Thousands of Shi'ite militiamen on May 18 prepared to fight Islamic State insurgents who seized the Iraqi provincial capital Ramadi at the weekend in the biggest defeat for government forces in nearly a year.

Saudi-led forces resumed military operations in Yemen after a five-day ceasefire ended late last weekend, and Yemen's exiled government in Riyadh and the Iranian-allied Houthis blamed each other for a failure to renew the truce.

A Saudi Arabian-led coalition resumed air strikes against Yemen's Houthi militia in Aden overnight, hours after the expiry of a truce meant to facilitate badly needed humanitarian aid, a Reuters eyewitness said.

Islamic State militants said they had taken full control of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on May 17 in the biggest defeat for the Baghdad government since last summer.

Nine people were killed on May 17 when a simmering feud among rival biker gangs boiled over at a sports bar in Waco, Texas, resulting in gunfire and a full-blown battle in the parking lot, police said.

China's ties with the United States remain stable, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on May 17, as he sought to defuse tension over a territorial dispute in the East Sea that has raised fears of confrontation between them.

A US drone strike in northwestern Pakistan's Shawal region killed at least four militants on May 16, officials said.

American special operations forces killed a senior Islamic State leader in a raid in Syria, US officials said on May 16.

(VOV) -Iran is prepared for "all scenarios" in talks with world powers about curbing its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, its top nuclear negotiator said on May 15 when asked what would happen if no final deal was reached by July.

The 13th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Inter-Sessional Meeting on Counter- Terrorism and Transnational Crime was convened in Nanning, the capital of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on May 14-15.