World News Update, what you need to know

The Islamic State group has executed at least 217 people, including civilians, in the nine days since it captured areas in Syria's Homs province including the ancient city of Palmyra.

ELSEWHERE

WASHINGTON - Pentagon chief Ashton Carter has accused Iraqi forces of having "failed to fight" in Ramadi, which has fallen to Islamic State militants.

BAGHDAD - The Islamic State group has taken full control of a border crossing between Iraq and Syria, tightening its grip on the heart of its self-proclaimed caliphate.

KATHMANDU - Thousands of panic-stricken villagers have fled homes fearing flash floods after a landslide blocked a river in quake-hit Nepal's mountainous northwest.

DUBLIN - The once-dominant Catholic Church in Ireland is trying to come to terms with an overwhelming vote in favour of gay marriage.

JAKARTA - Claims of lost evidence in the case of Bali's death row grandmother Lindsay Sandiford strengthen the case for a British inquiry, her defence team argues.

ADEN - A ship laden with Emirati humanitarian aid has docked in Yemen's port city of Aden, as a Saudi-led coalition bombards Shi'ite rebels across the country.

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia has found mass graves feared to contain the bodies of Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants at the centre of a regional human-trafficking crisis.

MADRID - The "Indignado" protest movement looks slightly ahead of the governing conservatives in a tight electoral race for control of Madrid and Barcelona.

WARSAW - Conservative opposition challenger Andrzej Duda appears to have won Poland's cliffhanger presidential run-off, trumping centrist incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski.

NEW YORK - Nobel prize-winning US mathematician John Nash, who inspired the film A Beautiful Mind, has been killed with his wife in New Jersey in a car crash.

STOCKHOLM - Swedish pop lovers have celebrated their country's sixth Eurovision victory with an outpouring of national pride.

INKSTER, Michigan - The world's oldest person has celebrated her 116th birthday, declaring she can offer no secret for a long life.

LOS ANGELES - US actress and comedienne Anne Meara has died, aged 85.

CANNES - A French thriller spotlighting the plight of traumatised refugees, Dheepan, has captured the Palme d'Or top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.