Ahmet Davutoglu announced on May 5 that he was stepping down as leader of Turkey's ruling AK Party and therefore as prime minister, bowing to President Tayyip Erdogan's drive to create a powerful executive presidency.

Air strikes on a camp housing Syrians uprooted by war killed at least 28 people near the Turkish border on May 5, a monitoring group said, and fighting raged in parts of northern Syria despite a deal to cease hostilities in the city of Aleppo.

Italy and Germany agree on how Europe should tackle the migrant crisis and oppose any move to fence off borders, but they are at odds over how to fund proposed initiatives, the leaders of the two countries said on May 5.

US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on May 4 that Washington and its allies had agreed to do more in their campaign to defeat Islamic State but that more risks lay ahead.

The United States said on May 4 it had agreed with Russia to extend a cessation of hostilities agreement to include Aleppo where intense day-long violence between Syrian rebels and government forces killed dozens of people.

Rebel fighters launched an assault in Syria's divided northern city of Aleppo on May 3 and fired rockets on a hospital in the latest violence to hit civilians as diplomats struggled to restore an unraveling ceasefire and resurrect peace talks.

Islamic State militants killed a US Navy SEAL in northern Iraq on May 3 after blasting through Kurdish defenses and overrunning a town in the biggest offensive in the area for months, officials said.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull confirmed on May 3 that he would call an election within the next week to be held on July 2, looking to cash in on a budget plan aimed at creating jobs and spurring growth.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump all but sealed the party's presidential nomination on May 3 with a commanding victory in Indiana that forced rival Ted Cruz to finally end his campaign.

Hundreds of tourists and a handful of emotional Cuban-Americans arrived on the first US cruise ship to sail to Havana in decades on May 2, spilling onto the cobbled streets of the old city where they were warmly greeted by residents.