Mosul offensive: Turkish and Kurdish forces launch attacks on IS

Kurdish forces have carried out new attacks on positions of so-called Islamic State (IS) in
northern Iraq to retake the town of Bashiqa, near Mosul. Kurdish Peshmerga commanders said
they made large advances into IS territory and secured part of a highway that will limit IS's
freedom of movement.
Turkey joined the fight against IS on Sunday, directing artillery fire at jihadist positions in
Bashiqa.
The Iraqi PM had rejected an offer of Turkish involvement on Saturday.
Kurdish fighters killed dozens of IS militants, cordoned off eight villages and blocked
IS's ability to supply Mosul with reinforcements.

Afghanistan opium production up 43% - UN drugs watchdog

Opium production in Afghanistan has increased by 43% in the past year, United Nations
officials have said.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the area used to farm the poppy
plant, the source of opium, increased by 10% to 201,000 hectares.
Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of the substance, which is the main ingredient in
heroin.Growing opium is a crime in the country, but it is still a major cash crop for impoverished
farming communities.The opium produced from the poppy plant is used to make some of the
most powerful medicinal painkillers, such as morphine.
The Afghan government has a stated policy of eradicating poppy crops, but the crop is
widespread in many government-controlled regions, and officials are often accused of turning a
blind eye.

TRC rejects Amnesty Bill

Human rights organization Transformation Resource Centre (TRC) has strongly
condemned the new proposed Amnesty Bill saying it promotes impunity and fails to hold
perpetrators of heinous crimes accountable for their actions. The new bill is aimed at granting
members of the security sector a blanket amnesty for offences committed between January 2007
and December 2015.
In a statement read by TRC Programme Officer, Democracy and Human Rights,
Makatleho Mohasi at a press conference yesterday, the organisation believes that those who
have committed crimes against humanity and violations of human rights should face law and
should not be seen to be protected by those in power. The bill would also extend to members of
the LDF who the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) Commission of Inquiry into
Lesothos instability had recommended should face prosecution.

Report to deport
.
An immigration assessment published by the Home Affairs Select Committee in August of
2014 stated that unresolved illegal immigrants, immigrants that failed to successfully apply for
immigration or asylum that have then illegally gone to settle in the UK has reached over
393,222, this number is now well over 400,000.
Over 400,000 illegal immigrants are at large and are wanted by the border agency, and
this is only the number immigration agencies know about, the tip of the iceberg, with Migration
Watch estimating there are over 2,000,000 illegal immigrants at large, the immigration situation
is self evident in all its criminality and demographic degradation potential through combined
immigration and illegal immigration that enables and encourages a tenfold demographic,
economic and criminal defilement of our nation.

Over 1 million treated with highly effective hepatitis C medicines

Over one million people in low- and middle-income countries have been treated with a
revolutionary new cure for hepatitis C since its introduction two years ago.
When Direct Acting Antivirals (DAAs) were first approved for hepatitis C treatment in
2013, there were widespread fears that their high price would put them out of reach for the more
than 80 million people with chronic hepatitis C infections worldwide.
The new medicines have a cure rate of over 95%, fewer side effects than previously
available therapies, and can completely cure the disease within three months. But at an initial
estimated price of some US$85 000 they were unaffordable even in high-income countries.