Award winning US journalist Anna Therese Day and 3 members of her camera crew have been detained in Bahrain confirmed Reporters Without Borders on Monday.

The group called on Bahrain to release the four American citizens without harm.

On Friday, a top French official announced that up to 1000 refugees living in the make-shift camp in Calais would be evicted. The camp, unofficially referred to as the “jungle”, is estimated to currently contain around 4000 asylum-seekers.
 

US President Barack Obama called on Russia to stop airstrikes on ‘moderate’ Syrian militants in a telephone conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The conversation came after major powers, including Russia, agreed to a limited cessation of hostilities in Syria on Friday.

 Turkey’s military shelled Kurdish militia targets in northern Syria and demanded that the group withdraw from the area, reports Reuters.

Saudi Arabia warned the United Nations and international aid organisations to protect their staff by removing them from areas controlled by the Houthi militants, reports Reuters.

A note circulated amongst embassies and the UN said that the request was to “protect the international organisations and their employees.”

Hundreds of thousands of civilians could be cut off from food and aid if Syrian government forces circle rebel-held territories in Aleppo warned the United Nations on Tuesday.

Syrian government forces, backed by Russian airstrikes, launched a heavy offensive around Aleppo, which resulted in UN sponsored peace-talks being temporarily abandoned.

China’s Foreign Ministry expressed regret that North Korea had launched a rocket in to space despite strong opposition from the international community.

In a statement released on Sunday, the ministry spokeswoman Hua Cunying said,

“China expresses regret that North Korea, in spite of the pervasive opposition of the international community, insisted on using ballistic missile technology to carry out a launch.”

The US has released nearly 200 photographs linked to abuse by its military, after a freedom of information request.

Images published include bruises and cuts on prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan, however the Pentagon said none of the pictures were of detainees held in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

The European parliament this week recognised the crimes committed by Islamic STate against Christians and other religious minorities as genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In a resolution, passed unanimously, the European Parliament called for the UN Security Council to refer the case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and for the crimes to be recognised by the them as a genocide.

Extract reproduced below:

The North Korean government has fired a long range rocket, claiming that it was putting an earth observation satellite into orbit.

However, it is thought that the rocket was a test of banned missile technology, part of efforts to develop nuclear weapons technology.

The United Nations envoy halted his attempts to launch Syrian peace talks on Wednesday after Syria’s army, backed by Russian air strikes made major advances on the opposition held areas around Aleppo.

British Airways will resume flights from London to Tehran from July reports Reuters.

The head of BA’s network planning division, Neil Conttrell, said,