ISIL sets sunset deadline for hostage swap
ISIL threatens to kill a Jordanian pilot if al-Qaeda-linked female prisoner is not released by sunset on Thursday.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group set a deadline for Jordan to release an al-Qaeda-linked female prisoner, saying the group would kill a Jordanian pilot it holds "immediately" if the women is not freed by sunset on Thursday.
In a new audio recording a voice identifying itself as Japanese freelancer Kenji Goto said his captors would kill pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh if Iraqi death row prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi is not handed over by the end of the day.
"If Sajida al-Rishawi is not ready for exchange for my life at the Turkish border by Thursday sunset, 29th of January, Mosul time, the Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh will be killed immediately," Goto said, in an unverified audio message distributed by ISIL-linked Twitter accounts.
Have we reached 'peak food'? Shortages loom as global production rates slow
Afghans live in peril among unexploded Nato bombs that litter countryside
Ordnance left by parting international troops kills or injures about 40 people a month – the vast majority children
International troops pulling out of Afghanistan have left behind a lethal legacy of unexploded bombs and shells that are killing and maiming people at a rate of more than one a day. The vast majority are children.
Bombs dropped from the air coupled with munitions left behind in makeshift firing ranges in rural Afghanistan have made parts of the countryside perilous for locals who are used to working the land for subsistence and raw materials.
Since 2001, the coalition has dropped about 20,000 tonnes of ammunition over Afghanistan. Experts say about 10% of munitions do not detonate: some malfunction, others land on sandy ground. Foreign soldiers have also used valleys, fields and dry riverbeds as firing ranges and left them peppered with undetonated ammunition.
Dead Argentina prosecutor Nisman was fearful of own guards
The Argentinian prosecutor found dead in suspicious circumstances did not trust the security assigned to protect him, according to the last person who saw him alive. The man gave Alberto Nisman the gun that killed him.
Special prosecutor Alberto Nisman did not trust his own bodyguards and acquired a gun to protect his daughters, according to his long-time acquaintance, Diego Lagomarsino.
Nisman's suspicious death on January 18, hours before he was due to testify against senior government officials, sparked a crisis for the government of President Cristina Kirchner.
Nisman had accused Kirchner's government of helping to cover up Iran's alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center, in exchange for trade benefits.
Lagomarsino told a news conference in Buenos Aires that Nisman pleaded for the gun the day before he died. Nisman was found dead the next day in his apartment with the .22 caliber revolver beside him. Who pulled the trigger is not yet clear.
Murder highlights plight of Rohingya refugees in Malaysia
Aubrey Belford
Bukit Mertajam: Abul Kassim, a Rohingya asylum seeker, was snatched from his home in the northern Malaysian state of Penang on January 12. His beaten and bloodied body was found the next morning.
That day, police moved on the 40-year-old's alleged killers. Raiding a house in the neighbouring state of Kedah, they rescued 17 Rohingya migrants being held against their will, according to a statement by Penang police.
Eight alleged traffickers from Malaysia, Myanmar and Bangladesh were arrested.
The murder of Mr Kassim casts rare light on what Rohingya activists say is widespread abuse by human traffickers in Malaysia, who are willing to use extreme methods to protect their lucrative but illegal business.
Mr Kassim regularly supplied police with information on the activities of traffickers, said Abdul Hamid, president of the Kuala Lumpur-based Rohingya Society in Malaysia.
Mexico: Missing students are dead, but many questions remain (+video)
Mexico's top law enforcement officer said Tuesday that all 43 students who disappeared four months ago are dead. But no one seems to know why they were killed – or if Mexico is doing enough to prevent such a crime from happening again.
MEXICO CITY — Mexican officials announced this week that there is “legal certainty” that the 43 teacher’s college students who disappeared in Guerrero state four months ago are dead.
Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam at a news conference Tuesday reiterated the government’s account of events, first presented last November, and provided more details, gathered from detainee testimonials, to support it. Mr. Karam offered photos of the remains gathered near a trash dump outside of Iguala and clips of taped confessions.
“Without a doubt, the evidence allows us to determine that the students at the teachers’ college were abducted, killed, burned, and thrown into the San Juan River,” Karam said. He noted that 99 suspects have been detained, 39 confessions have been made, and hundreds of testimonies gathered.
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