In a hotel room in southern Russia, Lydia and Pavel Izvozchikov are praying their son will be found alive somewhere in the shallow waters at the mouth of the Black Sea.

Wearing blue camouflage fatigues and crooning about Islamic holy war, the five members of Hamas’s Protectors of the Homeland police band are trying to boost morale in Gaza with an arsenal of anti-Israel numbers.

Turkey’s prime minister denied on Wednesday carrying out aerial strikes this week against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, but the government reaffirmed its readiness for a cross-border operation if deemed necessary.