News Headlines - 21 August 2014

▽US signals escalation in Isis fight - FT.com

Barack Obama’s top Pentagon adviser says the Islamist militant group in northern Iraq can be defeated only by tackling them in neighbouring Syria, signalling a substantial escalation of America’s military campaign.

▽Israeli airstrikes kill 3 top Hamas commanders in Gaza Strip - The Washington Post

Israeli airstrikes killed three top Hamas commanders in Gaza on Thursday, marking the most significant blow to the leadership of the Palestinian group’s armed wing in six weeks of fighting in the battle-scarred enclave.

▽BBC News - Thailand coup General Prayuth Chan-ocha named PM

Thailand's junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha has been named the new prime minister of the southeast Asian nation.
Gen Prayuth, 60, was nominated on Thursday in a legislature hand-picked by the junta and made up of mostly military and police figures.

▽China puts five cult members on trial for McDonald's murder - Telegraph

Five followers of a Chinese cult went on trial on Thursday charged with beating a woman to death in a branch of McDonald's after she refused to be recruited.
The Church of Almighty God, also known as Eastern Lightning, believes that Christ has returned in the shape of a middle-aged Chinese woman. The cult may have over a million members in China, according to the state media.

▽Neanderthals Died Out 10,000 Years Earlier Than Thought, With Help From Modern Humans

The Neanderthals died out about 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, new fossil dating suggests, adding to evidence that the arrival of modern humans in Europe pushed our ancient Stone Age cousins into extinction.