14 November 2014 Last updated at 08:09
The Tofeq family has been at war almost constantly since the late 1950s, with grandfather Khorshid, his son Dedewan and his grandson Zyran all having become Peshmerga fighters. All three generations are now battling a new enemy: Islamic State.
His tales are about ambushes, battles and injuries, about mutilated children and about despairing women and men who soaked the earth with their blood, as Tofeq puts it. They are stories from Kurdistan, the land of warriors who look death in the eye. In Kurdish, they're called Peshmerga.
Barack Obama defends US immigration reform pledge
US President Barack Obama has defended plans to use his overriding executive powers to push through changes to the nation's immigration system.
He said Congress had been given ample opportunity to come up with its own plan but had failed to act.
His remarks follow reports in the New York Times and Fox News that he plans to extend protection from deportation to some parents of legal US residents.
The plan could affect as many as five million undocumented immigrants.
Republicans in Congress say such action would be beyond Mr Obama's authority.
'Tooth and nail'
At a news conference during a visit to Myanmar, Mr Obama said he had given the House of Representatives more than a year to come up with an immigration bill but they had failed to do so.
Médecins Sans Frontières criticised over Ebola delays
Emergency aid group’s vaccine appeal came too late and its reliance on past strategies was inadequate, says internal think tank
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) wasted time by waiting too long to call for vaccines to fight the outbreak of Ebola in west Africa, a veteran of the medical charity has said.
The emergency aid group’s response to the epidemic, which has so far killed more than 5,000 people, has been widely praised by governments and the World Health Organisation (WHO). While western donors dithered and other aid groups pulled out, MSF deployed hundreds to the Ebola “hot zones” and treated more than 3,000 patients.
But the group relied too much on strategies it developed during smaller previous eruptions of the virus, leading it to make mistakes as this year’s rampant epidemic pushed it to its limits, said Jean-Herve Bradol, a member of MSF’s internal thinktank.
'Islamic State' leader in recording, vows to expand caliphate
"Islamic State" has released a recording in which the terror group's leader al-Baghdadi broaches plans to expand into other countries beyond Iraq and Syria. The message follows rumors he had been wounded or killed.
In the 17-minute audio recording posted online on Thursday, a man purported to be "Islamic State" (IS) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi vowed to press on with plans to extend his caliphate across the Arab world, and to continue fighting to the last man.
"God has ordered us to fight," he said, according to an English transcript of the message released together with the recording. "For that reason the soldiers of the Islamic State are fighting... they will never leave fighting, even if only one soldier remains."
The speech surfaced several days after al-Baghdadi was rumored to have been wounded or killed in a US-led airstrike targeting a gathering of IS leaders in northwestern Iraq. The US, which has offered a $10 million (8 million euros) reward for al-Baghdadi's capture, said on Tuesday it was not able to confirm the leader's fate.
A Kurdish Family at War: Three Generations with the Peshmerga
By Ralf HoppeThe Tofeq family has been at war almost constantly since the late 1950s, with grandfather Khorshid, his son Dedewan and his grandson Zyran all having become Peshmerga fighters. All three generations are now battling a new enemy: Islamic State.
Grandfather Khorshid Tofeq, 69, is a short, sturdily built man with a neatly trimmed moustache and not-entirely-natural jet-black hair. He prefers wearing the Kurdish national costume, the baggy trousers with a broad sash. Sitting in his favorite armchair in bare feet, he is sucking on candy and telling his favorite stories.
Jessica O. Williams has a ball generating energy
Her company, Uncharted Play, produces the SOCCKET, a power-generating soccer ball that literally turns kids' play into usable electricity.
From time to time, parents might find themselves telling their children to put away a soccer ball and stop playing.
Now, thanks to an innovation from New York City-based Uncharted Play, those same parents might be encouraging some extra playtime.
Uncharted Play has created the SOCCKET, the power-generating soccer ball that literally turns play into energy.
"Uncharted Play was founded in May 2011 as a new kind of social enterprise grounded in play and the happiness of life, that would show the world how play could be a tangible tool for inspiring social invention," says Jessica O. Matthews, the organization's founder and CEO. "The company ethos is simple: Human beings are more similar than we think. Whether you’re born in New York or Namibia, everyone laughs. Everyone smiles. Everyone plays."Russia flexes muscles with long-range bomber flights near U.S. shores
November 14, 2014 -- Updated 0041 GMT (0841 HKT)
Russia plans to send long-range bombers to the Gulf of Mexico in what appears to be Moscow's latest provocative maneuver in its increasingly frosty relations with the West.
Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said Wednesday that "we have to maintain (Russia's) military presence in the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific, as well as the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico" -- including sending bombers "as part of the drills."
It's an argument U.S. officials don't seem to be buying.
"We do not see the security environment as warranting such provocative and potentially destabilizing activity," a senior Obama administration official said Thursday.
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