BBC News with Zoe Diamond.
Kurdish forces in northern Iraq say they have taken back two towns from Islamic State militants. Kurdish officials said that with the help of United States aerial supports, the Kurds had recaptured Gwer and Makhmur. Correspondences say that the Kurdish gains and continuing air strikes by the US forces targeting the militants could indicate a turn of the tide in the conflict. Nonetheless, the Sates Department says as a change of policy, some American diplomats and oil workers are being reallocated away from Irbil and Baghdad. From Washington, here is David Willis.
President Obama said last week that the prime objective of US airstrikes on Iraq was to protect the hundreds of Americans working either in the US consulate in Irbil or with local companies. Asked on Friday why the State Department didn't simply evacuate the diplomatic and military personnel who work there, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the preference was to protect the premises and keep the staff working. Now it seems that view has changed. The State Department is announcing that a limited number of staff, both from Irbil and the US Embassy in Baghdad, will be moved either to Basra in southern Iraq or the Jordanian capital Amman.
The outgoing Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared a victory in the country's first direct presidential election. Addressing cheering supporters at his governing party's headquarter in Ankara, Mr. Erdogan said he wanted to start a new period at the social reconciliation. He said democracy had won and Turkey had won.
I am greeting you on this historic day, the victory night of democracy and national will. I am greeting you from the deepest corners of my heart. It's the first time that we are experiencing this in the history of the republic; the president has been elected by the public vote. I do hope this is going to be a beneficial election for our nation, for our country, for all the fraternal nations.
Kurdish forces in Northern Iraq say they've taken back two towns from the Islamic State militants. Kurdish officials said that with the help of United States areal support, the Kurds had captured Gwer and Makhmur. Correspondence say that the Kurdish gains and continuing air strikes by the US forces targeting at the militants could indicate a turn of the tide in the conflict.
The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says that Russia is holding talks with the Ukrainian government on allowing humanitarian aid to be delivered to eastern Ukraine. Our correspondent David Stern reports from Kiev.
Talks on opening an aid corridor in eastern Ukraine have gained pace as humanitarian crisis looms. Hundreds of thousands have fled the fighting. And more than 1,500 have been killed in total. However, Kiev insists any assistance be under international control. Ukraine and its western allies fear Russia could send its own troops into Ukraine under the cover of a peacekeeping force. Yesterday, the pro-Moscow separatists called for a ceasefire. But this proposal so far is fruitless since each side has rejected the other's conditions.
A new 72-hour ceasefire in Gaza has just formally come into effect following an agreement earlier in the day between Israel and the Palestinian factions. Egyptian mediators brokered the deal and if the truce holds, Israel will send negotiators to Cairo on Monday for talks aimed at finding a longer-term solution to the conflicts. Wyre Davies is in Jerusalem.
Everyone is hoping that the firing will end at midnight. But Israel has made it clear that if Hamas breaks this ceasefire, it will respond. And Israel accuses Hamas of having broken the previous ceasefire which led of cause to an increase round of rocket attacks and counterattacks from Israel over the weekend. But Hamas representatives at these talks in Cairo have made us understand the belligerent parties, Hamas and Israel, have agreed to this truce from midnight local time tonight.
Reports from northern Mali say French Special Forces have bombed Islamist militant positions there. Residents in the Esssakane region of west of Timbuktu say that they heard four or five large explosions earlier on Sunday morning. France intervened in Mali last year to try to drive out jihadist group linked to al-Qaeda from the north of the country, but it has not confirmed involvements in the latest raids.
Iranian media say President Hassan Rouhani has grounded all planes of the type that crashed in a residential area near Tehran today killing most of the 48 people on board.