News of the Day From Across the Globe

The North has conducted three nuclear tests since 2006 and is developing a mobile ballistic missile that could potentially hit the U.S. Obama said Iran had been prepared to have a “serious conversation” about the possibility of giving up the pursuit of nuclear weapons.

Iraqi government troops backed by Shiite militia fighters have driven out Islamic State group militants from a key oil refinery north of Baghdad in a wide-scale military operation, authorities said Friday.

There was also no word on the fate of the nearby town of Beiji, which fell to Islamic State a year ago, The town is strategically significant as it lies on the road to Islamic State-held Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.

Security and medical officials say Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels have driven pro-government troops out of the southern Bayda province, after two months of heavy clashes that killed 550 fighters from both sides.

Yemen’s fighting pits the Houthis, who are allied with army units loyal to a former president, against the coalition-backed, internationally recognized government.

Four female suicide bombers blew themselves up early Friday when challenged by soldiers as they tried to enter a city in northeastern Nigeria, killing at least 18 people and themselves.

Maiduguri, a city that was the birthplace of Boko Haram and is now the home base of government forces trying to crush the Islamic extremists, has been hit by a series of bombings, exacting a terrible toll among civilians.