Iraq’s prime minister, said that he had ordered Iraqi air-forces to halt strikes on civilian areas in their fight against the Islamic State (IS), reports Reuters.

Haider al-Abadi, said that his order to protect civilians had been issued a day after talks with the US Secretary of State John Kerry in Baghdad.

“I have ordered the Iraqi Air Force to halt shelling of civilian areas even in those towns controlled by ISIS,” said Abadi. 

A Chilean MP has been charged with the killing of three opponents of the military dictatorship of Gen Augusto Pinochet in 1981.

Rosauro Martinez of the centre-right Renovacion Nacional party was an army captain at the time of the killings and prosecutors say he, along with three of his soldiers, fired on a house, killing the activists from the Revolutionary Left Movement.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk has condemned Russia as a “threat to global order”on Saturday, as Ukrainian troops claimed to have successfully defended Donetsk airport from an attack by pro-Russian separatists.

Speaking at a security conference in Kiev, Yatseniuk said, “I clearly understand the final goal of (Russian President) Putin. He doesn’t want to take just Donetsk and Luhansk,” referring to areas that separatists are currently fighting for control over.

The Nigerian government claimed to have killed some 200 Boko Haram militants, including a leading commander from the organisation, as they repelled an attack on a key town in the North-East of the country.

Nigerian government forces claimed to have successfully defended the town of Konduga, approximately 35km from Borno state-capital Maiduguri, which was under attack by the Boko Haram militants.

New EU sanctions against Russia have come into force today, targeting large Russian oil and defence companies, over its role in the crisis in Ukraine, however other big sectors, such as Russian gas exports, the space industry and nuclear energy remain unaffected.

The sanctions block the export of services and technology to Russia’s oil sector, with state-owned Rosneft, Transneft and Gazprom Neft, targeted by the EU.

The firms will be restricted in their acces to financial markets and state-owned banks will be barred from getting loans with a maturity longer than one month, and from getting other financial services in the EU.

A statement from the EU Council says the officials targeted are people "involved in actions against Ukraine's territorial integrity, including the new leadership in Donbass, the government of Crimea as well as Russian decision-makers and oligarchs".

A group of UN peacekeepers, who were captured by the Syrian opposition group, the al-Nusra Front, have been released.

According to a statement by the office of UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon, the 45 Fijian peacekeepers were handed to UN Disengagement Observer Force (Undof) personnel on Thursday and were “in good condition”.

The troops were captured while on patrol in the Golan Heights last month, during clashes between rebels and the Syrian government.

Pledging to "degrade and destroy" Islamic State fighters wherever they may be, president of the United States Barack Obama said he "would not hesitate" to carry out US military action against them in Syria.

"We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counterterrorism strategy," Obama said in a televised address aired Wednesday night.

Militants from Boko Haram have “completely surrounded” the city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state in the northeast of Nigeria, reported the BBC.

The Borno Elders Forum said in a statement, the Nigerian army had to “ urgently fortify” Maiduguri, adding that “insurgents have surrounded Maiduguri and are nursing the ambition of attacking the city from all directions".

The Israeli army are accused of committing war crimes during its offensive on Gaza in a report by New York-based Human Rights Watch.

The prominent human rights organisation said it investigated separate strikes on or near three UN-run schools in the Palestinian territory, noting that 45 people died in the attacks.

Barcelona city hall said that some 1.8 million people took to the streets earlier today, as part of a mass rally calling for a Catalonia region independent from Spain.

Dressed in red and yellow, demonstrators formed a giant “V” to represent their support for a planned independence vote on November 9th.

Madrid though, has said any vote on independence for the region will be illegal.
Catalan president Artur Mas, said earlier on Thursday,