One party -- the banned Muslim Brotherhood -- will be conspicuously absent from ballot papers Sunday when Egypt's voters head to the polls for long-delayed parliamentary elections.

What had been Egypt's main opposition group for decades fell foul of the authorities after army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and was elected to succeed him last year.

Abdurahim Haitov, a Muslim from ex-Soviet Tajikistan, says Russia should have started bombing Islamic State jihadists in Syria a long time ago.

"Islam was never a religion that spread hate," the pensioner said breathlessly as he hobbled to prayers at the sky blue-colored central mosque in the capital Dushanbe.

The decision to keep thousands of U.S. troops in Afghanistan drives home the hard truth that despite billions of dollars and years of training, Afghan security forces are far from ready to go it alone.

But experts are divided on whether the troop levels outlined on Thursday by President Barack Obama are sufficient to prop up the weakling Afghan army.

Samir rushes forward and hurls the flaming bottle with all his might at the observation tower and the Israel soldiers inside, his contribution to the "intifada."

"We either kick out the Jews or we die," says the 20-year-old Palestinian, one of hundreds protesting violently near the Gaza Strip's border with Israel.

An 18-year-old Palestinian, his face covered with a black-and-white keffiyeh, is fed up with talk about negotiations.

"We're going to keep throwing stones at soldiers," he said at an Israeli checkpoint near the West Bank city of Ramallah, where youths have been gathering daily to protest.

The perpetrators of the worst attack in Turkey's modern history appear intent on seeking to throw the country into chaos by provoking already explosive existing tensions, analysts say.

The twin blasts carried out by suspected suicide bombers on Saturday ripped through a gathering of leftist and pro-Kurdish activists outside Ankara's main train station, killing at least 97 people.

Germany's Muslim community is bracing for a culture shock when masses of Arab migrants join millions of residents of Turkish origin.

But experts suggest the change could be positive for it could broaden outlook, and say fears of Islamist radicalism may be overblown.

The double suicide bombing on a peace rally in Ankara has raised a feud between the government and Turkey's main pro-Kurdish party to a new level, widening a dangerous polarization as Turks head to November 1 polls.

The carnage has put the charismatic leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Selahattin Demirtas on a collision course with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who he accuses of presiding over a "mafia state" responsible for Saturday's bombings that killed at least 97 people.

Stones or bullets? For now, the Palestinian leadership hopes protesters have learned lessons from the second intifada and stick to the former in clashes with Israeli security forces, officials say.

During that uprising, from 2000 to 2005, armed Palestinian security forces confronted the Israelis.

Cruise missiles fired from warships, the latest jets pounding far-off targets: Russian President Vladimir Putin's show of strength in Syria looks aimed at proving that a resurgent Moscow can rival the West, analysts said.

Since late September Russia has flexed its muscles in a bombing campaign across the war-torn country that has put a U.S.-led coalition in the shade and angered Washington and its allies.