BBC News with Mike Cooper.
The Sunni uprising in Iraq led by the Islamist extremist group ISIS is continuing with uncontested gains in the eastern province of Diyala where there is a Sunni majority. The insurgents say they will move on to Baghdad. This comes as fears grow amongst Western nations of a breakup of Iraq. Jim Muir is in the north.
The Americans have told the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that they are ready to intensify and increase their military support. But they are obviously reluctant to get drawn back into the turmoil and also to give unequivocal backing to one side in what clearly has some of the dimensions of a civil war. It's becoming clearer that what's happening on the ground is not simply an assault by foreign Jihadist. It has a strong element of uprising by several strands of Sunni society. Despite the fact that the militants of ISIS - Islamic State in Iraq and in Levant has stolen the limelight. That's why large sways of mainly Sunni territory have fallen to the rebels with little resistance. The Shiites have been enrolled preparing if necessary defend the areas where they predominate in Baghdad and the south. While the Kurds have quietly realized a long-standing ambition by moving into positions in oil-rich Kirkuk province in the north abandoned by the Iraqi army.
The mother of the a student who died in April's South Korean ferry disaster has filed a lawsuit claiming damages for his death. In the first case of its kind, the victim's mother says ferry company did not properly train staff while the state failed to regulate the ferry industry. More than 300 people were killed mostly teenagers on a school trip.
Thailand's military leader has set out ambitious plans to change the country's political, economic and social systems. General Prayuth Chan-ocha said he would appoint an interim government no later than September but has ruled out an election for at least a year. The Thai army seized power in May after months of street protests and the corruption scandal. Here is Jonathan Head.
At his first budget meeting, General Prayuth said his team would try to cap living cost, rethink farming subsidies, overhaul the many inefficient state industries and reform the education system and the police. Exactly how a ruling council made up mainly of career military men will achieve these is not yet clear. What is clear from this meeting is that despite promises from General Prayuth of greater financial responsibility, he is willing to spend generously and incur a large budget deficit to stimulate a depressed economy.
The Jamaican government has announced plans to radically reform the island's drug laws. Possession of marijuana would be allowed for religious,scientific or medical purposes, otherwise it would be treated as a petty rather than a criminal offense. The justice prime minister said the proposals were a more enlightened approach to Jamaica's drug problems. The changes are seen as a victory for the island's Rastafarians community who believe that smoking marijuana is a sacrament.
I'm Mike Cooper in London with the latest world News from the BBC.
The United States has accused Sudan of stepping up its attacks on civilians in South Kurdufan and Blue Nile States. The American ambassador to the United Nations condemned the attacks in which she said schools and hospitals had been deliberately targeted. She said since April, hundreds of barrel bombs had been dropped by Sudanese aircraft on towns and villages across the region.
The international body trying to protect endangered species says that African elephants are faced to extinction if the current rate of poaching for ivory continues. In its report, CITES says that poaching is still increasing in some areas. Imogen Foulkes reports.
20,000 elephants were illegally killed in Africa last year, the report shows. That figure far exceeds the growth rate of the elephants population, in some regions of Africa. Elephants are threatened with extinction. The report also documents a clear increase in the number of large seizures amounts of over 500 kilograms of ivory in Africa. For the first time, there were more such seizures in Africa than in Asia, an indication, the report suggests, of the involvement of more transnational organized crime in illegal ivory trade.
In Brazil, the football World Cup moves into its second day later, with the peak of the 3 games a rematch of the 2010 final,on that occasion, Spain beat the Netherlands by a goal to nil. Officials from football's governing body and the Brazilian government have expressed their satisfaction with the opening day.
A study into the behavior of Crayfish suggests they can experience anxiety. Researchers in France found that when Crayfish were stressed they hid away in dark areas of their tanks, but when given an anti-anxiety drug, they moved into more exposed areas. The study is the latest to suggest that crustaceans may feel pain. Some experts say the seafood industry may need to reconsider how it treats the creatures.