Iraq troops in 'final assault' on Islamic State in Falluja
The Iraqi army says it has begun an operation to storm Falluja, a bastion of so-called Islamic State (IS).
It comes a week after the government launched a concerted effort to retake the city, which has been held by the jihadists since 2014.
An estimated 50,000 civilians are trapped inside, with only a few hundred families escaping so far.
The UN says there are reports of people starving to death there, and of being killed for refusing to fight for IS.
State forces including members of an elite counter-terrorism unit are moving into the city on several fronts, an official statement said.
IS fighters are reportedly putting up resistance with suicide and car bombings.
The Soweto uprising: share your experiences, pictures and perspectives
Forty years ago apartheid police killed hundreds of children protesting in the Johannesburg township. Were you there? We want your help telling this story
Wednesday 16 June 1976 was a day that would change South Africa, when some 10,000 black children and teenagers took to the streets of Soweto to protest against being forced to study in Afrikaans, the language of their white oppressors.
As apartheid police responded to the march with force, the protest turned violent. By the end of the day, around 176 young people had been killed and thousands more injured when police fired live ammunition into the crowd.
Thirteen-year-old Hector Pieterson was one of the first to die. A photograph of his limp body being carried by a fellow student, flanked by his sister Antoinette Sithole, has come to immortalise this bleak day in South African history.
Great Barrier Reef: Bleaching kills a third of coral in reef's northern sections
The damage is part of a massive bleaching event that has been impacting reefs around the world for the past two years
Mass bleaching has killed more than a third of the coral in the northern and central parts of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, though corals to the south have escaped with little damage, scientists said on Monday.
Researchers who conducted months of aerial and underwater surveys of the 2,300-kilometer (1,400-mile) reef off Australia's east coast found that around 35 percent of the coral in the northern and central sections of the reef are dead or dying, said Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Queensland state. And some parts of the reef had lost more than half of the coral to bleaching.
The extent of the damage, which has occurred in just the past couple of months, has serious implications, Mr Hughes said.
African ‘legal soap opera’ nears end as Chadian ex-dictator faces verdict
A Senegalese court on Monday is set to rule in the trial of former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré for alleged crimes against humanity committed during his 1982-1990 rule marking a historic end to a decades-long quest for justice.
The ruling will mark the first time in the world that the courts of one country will prosecute the former ruler of another country.
The trial in exile of Habré – once dubbed “Africa’s Pinochet” – has been a long quest for justice for the victims and the families of victims of the 73-year-old former Chadian dictator.
More than 90 witnesses have testified in the trial, which began in July last year. Habré is accused of having presided over 40,000 political murders and widespread torture in his Central African homeland. A 1992 Chadian Truth Commission singled out the brutal police force under the former rebel leader-turned-president for some of the worst atrocities during Habré’s reign.
The Jerusalem bookseller targeted by Israel
Stripped of their rights, the last wall of Palestinian resistance is culture, says owner of a Jerusalem bookshop.
Urvashi Sarkar
On Jerusalem's busy Salah Eddin Street, where cafes, grocery stores, money exchange centres and jewellery shops proliferate the landscape, a prominent board at number 22 announces itself as the Educational Bookshop.
Shortly ahead, across the road, is another bookstore and cafe, also titled the Educational Bookshop. Both belong to the Jerusalem-based Muna family; the first sells Arabic books and stationery while the latter sells English books. "The bookshop started with one bookseller: my father. Now we are six brothers who read, recommend and sell books," said Mahmoud Muna, manager of the English bookshop.
Upon entering the English bookstore, a shelf stocked with books by noted Palestinian academic Edward Said catches the eye. The presence of Said at the entrance is significant since it was his family who originally owned the Arabic bookshop.
Fresh photo of missing Japanese journalist emerges
AFP
A fresh photo of a Japanese journalist who went missing in Syria last year has emerged online, showing the heavily bearded man holding a sign saying this is his "last chance".
The photo, which received widespread coverage in Japanese media Monday, shows freelance journalist Jumpei Yasuda, who has been missing for almost a year, wearing an orange shirt, his hair and beard grown long.
He is seen holding a piece of paper with a handwritten message in Japanese that says: "Please help. This is the last chance. Jumpei Yasuda."
Japanese public broadcaster NHK and other media showed the photo.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that the man shown in the image is likely Yasuda.
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