The United States and its allies carried out 31 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq on July 16, a US military statement said.

Cuba is prepared to break with the contentious past and peacefully coexist with the United States, Cuban President Raul Castro said on July 15 as the two former adversaries are set to restore diplomatic ties.

Major powers and Iran finessed how UN inspectors will get access to Iranian military sites in July 14's nuclear agreement, with a formula that gives the United Nations strong inspection powers while allowing Tehran to save face.

The Greek parliament passed sweeping austerity measures demanded by lenders to open talks on a new multibillion-euro bailout package to keep Greece in the euro, but dozens of hardliners in the ruling Syriza party deserted Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Iran and six major world powers reached a nuclear deal on July 15, capping more than a decade of negotiations with an agreement that could transform the Middle East.

An International Monetary Fund study published on July 14 showed that Greece needs far more debt relief than European governments have been willing to contemplate so far, as fractious parties in Athens prepared to vote on a sweeping austerity package demanded by their lenders.

Euro zone leaders made Greece surrender much of its sovereignty to outside supervision on July 13 in return for agreeing to talks on an 86 billion euros bailout to keep the near-bankrupt country in the single currency.

UN inspectors would have access to all suspect Iranian sites, including military ones, under a draft nuclear deal that six major powers and Iran are working to finalize on July 13, a diplomatic source said.

Greece's leftwing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras faces a showdown with rebels in his own party on July 14 furious at his capitulation to German demands for one of the most sweeping austerity packages ever demanded of a euro zone government.

Two senior Islamic State leaders were killed in an air strike in northeastern Syria on July 13, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.