Francoise Hollande

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for a suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 32 people on Jan. 2 in Baghdad.

The jihadist organization took responsibility for the blast in Sadr City via its propaganda agency Amaq, claiming the "martyrdom operation" had killed around 40 people.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Oct. 10 asked once again the Security Council to formally request that the International Criminal Court (ICC) begin investigations of war crimes in Syria.
Such a request was blocked in 2014 by Russia and China, which have veto powers, but Ban said the council should try again.

Berlin and Paris have notified Ankara of their desire to use Turkish bases to consolidate the battle against jihadists in SyriaGermany and France have applied to the Turkish government to use the country's air bases in to increase the intensity of their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) after deadly terrorist attacks in Paris on Nov. 13. 

Crunch time for Greek state finances generated another three-way teleconference on Friday between Angela Merkel, Francoise Hollande and Greek PM Alexis Tsipras, reportedly lasting one hour.

Α mini scrum of top European leaders on Friday dampened the leftist Greek government’s hopes for a bailout deal in the next few days, despite smiles and “positive leaks” in the wake of a late-night meeting the previous evening between Angela Merkel, Francoise Hollande and Alexis Tsipras.

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is expected to make his “political solution” pitch to Eurozone partners-cum creditors in Riga on Thursday evening, on the sidelines of a EU summit in the Latvian capital.