Asia

At least 50,000 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon are working, often in dire conditions and for 12 hours a day, to pay for food and shelter for their families, aid organisation CARE said.

More than a million Syrian refugees live in Lebanon, making up a quarter of the country's population, having fled a civil war in its fourth year, which has left more than 160,000 dead.

The Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry is watching the general developments in Iraq with deep worry and voices concern at the significant deterioration of the security climate, in the northwestern regions mostly, a release to AGERPRES says on Thursday.

Despite Baghdad’s threats, Kurdish Iraqi oil shipped from a Turkish port has been bought by Russian oil giant Rosneft to be delivered to a refinery in Germany, which co-operates with BP Russian oil firm Rosneft bought a cargo of Kurdish oil for a German refinery it co-owns with oil major BP, quietly circumventing Baghdad’s ban on independent oil sales by its autonomous region, accord

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on June 12 he didn't see a role for the organisation in Iraq after Islamist militants seized swathes of territory in the country and took 80 Turkish citizens hostage.

Rasmussen condemned the violence and called for immediate release of the hostages.

The federal government and the autonomous Kurdish region will cooperate against the offensive of Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) militants, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoğlu during a phone call June 12.

While seeking an answer to the question of how the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) so suddenly captured Mosul, it has been argued that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki deliberately handed over the city to ISIL. 

Predominantly Shiite Muslim Iran will combat the "violence and terrorism" of Sunni extremists who have launched an anti-government offensive in neighbouring Iraq, President Hassan Rouhani warned on June 12.

Iraqi Kurds seized control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk on June 12, while surging Sunni Islamist rebels advanced towards Baghdad, as the central government's army abandoned its posts in a rapid collapse that has lost it control of the north.

The 49 members of Turkey’s Mosul Consulate, who were taken hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are in good health, an Iraqi colleague told daily Hürriyet on June 12.

The Turkish Lira has weakened against the U.S. dollar and stocks opened the day with losses due to heightened concerns over the turmoil in neighboring Iraq.

The lira/dollar ratio climbed over 2.12 in the morning as investors fear the geopolitical risks in Iraq may have knock-on effects in Turkey.