9 August 2014 Last updated at 04:23
Iraq conflict: US aid drop follows fresh raids on militants
The US has conducted its second air-drop of food and water to thousands of Iraqis hiding in mountains from jihadist fighters, the Pentagon says.
It came hours after the US launched fresh air strikes against militants from the Islamic State (IS).
The group had recently made fresh gains in northern Iraq and is threatening the Kurdish city of Irbil.
The US is also piling pressure on Iraqi leaders to form a unity government capable of dealing with the jihadists.
Sunni Muslim group IS, formerly known as Isis, has taken control of swathes of Iraq and Syria and has also seized Iraq's largest dam.
Turkey’s secularists pine for fading legacy of Ataturk
Presidential poll tomorrow pits joint opposition against Erdogan of the Islamist AK Party
Stephen Starr
In Istanbul’s Kadikoy district, students openly drink beer on street corners where monuments to the founder of the modern Turkish state, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, appear everywhere.
Also omnipresent is the patent dismay about how Turkey is being governed today.
Here, support for Ataturk borders on the fanatic. The secular former president who established the republic of Turkey from the ashes of the Ottoman empire is still toasted at football games and public events 75 years after his death. In conversations on the economy, ideology and society, and on the tattooed arms of young men, the nameKemal Mustafa Ataturk appears again and again.
'Mama Aleta' defends Indonesia's natural habitat
After successfully defeating miners, Aleta Baun is heading into the regional parliament to continue her campaign to protect the environment in western Timor, part of Indonesia.
BALI, INDONESIA — Pointing to the blue, purple, and yellow scarf wrapped ornately around her forehead and temples, Aleta Baun says that her vivid garb will be a regular sight inside the East Nusa Tenggara regional parliament in eastern Indonesia. The first-time lawmaker won a seat in elections last April.
“I will be adhering to the mandate of the indigenous communities who have asked me to represent them in parliament. And part of that means showing that the indigenous culture is important to us,” explains the woman known popularly as “Mama Aleta.”
After more than a decade of unyielding and sometimes perilous protesting against marble mining in her eastern region of Indonesia, this flag-bearer for the rights of the Mollo people will try to weave her way through the formalities of the country's 16-year-old democratic system – often described as the freest in Southeast Asia – to protect the land and culture of the place she calls home.
New rules for mobile IM in China: Will it hamper innovation?
China's 700 million smartphone users will no longer be able to share stories about politics without official approval, according to new regulations announced by authorities on Thursday, which took immediate effect.
The State Internet Information Office released a 10-point document detailing new rules for instant messaging (IM) service providers and users. It is the latest move in an official campaign to "clean up the online environment and rein in rumormongers," according to Chinese media.
Although the rules apply to all IM service providers, they are widely seen as targeting WeChat, the immensely popular mobile app that allows people to share text, videos, photos and audio recording with multiple users at once.
Thai rent-a-womb tally hits 13; dad flees to Japan
REUTERS, KYODO, AP
BANGKOK – Thai police said Friday that four more babies who might have been fathered by a Japanese businessman who just fled back to Japan have been located, bringing the total linked to the odd cache of infants found in Bangkok this week to 13.
The unnamed man, whom his lawyer claims is a rich businessman and the surrogate father of the babies, is 24 years old and has visited Thailand 65 times over the past two years, according to Thai immigration authorities.
His lawyer said the man actually resides in Hong Kong and local media reported that he departed Thailand for Macau early Thursday.
Great Art? The graffiti of the New York subway
Forty years ago author Norman Mailer published an essay in which he declared the graffiti of the New York subway to be "The Great Art of the 70s". But what happened to the artists and why is there no subway graffiti any more?
"It started with someone just writing their name - someone saw that, and added on to it," recalls New York graffiti artist Nicer, born Hector Nazario.
"Letters going in front of letters, coming back through a letter, behind a letter, going across a letter... the subways became our playground," adds Riff170.
New York in 1974 was a city in crisis.
The Mayor, Abe Beame, slashed the city's budget in a bid to stave off bankruptcy, which meant laying off school teachers, police officers and subway staff.
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