Fallujah: 50,000 Iraqis trapped by assault on ISIL
Conditions rapidly deteriorate as city completely surrounded by Iraqi government forces and militias, aid groups say.
More than 50,000 people were trapped in Fallujah as an offensive to push the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group from the Iraqi city intensified.
Hundreds of people fled on Friday as humanitarian conditions rapidly deteriorated with Iraqi forces continuing to surround the city, determined to flush out the ISIL fighters inside.
The United Nations said nearly 800 people had escaped over the past week, but most of those from the outskirts of the city, where ISIL control was weaker.
"The situation inside Fallujah is getting critical by the day," Nasr Muflahi, the Norwegian Refugee Council's Iraq director, said.
Protesters clash with police outside Donald Trump rally in San Diego
Trump denies California is experiencing a drought as hundreds of riot police are deployed to deal with demonstrator
Police in riot gear fired pepper-balls and beanbags at protesters outside a Donald Trump rally in San Diego, California, on Friday evening as unrest inspired by the presumptive Republican nominee continues to simmer.
Earlier in the day in Fresno, Trump denied that there was a major drought affecting the state, saying instead that when he becomes president he will “start opening up the water.”
“There is no drought,” he said.
Trump accused state officials of denying water to farmers so they can send it out to sea “to protect a certain kind of three-inch fish.”
“We’re going to solve your water problem. You have a water problem that is so insane. It is ridiculous where they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea,” Trump said.
El Salvador - where women are jailed for 40 years for the 'crime' of having a miscarriage
Exclusive interview: Maria Teresa Rivera was released after spending five years in jail
Maria Teresa Rivera was sentenced to 40 years in jail for the “crime” of suffering a miscarriage. And yet in El Salvador, a nation with perhaps the most draconian situation in the world for reproductive rights, she is one of the lucky ones.
Earlier this month, in a ruling that gave hearts to activists around the world, the conviction of Ms Rivera - accused of seeking to abort her child and convicted of murder - was overturned when a judge decided there was insufficient evidence. Having spent five wretched years in a filthy, overcrowded jail, during which time she received no visits from her family, she was finally reunited with her child, Oscar.
“I am happy that I am with my son,” she told The Independent, smiling as she hugged him. “But I am fearful because not all of society agrees with what happened.”
Fighting hunger, food waste in Argentina with free-service fridges
OBSERVERS
Several restaurant owners in the Argentine city of Tucumán were frustrated by having to throw away kilos of edible food every day, especially when they saw people digging in trash cans to collect the discarded food. In February they set up a free-service refrigerator on the sidewalk and let people leave and take what they want as a way to fight food waste.
People in cities in Germany and Spain first tried out these free-service fridges several years ago, but the concept is new in Argentina, where 16 million tonnes of food are thrown away each year, according to the agricultural ministry.
"Around 60 people get food from our fridge every day"
Luis Manuel Pondal owns three restaurants in Tucumán. He and his associate Fernando Rios Kissner set up the first "communal fridge" in the town in February.
For years, we threw out large quantities of food, including food that our customers left on their plates. One day, when we were finishing work and leaving for the night around 1am, we saw a man and his son outside our restaurant. The man lifted his son into the dumpster and the kid was digging for food. It really shocked us, thinking about how they were living off food that we had thrown away just a few minutes before.
Outrage in multi-ethnic Malaysia as government backs Islamic law
May 28, 2016 - 4:12PMPraveen Menon
Kuala Lumpur: Prime Minister Najib Razak's government has thrown its support behind an Islamic penal code that includes amputations and stoning, shocking some of his allies and stoking fears of further strains in the multi-ethnic country. Mr Najib sought to ease tensions with his allies on Friday, saying the bill was "misunderstood".
Critics believe the scandal-tainted prime minister is using 'hudud', the Islamic law, to shore up the backing of Muslim Malay voters and fend off attacks on his leadership ahead of critical by-elections next month and a general election in 2018.
The law's submission to parliament brought criticism from leaders across the political spectrum, including allies of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, who represent the ethnic Chinese and Indian communities.
"It's not hudud, but what we refer to as enhanced punishment," Mr Najib told a news conference after meeting leaders of his ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party.
A war hero who was a stranger in his own land
By John Blake, CNN
Jesse Leroy Brown was hurtling over the North Korean countryside in his Corsair fighter 17 miles behind enemy lines when he discovered that he was in trouble.
"Jesse, something's wrong," one of the men in his squadron radioed him. "You're bleeding fuel."
It was the beginning of the Korean War, but Brown was already battle-tested. For years, his own people had tried to destroy him. Now he was in another conflict, part of a six-man squadron dispatched to defend a U.S. Marine division encircled by 100,000 Chinese troops at the Chosin Reservoir. The Marines appeared so doomed that newspapers back home dubbed them the "Lost Legion."
Brown had been flying low over a remote hillside looking for targets when ground fire ruptured his fuel line. He scanned the icy slopes for a place to crash land because he was too low to bail out.
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