Here's your lunchtime bulletin.

Islamic State militants have killed at least 500 members of Iraq’s Yazidi ethnic minority during their offensive in the north, Iraq’s human rights minister told Reuters yesterday.

The peacemakers may be blessed but even the most secure pacifist must sometimes be challenged by man’s capacity for brutality and carnage. The slaughter of at least 500 Iraqi Yazidi by Islamic State militants for no reason other than their religious identity must be one such dreadful moment.

Gunmen killed 23 members of an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq after stopping their bus and separating followers of other faiths, as car bombings in the capital killed at least another 20 people.

Gunmen killed 23 members of the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq today, after stopping their bus and separating out followers of other faiths, police said.