22 August 2014 Last updated at 04:04
UN human rights chief criticises security council over global conflicts
Navi Pillay, whose term is ending, suggests vetos and impasses between members have cost ‘hundreds of thousands of lives’
Islamic State militants pose 'biggest threat' to US
Islamic State militants are the most dangerous threat the US has faced in recent years, Washington has warned.
Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said US air strikes had helped to break the Islamist advance in Iraq, but the militants could be expected to regroup.
America's top general Martin Dempsey stressed that IS could not be defeated without attacking their base in Syria.
The warnings come after IS posted a video showing the beheading of US journalist James Foley.
The US has now begun a formal criminal investigation into Mr Foley's death, with US Attorney General Eric Holder warning that the country has a "long memory".
UN human rights chief criticises security council over global conflicts
Navi Pillay, whose term is ending, suggests vetos and impasses between members have cost ‘hundreds of thousands of lives’
In her last address to the security council, the UN human rights chief has sharply criticised the body for its ineffectiveness on Syria and other intractable conflicts, saying its members have often put national interests ahead of stopping mass atrocities.
“I firmly believe that greater responsiveness by this council would have saved hundreds of thousands of lives,” said Navi Pillay, whose term as high commissioner for human rights ends on 30 August.
Pillay said Syria’s conflict “is metastasing outwards in an uncontrollable process whose eventual limits we cannot predict”. She also cited conflicts in Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Congo, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza.
“These crises hammer home the full cost of the international community’s failure to prevent conflict,” Pillay said. “None of these crises erupted without warning.”Europeans mull possible UN resolution on Gaza
Britain, France and Germany are reported to be discussing a possible UN resolution calling for a long-term truce between Israel and the militant group Hamas. An international monitoring mission is part of the proposal.
News agencies cited unnamed diplomatic sources late on Thursday who said the ceasefire plan being circulated by the three European Union countries included a lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip coupled with an international mission to monitor the flow of goods into the Palestinian territory.
The initiative was reported to have come after a draft resolution circulated by Jordan's mission to theUnited Nations met with resistance.
The Associated Press quoted one diplomat at UN headquarters in New York, who said both the Israelis and the Palestinians had indicated that a Security Council resolution could be helpful in getting politicians at home to accept measures to end the weeks-old conflict.
No Nato deed goes unpunished
Diplomats warned chaos and violence would follow a Libya intervention. They were right.
As Libya descends into chaos in the worst violence the country has known since the ousting of former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, African diplomats are saying: we told you so.
Jean Ping, the former chairperson of the African Union Commission, told the Mail & Guardian this week that the AU strongly opposed the Nato intervention in Libya three years ago because it believed it would cause untold harm in the region and could lead to civil war in the country.
The Nato countries completely ignored Africa’s position, including attempts by leaders such as President Jacob Zuma to find a peaceful solution, because of their “sense of superiority”, he said.
“I visited all the European capitals, I went to Washington and to Nato to warn against an intervention. We knew Libya could explode and that is what is now happening,” Ping, who is also Gabon’s former foreign minister, said telephonically from the West African country.
Got milk? Get fingerprinted, then shop, says Venezuelan president
President Nicolas Maduro announced a new, mandatory grocery fingerprinting system to combat food shortages. In the spring, Venezuela tried a similar system in government-run supermarkets on a voluntary basis.
CARACAS, VENEZUELA — Venezuelans could soon have to scan their fingerprints to buy bread.
President Nicolas Maduro says a mandatory fingerprinting system is being implemented at grocery stores to combat food shortages by keeping people from buying too much of a single item. He calls it an "anti-fraud system" like the fingerprint scan the country uses for voting.
In announcing the plan late Wednesday, Maduro did not say when the system would take effect, but other administration officials suggested it could be in place by December or January.
Water-starved Beijing residents dig wells outside their homes
August 22, 2014 -- Updated 0554 GMT (1354 HKT)
At first glance, it seems like a lot of roadside construction is taking place in this residential neighborhood west of Beijing's Tsinghua University.
But a closer look reveals out-of-place pipes, mysterious pools of water and long hoses that run along the walls of nearby homes.
The "construction workers" aren't paid laborers either -- they're local residents who have simply walked out of their homes and started hacking into the road.
Why?
For water. They lift tiles off the pavements and dig until they hit ground water.
"Who would dig up wells if there's enough water? There's just no water," said one resident who would only give his surname, Yin. His family had been suffering from water shortages on and off for months until they decided to take matters into their own hands.
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