bin Laden

Syria and Iraq and have become a ?veritable international finishing school for extremists,? United Nations experts have reported to the U.N. Security Council, noting that there were more than 22,000 foreign fighters from 100 countries in the Mideast neighbors.

The creepy masked man holding a knife to the throat of many a western hostage kneeling before him ? clad in an orange jumpsuit and only moments away from being beheaded ? is apparently no longer a mystery.

Pop diva Lady Gaga announced to the world Feb. 16 that she is getting married -- to an actor she met making a video, in which she wore her mother's wedding dress.
      
The 28-year-old superstar, who has become as known for her extravagant outfits as for her music, revealed the engagement by showing a simple, heart-shaped ring that fiance Taylor Kinney gave her.
      

The Islamic State released a video on Sunday that showed the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya. Hours after the release, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned that his country would respond to the deaths.

The five-minute video showing the deaths has been confirmed as authentic. It appeared on the Twitter feed of a pro-Islamic State website.

Al-Qaeda in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the attack on Charlie Hebdo in a video posted online, saying it was "vengeance" for the French weekly's cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
      
Nasser al-Ansi, one of the chiefs of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), said the attack was ordered by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the jihadist network's global commander.
      

The war in Afghanistan came to a formal end on Dec. 28, 2014, with a flag-lowering ceremony in Kabul. The symbolic act, which was held under heavy security measures due to threats of an attack, marked the conclusion of the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom and the start of Operation Resolute Support.

President Barack Obama said "the longest war in American history has come to a responsible conclusion."

Obama has welcomed the end of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan. The war came to a formal end Dec. 28 with a ceremony in Kabul.

U.S. counter-terrorism officials backed negotiations with two prominent jihadi clerics in a failed attempt to save the life of an American hostage who was later beheaded by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, the Guardian newspaper reported on Dec. 19.
   

"We will not be cowed by these sick terrorists," said British Prime Minister David Cameron after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) produced a grisly video of the mass beheading of Syrian captives by foreign jihadis who allegedly included British fighters. As if the purpose of terrorist attacks in Western countries was to cow and intimidate them.