13 June 2014 Last updated at 08:14
Iraq conflict: ISIS militants seize new towns
Islamist militants in Iraq have seized two new towns, widening their control after threatening to move on Baghdad.
The Sunni-led Islamists advanced into Saadiya and Jalawla in Diyala province and surrounding areas as security forces abandoned their posts.
The US says it is looking at "all options", including military action, to help Iraq fight the insurgency.
The pledge came after the cities of Mosul and Tikrit fell to the militants, but the advance has slowed down.
Led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the insurgents have threatened to push to the capital, Baghdad and regions further south dominated by Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, whom they regard as "infidels".
Climate negotiations yet to begin in earnest in Bonn
Despite eight days of talks no hard bargaining yet on shape of treaty
Frank McDonald
Hard negotiations on the shape and content of an international treaty to tackle global warming have yet to get under way after eight days of talks in Bonn, despite what everyone describes as a “constructive” atmosphere at the latest United Nations conference.
With only 18 months to go before the crucial Paris climate change summit, delegates representing 185 countries are still grappling with the process of reaching agreement, in the absence so far of a draft text to serve as a basis for negotiations.
At a “stocktaking” session that began yesterday afternoon behind closed doors there was widespread support for the two co-chairs – Artur Runge-Metzer of Germany and Kishan Kumarsingh of Trinidad and Tobago – to continue their work, sources said.
Ten rapes a day in Indian state where power and caste are two sides of same coin
June 13, 2014 - 2:54PMJason Koutsoukis
South Asia correspondent at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
Delhi: First came the gang-rape of two cousins aged 12 and 14 who were later tortured and hanged from a mango tree a fortnight ago in India’s state of Uttar Pradesh.
This week, in the same mostly rural province that is home to more than 200 million people, brought further horrors.
On Monday the body of a rape victim, a 13-year-old girl, was found dumped in a sugar cane field.
On Wednesday the body of a 45-year-old woman who had been gang-raped by five men was found hanging from a tree in a guava orchard.Malawi's prized chambo fish faces extinction
In the decade that fisherman Edward Njeleza has been trawling the deep, clear waters of Lake Malawi in Africa's Great Rift Valley, he has seen his once abundant catch shrink by 90 percent.
Now he spends most days on the shore searching for pods and a special type of grass he uses to make necklaces, key rings and bracelets to supplement his income.
In the past, he and his nine fishing mates would on average catch roughly 300 kilogrammes (650 pounds) of fish a day, but that haul has dropped to no more than 25 kilogrammes, he told AFP.
"We go fishing but never come back with much," said Njeleza, waiting by the lake with a bag full of homemade jewellery slung over his shoulder.
"And we don't catch big fish."
Protests erupt in São Paulo, but not all Brazilians anti-World Cup (+video)
As the northwestern city of Rio Branco prepares for the World Cup, some wonder whether its failed bid in 2009 to be one of the host cities was a blessing in disguise.
RIO BRANCO, BRAZIL — Artist João Paulo Asfury has spent the past three weeks covering a half-mile stretch of this remote Brazilian city in World Cup-related graffiti.
But Mr. Asfury's not tagging in protest at the estimated $11.3 billion price tag for the tournament that kicks off today in São Paulo, where hundreds of demonstrators clashed with riot police. Instead, he's celebrating the return of “the beautiful game” to Brazilian soil and rooting for his nation to break a 12-year dry streak and win another World Cup.
ISIS: The first terror group to build an Islamic state?
June 13, 2014 -- Updated 0325 GMT (1125 HKT)
The face of a balding, middle-aged man stares unsmilingly into the camera. He is dressed in a suit and tie and could pass for a midlevel bureaucrat.
But the photograph is that of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who has transformed a few terror cells harried to the verge of extinction into the most dangerous militant group in the world.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has thrived and mutated during the ongoing civil war in Syria and in the security vacuum that followed the departure of the last American forces from Iraq.
The aim of ISIS is to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and in Syria.
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