Chloe ✅

Iraqi Shia and Kurdish forces capture an Islamic State stronghold, as a BBC team enters Amerli the day after a two-month siege ends.
BBC News – Middle East

Spain returns to Colombia hundreds of indigenous artefacts that were seized from drug gangs in 2003, but later smuggled out of the country.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

Russia has launched a ‘great war’ that could claim tens of thousands of lives, Ukraine’s defence ministry warns amid rebel offensive.
BBC News – Europe

The number of people struggling with payday loans has risen by 42% in the past year, according to the debt charity StepChange.
BBC News – UK

The White House says securing the release of three American citizens detained in North Korea is a “top priority”, after they appealed for help.
BBC News – US & Canada

The Nigerian army claims to have repelled an attack by Islamist militants Boko Haram on the town of Bama in the country’s north-east.
BBC News – Africa

Most British businesses want the UK to renegotiate its relationship with the EU, according to a British Chambers of Commerce survey.
BBC News – Business

Iraqi forces reach the besieged town of Amerli, where thousands of people have been trapped by jihadists, military officials say.
BBC News – Middle East

Leaders of five of El Salvador’s powerful gangs say they will stop attacking police and military in a bid to re-launch a gang truce agreed two years ago.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

President Putin calls for talks on “statehood” for eastern Ukraine and says it is “impossible to predict” the end of the crisis.
BBC News – Europe

Police reject criticism of their search for a five-year-old boy with a brain tumour who was removed from a UK hospital by his parents against medical advice.
BBC News – UK

Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted into the National Football League, fails to make the final roster for the St Louis Rams.
BBC News – US & Canada

Senegal’s health ministry confirms a first case of Ebola, making it the fifth West African country now affected by the outbreak.
BBC News – Africa

Housing experts are calling for minimum standards in the private rental market to prevent landlords from exploiting vulnerable tenants.
BBC News – Business

The UN says Syria is now “the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era” with more than three million Syrians living outside the country as refugees.
BBC News – Middle East

Some 230 members of an Orthodox Jewish group begin leaving a village in western Guatemala after a bitter row with the local indigenous community.
BBC News – Latin America & Caribbean

EU leaders are to meet in Brussels to consider how to respond to Russia following accusations that its troops are fighting inside Ukraine.
BBC News – Europe

David Cameron and Nick Clegg are to meet for talks to try to reach agreement on new measures to tackle the threat posed by Islamist extremists.
BBC News – UK

The US has imposed new sanctions on companies and individuals in connection with Iran’s nuclear programme.
BBC News – US & Canada

Soldiers in Lesotho have seized the police HQ and surrounded a key government building in a possible coup attempt, officials in the southern African nation say.
BBC News – Africa