Mosul offensive: Territory recaptured from ISIS
Updated 0800 GMT (1600 HKT) October 18, 2016
A suicide car bomb, sowing panic as it plows relentlessly toward Peshmerga positions. An ISIS fighter who ambushes Kurdish troops from a concealed tunnel before blowing himself up.
These were the visceral indications of how dedicated and single-minded Mosul's ISIS occupiers can be, and equally how bloody and grinding Iraq's battle to take back the city could be.
As dawn broke Tuesday, the second day of the offensive to liberate Iraq's second largest city from ISIS, a diverse coalition of Iraqi troops, Kurdish Peshmerga allies and thousands of Iraqi irregulars gritted their teeth and prepared to again meet militant forces in the dusty scrubland outside the city.
Taliban and Afghanistan restart secret talks in Qatar
Exclusive: Senior sources say US diplomat was present for first known negotiations since Pakistan-brokered process broke down in 2013
The Taliban and representatives of the Afghan government have restarted secret talks in the Gulf state of Qatar, senior sources within the insurgency and the Kabul government have told the Guardian.
Among those present at the meetings held in September and October was Mullah Abdul Manan Akhund, brother of Mullah Omar, the former Taliban chief who led the movement from its earliest days until his death in 2013.
The two rounds of talks are the first known negotiations to have taken place since a Pakistan-brokered process entirely broke down following the death in a US drone strike of Omar’s successor, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.
Ethiopians face five years in jail for posting on Facebook as 'state of emergency' rules set in
The flow of opposition reports about unrest has already started to dwindle
Ethiopians who post statuses on Facebook about the country’s growing political unrest could face up to five years in jail, as part of a series of measures under a “state of emergency” that grow more stringent by the day.
The government has imposed the longest blanket ban on mobile internet services in the capital Addis Ababa since protests began a year ago, and access to messaging platforms like WhatsApp has been heavily restricted.
The measures are designed to stifle people’s ability to organise protests, amid calls for greater political freedoms and recognition from the ethnic Oromo and Amharic groups.
French minister appeals directly to UK public over Calais child migrants
Latest update : 2016-10-18
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has penned an opinion peace in the UK press urging Britain to step up its efforts to identify and resettle unaccompanied child migrants stranded in the Calais "Jungle" camp.
Cazeneuve’s article, published in The Guardian newspaper on Tuesday, comes just a day after more than a dozen teenagers were transferred to the UK from the sprawling camp, which the French government has vowed to shut down.
"(The) French government has now decided to dismantle the Calais camp for good," Cazeneuve wrote, adding that neither London nor Paris wanted "to leave people with the right to refugee status in the cold and the mud – women and children least of all".
The makeshift settlement in France’s northern port city is home to nearly 10,000 people who have mostly fled war and strife in countries such as Syria, Afghanistan and Africa with the ultimate goal of reaching Britain.
WikiLeaks: Assange's internet link 'severed' by state actor
Ecuador's Foreign Ministry released a brief statement that didn't mention the Internet cut off, but reaffirmed its decision to grant Assange asylum.
PARIS — WikiLeaks says that founder Julian Assange's Internet access has been cut by an unidentified state actor. Few other details were immediately available.
Assange has been up holed up at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London for more than four years after skipping bail to avoid being extradited over sex crimes allegations.
The cramped quarters haven't prevented the Australian transparency activist from working and WikiLeaks continues to deliver scoops, including revelations that have rattled Hillary Clinton's campaign for president as the U.S. election enters its final stretch.
Mexico: Judge whose court handled cartel cases killed
Federal Judge Vicente Antonio Bermudez Zacarias shot in head at point-blank range near Mexico City, but motive unknown.
A federal judge whose court handled some cases related to drug cartels has been killed near Mexico City.
Vicente Antonio Bermudez Zacarias was murdered in Metepec, a town in the state of Mexico, the Supreme Court said in a statement on Monday.
President Enrique Pena Nieto condemned the murder and ordered the attorney general's office to take over the investigation.
According to local media, Bermudez was shot in the head at point-blank range and succumbed to his wound while being taken to a hospital.
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