The costs of failing to defeat Islamic State are rising to intolerable levels, both in lives tragically lost and dollars destroyed. A look at the numbers available suggests that the consequences of not acting outweigh the risks of a full-blown military boots-on-the-ground conflict.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said the US government would try to seize the financial assets and property of pirates while working with shippers to thwart hijackers off the coast of Somalia.

Liechtenstein today handed over to the Iraqi government a private plane said to have been used by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to transport money and senior officials.