Geneva / AFP IS extremists are still committing genocide against the Yazidi minority in Iraq and Syria, United Nations rights investigators said on Thursday. “Genocide has occurred and is ongoing,” Paulo Pinheiro, head of the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) for Syria, said in a statement. “ISIS has subjected every Yazidi woman, child or man that it has captured to …

  BEIRUT / AP The Russian Defense Ministry says a 48-hour cessation of hostilities has been declared in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo. In past months, Aleppo has been witnessing fierce fighting and bombardment, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of people on both sides of the contested city. Russia says the truce went into effect after midnight …

  BAGHDAD / AP An aid organization says a two-year-old boy has been killed while fleeing Fallujah with his family amid a government offensive to retake the Iraqi city from the IS group. The Norwegian Refugee Council, which works with refugees and internally displaced Iraqis, cited a relative on Thursday as saying that an IS fighter shot the boy as …