John Kerry

The first 24 hours of the partial ceasefire secured in Syria seemed to cause some cautious optimism for the implementation of the U.S.-Russia agreement, billed as "the last chance" for keeping the war-torn country united.

The United States and Russia hailed a breakthrough deal on Sept. 10 to put Syria's peace process back on track, including a nationwide truce effective from sundown on Sept. 12, improved humanitarian aid access and joint military targeting of banned Islamist groups. 

The United States and Russia grappled over a possible cease-fire deal for Syria on Sept. 9 ahead of the Eid al-Adha starting on Sept. 12, as resurgent Moscow-backed regime forces tightened the noose on the beleaguered city of Aleppo.     

BELGRADE - Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said Thursday he would most likely meet with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Brussels on July 18.

"That is a great honour for Serbia and we are not going to miss that opportunity," Vucic told a press conference.

Secretary of State John Kerry called his Turkish counterpart on July 16 to offer U.S. support in the wake of a failed coup, and also to protest claims Washington had backed it.

The United States was quick to denounce the military revolt in its NATO ally Turkey and to express support for the elected government.

Scores of foreign affairs ministers from the four corners of the world have queued up to express solidarity to Turkey as they called their counterpart.

Any country that would harbor Fethullah Gülen, the leader of the parallel state that is regarded as the mastermind of July 15's coup attempt would not be Turkey's friend, the Turkish prime minister has said, obviously urging the United States where the self-exile religious leader lives since late 1990s. 

World powers and the international community have extended messages of strong solidarity with the people of Turkey in the face of the threat that the country's democratic institutions and the constitutional order have been facing.

The truck attacker who killed 84 civilians in Nice, France, sent another shockwave to the world, which had barely recovered from consecutive jihadist attacks in Orlando, Istanbul, Dhaka and Baghdad that claimed the lives of hundreds of people. The attack in Nice bore resemblance to the assault on a gay nightclub in Orlando, as both assailants could be described as self-radicalized "lone wolves.

The prime minister of Serbia's outgoing government, Aleksandar Vucic, on Thursday in Belgrade received U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Kyle Scott.

According to the government's website, Scott "congratulated him on the election victory (of his SNS party) and handed him congratulations by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry."