After several days of clashes between police and demonstrators, the Missouri State Highway Patrol is taking over operations from local police in Ferguson, after widespread criticism of heavy handed tactics used by riot officers.

Police had previously met demonstrators with heavy riot armour, SWAT trucks and sniper posts, and even arrested journalists covering the protests after police shot dead a young black male.

18 year old Michael Brown was shot and killed on Saturday and after days of unrest the police have released the name of the officer who discharged the shots.

The police was criticised widely, including by President Obama, for the heavy handed crackdown on protests, which were fuelled by the withholding of the officers name. Most of the local police in Ferguson are white, unrepresentative of the majority-black population of the town.

A three day truce between Israel and Hamas was extended by 5 days, after rockets were exchanged as the ceasefire was announced, reports Reuters.

Egyptian brokered indirect talks are expected to take place during the five day extension, which began with a turbulent start.

Hamas has denied that its fighters had fired rockets into Israel as the previous 3 day ceasefire was drawing to a close, reports Al Jazeera.

The UN has declared its highest level of emergency in Iraq due to the humanitarian crisis, after Islamic State militants made huge territorial gains in the north of the country.

The body says an estimated 1.2million people have been displaced following the advance of militants, with a large number seeking refuge in Kurdistan.

The declaration by the UN of a "Level 3 Emergency" would "facilitate mobilisation of additional resources in goods, funds and assets" to support the humanitarian operation currently ongoing in Iraq, said UN special representative Nickolay Mladenov.

Meanwhile France has confirmed that it will send arms shipments to the Kurdish soldiers fighting IS, as Germany prepares to send military equipment to the Kurds. The US is already arming the Peshmerga and is supporting them with air strikes on key IS positions.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Thursday the UK is ready to “help out” refugees in Iraq.

Mr Cameron welcomed the news that the situation on Mount Sinjar, where thousands of Yazidis were thought to be trapped, was not as bad as initially reported, causing the US to call off a military mission to rescue the civilians.

"There does seem to be some good news and that is the American-led scouting operation has found fewer people on the mountainside than expected. Also we see that the UK aid drops have made a difference and have got through to people. It's good news that there are fewer people there and they are in better condition than expected," he said.

The war crimes trial of Lt Col Bedi Mobuli Egangela will be a test case for military justice, the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo says.

Lt Col Egangela is denying charges of war crimes including murder, rape and torture allegedly committed during conflict in the east of the country, in 2005-2006.

"He's a very symbolic case. He has committed many of the most serious crimes that we see all too often in DR Congo," said the UN's Scott Campbell told the BBC.

The separatist-held city of Donetsk was hit by heavy shelling today, as Ukrainian forces surrounded the region, reports the BBC.

Militants and civilians poured out of offices into the city center as evacuation warnings sounded. At least one person is reported to have died in the shelling.

The strikes came as a Russian aid envoy of 260 lorries to separatist held regions was blocked by Ukrainian forces at its borders.

The US Treasury placed more Russian companies at the risk of facing sanctions by broadening the scope of its sanctions on Russia, in a memo released Wednesday.

The change means that a firm would be affected if any combination of sanctioned individuals collectively owned at least 50 percent of it, reports Bloomberg.

Sweeping EU sanctions against Russia (31 July 2014)

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has agreed to relinquish his post and step down, ceding power to Haider al-Abadi, a Shi'ite politician who was earlier nominated for the position by the Iraqi President.

Speaking on state television with Abadi and other politicians, Maliki announced that his withdrawal would "ease the movement of the political process and the formation of the new government."  

At least one man has been killed and two policemen injured, in an attack on Quetta airport in Pakistan, according to latest reports.

Reuters reported that at least eight blasts and gunfire was heard, with local residents reporting that helicopters were flying overhead. It is thought the attackers were attempting an assault on the Samangi airbase in the Baluchistan province capital, which shares a runway with the civilian airport.