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More than 600,000 people in Myanmar need food assistance, the UN World Food Program said Wednesday. It also announced a $40 million funding shortfall for food aid through June 2016, Reuters reported. Some 13 million people, 26 percent of the population, live below the poverty line, while 35 percent of children are malnourished, according to the WFP. Floods and landslides struck 12 of the 14 states and regions in June and July, killing 172 people and temporarily displacing more than 1.7 million. WFP said 440,000 people affected by the floods and landslides need food assistance. Communal violence in Rakhine state and fighting between government troops and ethnic rebels in Kachin and Shan states have displaced an estimated 172,000 people.

Cameroonian troops killed around 100 Boko Haram Islamist fighters from Nigeria and freed almost 900 hostages last week, the country’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday. “A special clean-up operation from November 26 to 28” against Boko Haram fighters in the border area with Nigeria “neutralized more than 100 jihadists,” AFP quoted Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo as saying. The troops released almost 900 hostages, seized a large stock of arms and munitions “as well as black-and-white Islamic State flags,” according to the statement. Security sources in the region said that the raid took place, but were unable to confirm the figures released by the government.

Three mosques have been shut down in France since the Paris attacks as part of a crackdown on extremist activities, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. It is the first time mosques are being closed in France “on grounds of radicalization,” AP quoted the minister as saying. One of the mosques, 35km east of Paris in Lagny-sur-Marne, was targeted by raids early Wednesday. Police seized a 9mm revolver, a computer hard disc and extremist propaganda, Cazeneuve said. One person was placed in custody, 22 others banned from leaving France, and nine others were put under house arrest following the raids. The two other mosques in Lyon and Gennevilliers in the Paris region were shut down last week amid a site of emergency

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that Afghans coming to Germany in pursuit of better economic circumstances will be sent back to their country, Reuters reported. Germany would meet its humanitarian obligations for Afghans who are in serious danger because they worked for foreign forces such as the German Army, she added, speaking at a news conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Berlin. “Where refugees come hoping for a better life… that is no reason to get asylum status or residency status here,” she said.

The Spanish Constitutional Court on Wednesday said it has rejected Catalonia’s motion in parliament to begin the process to separate from the rest of Spain. The parliament set out a plan in November to establish a republic within 18 months in the highly-industrialized and populous northeastern region. It accounts for about a fifth of Spain’s economic output. The process had been blocked since November 11 pending a final decision by the court, Reuters said.

The US-led coalition staged 17 airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Iraq and Syria Tuesday, Reuters reported. Fifteen strikes near five Iraqi cities hit seven of the militant group’s tactical units, the Combined Joint Task Force said Wednesday. Nine strikes were centered near Ramadi, where two buildings, 10 fighting positions, an improvised explosive device and a tunnel used by IS were destroyed, according to the military. Two airstrikes near Ayn Isa in Syria hit an IS tactical unit, and two of the group’s fighting positions were destroyed.

Slovakia filed a lawsuit at the European Court of Justice Wednesday against an EU decision to redistribute 120,000 asylum seekers among member countries. This is the first legal challenge to a measure that has divided the bloc, Reuters said. “We demand that the court rules the decision on imposing mandatory quotas is invalid,” Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said. “I consider the quotas to be nonsensical and technically impossible. Our words are being proven true: the quotas have become a fiasco.” Nearly 890,000 migrants and refugees have reached European shores so far this year, about four times the total in 2014.

Warring factions in Libya are very close to a deal on forming a unity government, and a long-awaited accord could be signed in a month, according to the new UN envoy. “We are very close to a deal even if some hurdles remain. I believe we can sign in a month,” Martin Kobler told Reuters. “The government of unity should be based in Tripoli.” Talks have lasted for a year, as Western governments push for the UN-backed agreement as the only way to end the chaos in Libya.

The EU and Turkey may announce a behind-the-scenes agreement later this week to resettle 400,000 to 500,000 Syrian refugees directly from Turkey to the EU, Reuters quoted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as saying Wednesday. Speaking to Hungarian leaders in Budapest, Orban said he expected pressure to accept some part of those refugees, something he said Budapest could not do. The agreement was floated at a recent EU summit in Malta, but not included in the EU-Turkey agreements signed at the weekend in Brussels after its proponents could not gather the necessary support for it, according to the Hungarian leader.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said late Tuesday that Iraq’s forces are capable of defeating Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) without the help of foreign combat forces. The statement came hours after US Defense Secretary Ash Carter told Congress that a new special operations force will be deployed to Iraq to step up fighting against IS, AP said. Iraq needs training, weapons and advice from the international community and not “foreign forces fighting on Iraqi soil,” according to al-Abadi. He added that such a move needs his government’s approval and full coordination.

Pakistan authorities executed four men on Wednesday for involvement in the massacre of 134 children at an army-run school in the city of Peshawar last year, Reuters said. The hangings were the first execution of civilians convicted by Pakistan’s military courts. Security sources confirmed the executions in Kohat. The men, convicted on August 13, were said to belong to the Toheedwal Jihad Group (TWG), a previously obscure faction of the Pakistani Taliban.