12 June 2014 Last updated at 09:16
Iraqi Kurds 'fully control Kirkuk' as army flees
Iraqi Kurdish forces say they have taken full control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk as the army flees before an Islamist offensive nearby.
"The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga," Kurdish spokesman Jabbar Yawar told Reuters. "No Iraq army remains in Kirkuk now."
Kurdish fighters are seen as a bulwark against Sunni Muslim insurgents who seized towns in the region this week.
The fall of the city of Mosul sent shock waves across the Middle East.
Led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the insurgents are believed to be planning to push further south, to the capital Baghdad and regions dominated by Iraq's Shia Muslim majority, whom they regard as "infidels".
But it appears the insurgents want to avoid tangling with Iraqi Kurds in provinces bordering Nineveh province where Mosul is located, because they are a more cohesive fighting force, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Kurdish-run Irbil.
Alarm in Hong Kong at Chinese white paper affirming Beijing control
June 12, 2014 -- Updated 0203 GMT (1003 HKT)
Pro-democracy Hong Kongers have reacted angrily to a Chinese government white paper affirming Beijing's "comprehensive jurisdiction" over the territory, released days after more than 100,000 demonstrators gathered in the city calling for greater rights.
The 14,500-word document, which stresses that Hong Kong does not have "full autonomy" and comes under Beijing's oversight, was released amid fierce debate between residents of the former British colony over impending electoral reform and the nature of the "one country, two systems" concept.
Published by the State Council Information Office, the unprecedented white paper states that "many wrong views are currently rife in Hong Kong" with regard to the "one country, two systems" principle that governs the territory's relationship with Beijing.
Anti-FIFA mood deepens in Brazil
Yes to the World Cup, not to FIFA - that sums up the frosty relationship between football’s world governing body and Brazil. But it hasn’t dampened Brazilians’ enthusiasm for the mega event which kicks off on Thursday.
With days to go before the World Cup kicks off, the president of the football world governing body, Joseph Blatter, cut a lonely figure as he opened the FIFA annual congress in Sao Paulo on June 10. Brazilian celebrities including President Dilma Rousseff as well as the governor of the state of Sao Paulo and the mayor of the megacity stayed away from the event.
Blatter’s solo performance in Sao Paulo speaks volumes about the mood in the country as it prepares to host the giant football event. A majority of Brazilians are angry at FIFA, the exploding costs of the mega tournament and its few trickle-down benefits for citizens. Many in South America's largest country are speaking out using a mixture of sarcasm and protest.
Eating plants, reading, and not looking in the mirror: how one woman survived 700 days of blockade in Syria
June 12, 2014 - 8:39AM
Diaa Hadid
Homs, Syria: Over the course of the 700-day blockade, her world shrunk to her living room and her kitchen. She survived by eating plants and reading books. She refused to look in the mirror, because seeing her withered state might break her spirit.
Zeinat Akhras, a 65-year-old pharmacist, still bears the effects of nearly two years trapped in her home, surrounded by rebel fighters during the government's siege on the ancient quarters of the central Syrian city of Homs. She's still a wispy 38 kilograms, even after gaining four kilograms since the blockade ended in early May with the fall of the rebels in the city.
"Every day, we said it will end tomorrow," Akhras said. "If we counted the number of days, we would have given up."
12 June 2014 Last updated at 01:20
West Africa should decriminalise drugs - Obasanjo commission
Low-level drug offences should be decriminalised in West Africa, according to a high-level report.
The West Africa Commission on Drugs says drug cartels are undermining the region by using it to transit cocaine.
The commission, headed by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, says the cartels should be tackled but that punishing the personal use of drugs does not work.
It argues that current policies incite corruption and provoke violence.
Drug trafficking and consumption have become major issues in West Africa since the turn of the century.
Efforts around this time to stem the flow of cocaine from the producing countries of Latin America to consumers in the US and Europe led criminals to target West Africa as a new route.
Dramatic events like the crash landing of a Boeing 727 full of cocaine in Mali in 2009 have alerted the authorities to the problem.
Israeli doctors: Force feeding Palestinian prisoners is 'torture'
With 285 Palestinian prisoners on a lengthy hunger strike, Israel is fast tracking legislation to compel force feeding, which requires a doctor's presence.
JERUSALEM — Israeli doctors may soon confront a dilemma: Should they supervise forced feedings of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, per government orders, or heed their medical association's ruling against a practice it calls a form of torture?
Two hundred and eighty-five Palestinians prisoners are fasting in protest at their detention; 70 have already been transferred to Israeli hospitals because of deteriorating health. Many of them today marked their 48th day of fasting, and some of them have been striking since April 24.
The hunger strike began as a protest against the Israeli policy of detention without disclosing the charges. The government insists the secrecy is necessary for anti-terrorism efforts.
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