A suicide bomber detonated explosives near a mosque in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia on June 2, killing and wounding several people, a monitoring group and state media reported.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed the Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting in Yemen for killing and maiming children by adding it to an annual blacklist of states and armed groups that violate children's rights during conflict.

A murder-suicide killed two people at the University of California, Los Angeles on June 1, shutting down the campus for two hours as officers in camouflage and tactical gear responded to reports of a shooting.

Islamic State insurgents faced major assaults on two fronts in both Iraq and Syria on June 1 in what could prove to be some of the biggest operations to roll back their caliphate since they proclaimed it in 2014.

British voters have moved toward voting to leave the European Union in next month's referendum according to two surveys by polling firm ICM, surprising investors and sending sterling sharply lower.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to announce on June 1 that the government will delay a scheduled sales tax hike by two-and-a-half years, but will likely bow to pressure from his coalition partner not to call a snap general election.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) attempted to fire a missile from its east coast on May 31 but the launch appears to have failed, the Republic of Korea (RoK)'s officials said, in what would be the latest in a string of unsuccessful ballistic missile tests by the isolated country.

Islamic State fighters halted an Iraqi army assault on the city of Falluja with a counter-attack at its southern gates on May 31, while the United Nations warned of peril for civilians trapped in the city and used by militants as human shields.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held out the prospect on May 30 of reviving a 2002 Arab peace initiative that offers Israel diplomatic recognition from Arab countries in return for a statehood deal with the Palestinians.

The Iraqi army stormed to the southern edge of Falluja under US air support on May 30 and captured a police station inside the city limits, launching a direct assault to retake one of the main strongholds of Islamic State militants.