The Yazidis, who Britain on Tuesday officially acknowledged as victims of "acts of genocide" by the Islamic State (IS), are a Kurdish-speaking ethno-religious minority found mainly in Iraq.

IS jihadists carried out horrific violence against the community in 2014, killing men en masse and abducting thousands of girls and women as sex slaves.

For seven months, tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plans to overhaul the judiciary and weaken the Supreme Court.

On Monday, the first piece of that legislative package passed: Lawmakers approved a measure that prevents judges from striking down government decisions on the basis that they are "unreasonable."

Oceans of Israeli flags, steady drumbeats, cries of "Democracy!" Water cannons, police on horseback, protesters dragged off the ground.

For seven straight months, tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in the most sustained and intense demonstrations the country has ever seen.

A recent string of public desecrations of the Quran by a handful of anti-Islam activists in Sweden has sparked an angry reaction in Muslim countries and raised questions – including in Sweden – about why such acts are allowed.

In the latest such incident, an Iraqi living in Sweden on Thursday stomped on and kicked Islam's holy book in a two-man rally outside the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm. The protest was authorized by Swedish police, who kept a handful of agitated counterdemonstrators at a safe distance.

Russia has suspended a wartime deal designed to move grain from Ukraine to parts of the world where millions are going hungry.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, has allowed 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million tons) of food to be exported from Ukraine since August, more than half to developing countries, according to the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul.

The first phase of Ukraine's counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory began weeks ago without fanfare. Apart from claiming that its troops are edging forward, Kyiv has not offered much detail on how it's going.

The little village of Ghajar has been a sore point between Israel and Lebanon for years, split in two by the border between Lebanon and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. But after a long period of calm, the dispute has begun to heat up again.

Israel has been building a wall around the half of the village in Lebanese territory, triggering condemnation from Hezbollah, accusing Israel of moving to annex the site. A recent exchange of fire in the area raised alarm that the dispute could trigger violence.

The Ukrainian civilians woke long before dawn in the bitter cold, lined up for the single toilet and were loaded at gunpoint into the livestock trailer. They spent the next 12 hours or more digging trenches on the front lines for Russian soldiers.

Many were forced to wear overlarge Russian military uniforms that could make them a target, and a former city administrator trudged around in boots five sizes too big. By the end of the day, their hands curled into icy claws.

Israelis launched nationwide protests Tuesday after the latest legislative move on the government's controversial judicial reform package.

Demonstrators took to the streets hours after parliament backed in a first reading a key element of the legal overhaul.

When long-neutral Sweden applied for NATO membership together with Finland, both expected a quick accession process.

More than a year later, Finland is in, but Sweden is still in the alliance's waiting room.