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Around 500,000 people, up to half of them children, have been forced to flee their homes since violence erupted on 5 June in the Iraqi city of Mosul, authorities say, and the violence is spreading.

Experts say a slow international response to Boko Haram's crimes in Nigeria has contributed to its rise from a group of marauding militants into an Islamist insurgency and broader threat. A U.S. congressional panel held a hearing Wednesday to get updates on the group that has wreaked havoc in northeastern Nigeria for the past five years.

The United Nations mission in Congo (MONUSCO) is investigating a cross-border clash between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo that left five Congolese soldiers dead.

UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie (right) records the stories of refugees who have just escaped the war in Syria at the Jaber border crossing in Jordan on 18 June 2013.

“UNICEF welcomes the urgent relief efforts by the Government of the United States to address a record increase in the number of unaccompanied children, mostly from Central America, seeking to enter the US.

Malnutrition and diseases have plagued women and children who have trekked for months to escape the escalating violence in Central African Republic into neighbouring Cameroon.

The International Organization for Migration says fears of further violence in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul caused 500,000 people to flee their homes as Islamist fighters took control of the city.

A wave of apparently arbitrary detentions by Thailand's military leaders following last month's coup is drawing the ire of top human rights groups.

Philippine police have arrested a man described by the United States as a "key leader and financier" in the Abu Sayyaf militant group.

Gunmen have launched a fresh attack near Pakistan's Karachi international airport, where a Sunday assault has left at least 35 people dead.