Hundreds of families are being evicted from the Egyptian border with Gaza after the army announced it was doubling the size of the security buffer zone on Thursday.

The existing 500m buffer zone created last November will now expand in size, with authorities announcing they will destroy 1,220 homes.

Islamic State (IS) militants have launched a new assault on the Iraqi city of Samarra, killing at least 3 people and injuring dozens more.

Car bombs were reportedly detonated along the main motorway west of the city, home to one of Shia Islam's holiest shrines. US-led coalition airstrikes drove back the IS fighters from villages to the south of the city that were captured by the IS offensive.

The Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathon, opened his campaign to win a second elected term as Nigeria’s leader, by defending his record at tackling Boko Haram militants that have been responsible for killings across the region.

Criticising the opposition, Jonathan said,

The British Prime Minister, David Cameron said that he would not take part in TV debates ahead of the general elections unless the Green Party was also included, reports the BBC.

The current proposals include the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP in the television debates.

The Canadian government pledged to accept a further 10,000 Syrian refugees and 3,000 Iraqis in 2015 in attempts to help deal with the displacement caused by Islamic State militants.

At least 12 people have been killed in Paris, after two armed gunmen attacked the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The magazine's editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier and three other cartoonists are reportedly amongst the dead, with at least two police officers also reportedly killed. A further four people are seriously injured.

The attack, carried out by at least two masked gunmen has drawn international condemnation.

France's President Francois Hollande told reporters at the scene, "an act of exceptional barbarism has just been committed here in Paris against a newspaper, meaning (against) the expression of liberty."

Cuba has freed some of the 53 people political prisoners that it agreed to release to the US, said the State Department on Tuesday.

“They have already released some of the prisoners, we would like to see this completed in the near future, said the State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki.

The mass crimes against the Yezidis in Shingal last year by Islamic State militants can only be described as ‘genocide,’ said the Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani.

Vowing to secure international recognition for atrocities committed against the Yezidi people, Barzani said,