bid to face off against Ankara's offensive.
* Furious with Turkey, EU threatens sanctions, arms embargo EU governments threatened sanctions against Turkey on Friday over its offensive in Syria, angrily rejecting President Tayyip Erdogan's warning that he would "open the gates" and send 3.6 million refugees to Europe if they did not back him.
* Britain, EU Enter Make-or-break Brexit Week Prime Minister Boris Johnson repeated Monday that Britain must leave the EU on October 31, as divorce talks resumed in Brussels in a pivotal week that could define how and when Brexit finally happens.
* ISIS's Turkish Homecoming It is, therefore, the epitome of hypocrisy for Mr Erdogan to offer to take responsibility for the ISIS fighters being held in Kurdish-run detention camps...
* 111-foot asteroid screeching towards Earth at over 22,000 miles per hour Earth is soon set for another close shave with a hurtling space rock as an 111-foot asteroid is poised to skim past our planet on its closest approach for 115 years.