Canada wildfire: Oil workers urged to leave Fort McMurray camps
Around 12,000 people have been urged to leave Canada's oil sands camps near the fire-hit town of Fort McMurray as a resurgent wildfire heads towards them.
A regional official told the BBC that 8,000 people were given precautionary evacuation orders late on Monday evening, in addition to some 4,000 who had already been advised to leave.
More than 80,000 people fled Fort McMurray two weeks ago when a wildfire swept through the town.
Around 2,400 buildings were destroyed.
The vast fire had moved away from the city but in recent days it has started to threaten the area again.
Afghanistan's 'ghost soldiers': thousands enlisted to fight Taliban don't exist
Investigation found that 40% of troops in Helmand province are fake names or dead men, leaving Afghan border patrol filling the front line void indefinitely
From about 8.30pm until well after midnight, the dark blue sky above Babaji lit up, as rockets and flares crisscrossed above this cluster of villages close to Helmand’s provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
At a mud fortress beyond a river bridge painted in the tricolours of the Afghan flag, 24 members of the Afghan border police dug in. They were not supposed to be there.
“We were not trained to fight on the front line,” said Cpt Ghulam Wali Afghan, the commander, when the Guardian visited the post.
As their name suggests, Wali Afghan’s men are meant to protect Afghanistan’s porous border, where smugglers cross with copious drugs, weapons and people.
Isis in Libya: West takes first steps towards military engagement to counter jihadi threat
A UN arms embargo is set to be amended to allow weapons to be sent to the Government of National Accord which is seeking to establish itself in TripoliKim Sengupta Defence Editor
Western powers are taking their first steps back towards military engagement in Libya with proposals to supply the country’s UN brokered government with weapons and train its’ forces.
An International summit in Vienna declared that a current UN arms embargo imposed on the country should be amended to allow weapons to be sent to the Government of National Accord (GNA) which is seeking to establish itself in the capital, Tripoli, after arriving recently from neighbouring Tunisia.
All five permanent members of the UN Security Council and 15 other countries attending the meeting have agreed on a communique stating that they are “ready to respond to the Libyan government's requests for training and equipping of forces” to counter Isis and other extremist groups.
Venezuela gives sweeping 'emergency' powers to security forces
Latest update : 2016-05-17
Venezuela's army is to be backed by civilians grouped into ancillary security units, to tackle food shortages and public unrest, under a state of emergency decree published on Monday.
The decree, published in the government gazette, brings into effect for at least 60 days sweeping powers President Nicolas Maduro announced on Friday.
The measures give his government and security forces broad authorization to ignore most constitutional safeguards in a bid to keep order and supply basic food and services, and to counter a crippling energy shortage.
But the opposition, which controls the National Assembly and is seeking Maduro's ouster through a referendum, is to put the decree's public-control measures to the test on Wednesday with nationwide marches.
Hillary Clinton, too timid on campaign trail, counts on Donald Trump going too far
May 17, 2016 - 11:23AMPaul McGeough
Chief foreign correspondent
After thinking that Hillary Clinton had the Democratic presidential nomination in the bag and that the remaining primaries – such as Tuesday's in Kentucky and Oregon – are largely irrelevant, we perhaps need to revisit that issue.
Both are tight contests and the risk for Clinton in losing again to her challenger, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, would be further confirmation that, as some of her supporters reportedly fret, she is a conventional candidate in an unconventional contest.
It's unlikely to cast doubt on her winning the nomination, but is raises questions about her ability to win the election – "she's horrible at running, but she's fantastic at governing," an unnamed long-term friend and supported told The Washington Post.Shahbaz Taseer, son of slain Pakistani politician, recounts torment as hostage
Updated 0811 GMT (1611 HKT) May 17, 2016
What is it like living nearly half a decade as a hostage, shuffled between warring militant groups along the notoriously restless Pakistan-Afghanistan border, withstanding gruesome acts of torture and then suddenly, one day, escaping back to one's family and to home?
In his first English language interview since his release, Pakistan's Shahbaz Taseer told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that it is a test of patience, the strength of one's faith and random acts of kindness from the most unexpected of places that made him withstand his ordeal.
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