Gaza: Israel calls up more reservists after rejecting calls for ceasefire
Official says move will allow Israel Defence Forces to expand attacks ‘against Hamas and the other terror organisations’
Israel said on Thursday it was calling up another 16,000 reserves following a security cabinet meeting that decided to keep up military operations in Gaza, ignoring international pressure for an immediate ceasefire.
The move will allow the Israeli military to substantially widen its 23-day campaign against Hamas, which has already claimed more than 1,360 Palestinian lives – most of them civilians – and reduced entire Gaza neighbourhoods to rubble.
Fifty-six Israeli soldiers and three Israeli civilians have died in the campaign.
Israel has now called up a total of 86,000 reserves during the Gaza conflict. At least 19 air strikes were carried out overnight, officials said.
Land for gas: Merkel and Putin discussed secret deal could end Ukraine crisis
Liberia shuts schools as Ebola spreads
Liberia's president has ordered all schools to close and has put non-essential government workers on compulsory leave, the latest measures seeking to contain an Ebola outbreak in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Wednesday said her government would close schools and consider quarantining some communities, some of the most aggressive measures yet undertaken in West Africa seeking to contain the Ebola virus.
"All schools are ordered closed pending further directive from the Ministry of Education," Sirleaf said, also putting all non-essential civil servants on compulsory leave for at least 30 days.
Ebola is known to have claimed nearly 130 lives in Liberia alone. Across Guinea, where the first case was identified, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded 1,201 cases of Ebola - 672 of the sufferers, more than half of those infected, have died.
Rain of asteroids melted early Earth, boiled its oceans
July 31, 2014 - 4:40PM
Julia Rosen
Los Angeles: When you look up at the moon's pockmarked face, you're actually staring at Earth's early history. The rain of asteroids that pummelled the lunar surface hit our planet too - it's just that erosion and plate tectonics blotted out the evidence. In fact, no rocks anywhere in the world survived to tell the story of the first 500 million years of Earth's 4.5 billion-year existence, a tumultuous period of frequent impacts known darkly as the Hadean.
Now, scientists have capitalised on the moon's long memory to uncover Earth's own past. The researchers found that much of our planet's surface probably melted repeatedly following large collisions during the Hadean eon. Some of these impacts likely vaporised the oceans and sanitised the planet of any early life that may have gained a foothold, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Argentina debt default 101: What’s at stake?
Argentina has until midnight July 30 to negotiate a deal with bondholders who rejected a restructuring deal. The unresolved debt is an overhang from the last time Argentina defaulted in 2001.
Argentina is on the brink of its second default this century after losing a long court battle with a group of US bondholders. How did it end up here and what’s at stake?
What’s going on?
Back in 2001, Argentina defaulted on $100 billion in debt during an economic crisis. The default resulted in chaos in Argentina, with widespread looting and violence in the capital. The nation was effectively locked out of global financial markets since it had stopped paying lenders.
It reached agreements with 93 percent of its creditors in 2005 and 2010 to repay them over several years at a heavily discounted rate. But a minority of bondholders refused the deal. These so-called “holdouts” have taken legal steps to pressure Argentina to cough up the $1.5 billion (including interest) they say they’re still owed.
31 July 2014 Last updated at 01:58
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi: Islamic State's driving force
On 5 July, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, known by his supporters as Caliph Ibrahim, left the shadows and showed his face for the first time, in a Friday sermon in Mosul, Iraq.
While previous pictures of him had been leaked, Baghdadi had not shown himself in the four years since he became leader of what was then the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq (forerunner of Isis, then the Islamic State).
Before April 2013, Baghdadi also did not release many audio messages.
His first written statement was a eulogy to Osama Bin Laden in May 2011.
His first audio message was released in July 2012 and predicted future victories for the Islamic State.
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