ISIL fighters close in on major Iraqi airbase
Group takes control of parts of al-Baghdadi in the country's west, near base where US troops are training Iraqi forces.
ISIL fighters took control of large parts of the western Iraqi town of al-Baghdadi, threatening an airbase where US Marines are training Iraqi troops, officials said.
Al-Baghdadi, about 85km northwest of Ramadi in Anbar province, has been besieged for months by the group, which captured vast swaths of northern and western Iraq last year.
ISIL attacked al-Baghdadi from two directions on Thursday and then advanced on the town, intelligence sources and officials in the Jazeera and Badiya operations commands said.
The officials said another group of fighters then attacked the heavily-guarded Ain al-Asad airbase 5km southwest of the town, but were unable to break into it, the Reuters news agency reported.
Aid money for development projects in Nepal linked to child labour
Bricks made by children and adults trapped in bonded labour have been used in construction projects funded by international donors including the UN, UK and the Asian Development Bank
Children as young as eight are working 15-hour days making bricks that have been used in major international development projects in Nepal, including a World Food Programme (WFP) project funded with $3.2m (£2m) of UK aid money.
A Guardian investigation has revealed that “blood bricks”, tainted by human rights abuses such as child labour, have also been used in other major construction projects in Nepal, including a multimillion pound upgrade of Tribhuvan international airport funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a new Marriott hotel and a project to improve Kathmandu’s domestic air terminal.
The findings suggest that international donors, aid agencies, multinational companies and the Nepalese government are systematically failing to ensure that there are effective policies in place to keep their supply chains free from child and bonded labour, and have failed to recognise the appalling conditions prevalent in Nepal’s brick industry.
Chaos in parliament as party gets ejected for grilling Zuma over corruption in South Africa
EFF members – who were led by Julius Malema – began demanding that the president answer when he would repay part of a $23 million (£14 million) state-funded security upgrade of his rural home.
Zuma had “benefited unduly” from upgrades – which included a cattle enclosure and amphitheatre – and should pay back some of the costs of the unnecessary renovations, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said in a report last year.
Palestinian camp in Lebanon named as one corner of jihadist "death triangle"
Ruth Pollard
Middle East Correspondent
Sidon, Lebanon: Home to at least 55,000 long-term Palestinian refugees and a further 20,000 Palestinians who have fled the conflict in neighbouring Syria, Ain al-Hilweh – impoverished, deeply divided and with a reputation as Lebanon's most radical refugee camp – is on edge.
Just last month, Lebanon's Interior Minister Nouhad al-Machnouk described a "new death triangle for [the Islamic State], stretching from the barren Lebanese lands of Arsal to the Palestinian Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp and Roumieh prison [east of Beirut], reaching Iraq and Raqqa [the IS 'capital' in Syria]."
Already known as a haven for jihadists, security officials believe Shadi Mawlawi - a militant who belongs to the Nusra Front, al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate - is hiding in the camp, as are several of his fellow fighters, along with militants loyal to the so-called Islamic State.
'Israeli spy' found inside of Islamic State
Muhammad Musallam was meant to report to Mossad, but was found out after contacting family.
JERUSALEM — Islamic State said on Thursday it was holding an Israeli Arab who had posed as a foreign fighter in order to spy for Mossad, an account denied by Israel and by the man's family, who said he had been kidnapped.
In an interview published by Islamic State's online English-language magazine Dabiq, Muhammad Musallam, 19, said he had joined the insurgent group in Syria so as to report to the Israelis on its weapons caches, bases and Palestinian recruits.
After his conduct aroused the suspicion of Islamic State commanders, Musallam was quoted as saying, he broke cover by phoning his father in East Jerusalem, leading to his capture.
13 February 2015 Last updated at 01:11The ski school that defied the Taliban
Two years ago, the BBC reported on one man's attempt to revive Pakistan's only civilian ski school after it was destroyed by the Taliban. Dozens of readers and listeners wanted to help, and the school has now been handed more than a tonne of equipment.
When the Pakistani army drove the Taliban out of the Swat valley in 2009 Matee Ullah Khan was determined to rebuild the ski school and give children a chance to have fun.
"I wanted to do something to contribute to peace and harmony here so we had a small skiing competition," he says.
"Very few people came but I saw, for the first time, cheerful expressions on the faces of the children."
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