A suspected suicide bomber was killed after detonating an explosive device near the US consulate in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah on July 4, the BBC reported, citing Saudi media.

Nearly 120 people were killed and 200 wounded in two bombings overnight in Baghdad, most of them in a busy shopping area as residents celebrated Ramadan, police and medical sources said on July 3.

Islamist militants shouting "Allahu Akbar" attacked an upscale cafe in the Bangladeshi capital, killing 20 foreigners inside, before police stormed the building on July 2 and rescued 13 hostages, officials said.

France is working on ways to make Paris a more attractive financial center to rival the City of London after Britain's vote to leave the European Union, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on July 2.

The new leader of the Taliban called for an end to foreign forces' "occupation" of Afghanistan as a preliminary step to a settlement based on Islamic law that he said would bring unity to a country riven by decades of war.

Israel should stop building settlements, denying Palestinian development and designating land for exclusive Israeli use that Palestinians seek for a future state, the Middle East peace "Quartet" recommended on July 1 in a an eagerly awaited report.

The European Union should give Britain a quick and fair exit deal to minimize the economic cost and not hinder the process for the sake of setting a political example, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann said on July 1.

The number of hate crimes reported to British police online, including some assaults, has increased by more than 500 percent in the week after the country voted to leave the European Union, a senior police chief said on June 30.

Three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers who killed 44 people in a gun and bomb attack at Istanbul's main airport this week were Russian, Uzbek and Kyrgyz nationals, a Turkish government official said on June 30.

Ten women died in a sinking rubber boat off the coast of Libya on June 30 and an Italian ship rescued hundreds of other migrants, the Italian coastguard said.