BBC News with David Austin.
The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency meeting to address the growing crisis in Iraq, where tens of thousands of Christians and other minorities are fleeing from jihadists. France has offered, what it called, technical support for Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, who are trying to block the advance of Islamic State fighters. The jihadists seized the main Christian town of Qaraqosh after Kurdish forces withdrew. John Ging from the UN Humanitarian Affairs Office says his staff can't negotiate with these Islamic State fighters.
“It's been impossible so far. They are not interested in engaging with us on humanitarian issues. We have to, in the first instance, get aid by whatever means. And right now, the only option that we can see is airdrops because of the situation on the ground, just not possible to navigate safely to these places.”
America's federal public health agency, the CDC, has put its Emergency Operation Center on maximum alert in the fight against the worst outbreak of Ebola in history. The CDC's director Dr. Thomas Frieden told Congress that the agency has more than 200 people working on the disease at its headquarters in Georgia, and it will soon have 50 experts in West Africa, where Ebola has killed more than 900 people.
With the three-day ceasefire between Israel and Hamas led the Palestinian militants in Gaza due to expire early on Friday morning, there are signs that arranging an extension of the truce is proving difficult. In a statement, the spokesman for the military wing of Hamas urged the Palestinian negotiators to refuse to extend the truce unless Israel ends its blockade of Gaza. Kevin Connolly reports from Jerusalem.
“A spokesman for the military wing of Hamas, his face masked in a red and white checkered Palestinian scarf, appeared on an Arabic language television channel to warn that the organization is ready for, what he called, a long war. He urged Palestinian negotiators in Cairo to refuse to extend the ceasefire unless the group's long term strategic demands were met, top of the list being the opening of Gaza harbor to shipping. Israel is reportedly taking the warning seriously and it's possible that the Hamas statement should be read straightforwardly as an indication that an extension of the ceasefire is now unlikely. But it is also possible that the tough talking is part of a negotiating strategy designed to extract the maximum concessions for any agreement to prolong the truce.”
The NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has accused Russia of continuing to destabilize Ukraine and promised Kiev the support of the alliance in the face of, what he called, Russian aggression. Mr. Rasmussen called on Russia to stop supporting separatists, pull back its troops from Ukraine's border and, as he put it, step back from the brink.
World News from the BBC.
The United States says that by banning most food imports from the West, Russia is imposing sanctions on its own people. Moscow has prohibited for a year imports of meat, fish and other foods from America, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway. The decision is in retaliation for Western sanctions on Russia over Ukraine.
The Argentine government has asked the International Court of Justice in the Hague to launch proceedings against the United States, which Buenos Aires accuses of breaching of Argentina's sovereignty by preventing it from servicing its restructured international debt. Last week, Argentina defaulted after a US judge blocked a write-down agreement with creditors because two US hedge funds are demanding full repayment of what they’re owed.
The cremated remains of nine victims of a mass cult suicide in Guyana in 1978 have turned up in a former funeral home in the United States. The ashes were discovered in the city of Dover in the state of Delaware when local officials were inspecting a lot of more than 30 small containers. Investigators said they did not know why the remains were remained unclaimed.
An Indonesian born wine connoisseur has been jailed for 10 years in the United States for defrauding buyers out of millions of dollars by selling them fake vintages. Rudy Kurniawan was convicted last December. Michelle Fleury has this report.
“Rudy Kurniawan was rambled selling fake vintage wines to fuel a life style of fast cars and expensive art. His magic seller turned out to be his kitchen, where he set up a lab to blend cheaper wines. Now he is headed to jail for 10 years. But we still don't know exactly how many bogus bottles he sold. Part of the problem is that many of his rich and famous clients were reluctant to come forward. Nobody likes to admit to being conned, especially not collectors who helped make him one of America's most prominent traders.”