Iraq’s finance minister says plans by the army to hire thousands of new paramilitary forces have been approved despite budget squeeze and stumbling oil prices.
Some 80 members of Iraq's Izadi minority have been massacred by ISIL terrorists in a village in Iraq's north, Kurdish officials say.
The so-called Syrian National Council (SNC) has failed to seize Syria’s seat at a meeting of the Arab League, despite two days of intense lobbying.