Baghdad (AFP) - The number of people displaced by conflict in Iraq since the start of 2014 has reached a new high of 2.8 million, the International Organisation for Migration said Tuesday.

The IOM put the number at exactly 2,834,676 and said a wave of displacement caused by fighting in Ramadi, the capital of the western province of Anbar, was the cause of the latest rise.

The organisation said that 133,000 people left their homes when the Islamic State group attacked parts of Ramadi a month ago. More than 16,000 have since returned to the city centre.

IOM Iraq chief of mission Thomas Lothar Weiss said "the quantity of life-saving humanitarian aid available is insufficient."

There were around 300,000 internally displaced persons in Iraq at the beginning of 2014.

Unrest broke out in Anbar early last year, forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes. The biggest wave of displacement occurred when IS launched a huge nationwide offensive on June 9.

The International Committee of the Red Cross on Monday appealed for an additional $38.5 million from donors to fund its emergency response in Iraq.

It "will bring the total funding it requires for 2015 to 122 million, making Iraq its second largest operations in the world, right after Syria," said the ICRC.

The situation is even worse in neighbouring Syria, where the internally displaced population stands at 7.6 million and the response even more critically under-funded.

Following a Monday court hearing, a Kentucky couple living what they call a “simple, back-to-basics life” in a rural, off-the-grid shack has lost custody, at least temporarily, of their 10 children. Joe and Nicole Naugler — who are expecting an 11th child in October — will remain under investigation by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS), while their kids, ranging in age from 3 months to 15 years old, will stay in the agency’s custody.

STORY: Parents Accused of Child Neglect Fighting Back After Kids Are Detained by Officials

“Although we are sad our children will not be returned to us today, we have nothing to hide,” Joe Naugler wrote on the family’s Facebook page, Blessed Little Homestead. “We have cooperated with all requests made to us by CHFS and will continue to do so. We are confident that throughout this process, Nicole and I will be shown to be the good parents that we are and that our family will be reunited.”

The court’s decision came several days after authorities removed the children from their home, following an anonymous police complaint about the family’s living conditions — which allegedly include residing under a crude tarp construction, having no heat or running water, and having no septic system (which the Nauglers dispute). But many of their supporters believe they’re being targeted for their lifestyle, which includes living off the power grid, birthing children at home, and relying on “unschooling,” which is a less structured approach to homeschooling.

STORY: 7 Children Removed From Home Over Mineral Supplement

The case is just the latest of its kind to raise national questions about Child Protective Services overreaching and flouting parental rights. Other cases grabbing the national spotlight recently have included that of the Meitiv family in Maryland, investigated by CPS for allowing their children to walk unattended to a nearby playground, as well as that of the Stanleys, in Arkansas, who had their seven children removed from the home in January over a dispute related to a mineral supplement.

Nicole Naugler is pregnant with her 11th child. (Photo: Blessed Little Homestead/The Naugler Family)

“My reaction to this case is that CPS and those with power in our society tend to make decisions based on what they view as normal or not normal,” says David DeLugas, executive director and general counsel for the National Association of Parents, which aims to guard parent-child relationships. “But,” he tells Yahoo Parenting, “the same protocol should be employed in all situations: Are the children hurt? Are they in imminent danger of being hurt? If the answer is no, then we should ask the question — we should all ask the question: Why do anything?”

A spokesperson for CHFS in Kentucky tells Yahoo Parenting, “The Cabinet for Health and Family Services cannot confirm or provide any information about Child Protective Services investigations, as that information is confidential by law.” A receptionist at the Breckinridge County Sheriff’s Office also would not provide any information, telling Yahoo Parenting that there is a “gag order” regarding the Nauglers, because this is “a juvenile case.”

The Nauglers did not respond to a request for comment made through their website. But their Save Our Family website answers questions about their living conditions, explaining that they have a wood stove for heat, an “open cabin” made of metal and tarps, a composting toilet, a pond with potable water, and a generator for power. They explain that they are naturopaths who would “seek professional medical care if it was needed,” and that they make an income from a pet grooming business. They describe their lifestyle as “intentional.”

To help with the Nauglers’ legal fees, as well as upgrades to their home, a family friend has launched a Go Fund Me page, which has raised more than $41,000 in just five days. On the website, campaign organizer Pace Ellsworth says she met the family through investing in their dog-grooming business in 2014. “They live a very simple life. They garden and raise animals,” she writes. “They are industrious people trying to teach their children how to live right. Their 10 children are homeschooled on the homestead. They contribute to the success of the family crops and livestock, all while learning about the amazing beauty of life.” Ellsworth goes on to explain that when Nicole Naugler attempted to leave her property with two of her children when sheriffs arrived, she was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Online supporters say the family should be left to raise their kids as they see fit, with one Facebook commenter noting, “Who should be setting the standard for what are acceptable living conditions? People who have only ever known first-world living? The fact is that the majority of children in the majority of the world have grown up or are growing up in conditions that are excessively sub-par to what we are accustomed to in the United States. And that doesn’t mean that they’re bad conditions; they’re just different.”

Naysayers, meanwhile, say that Joe once threatened a neighbor with a gun, and that “Barn animals have better shelter than these kids,” according to a Facebook commenter. Even the family’s estranged son, Alex Brow, 19, joined the anti-Naugler voices on Monday, testifying against his parents in court. “I am very worried about them, and I hope that everything that can be done, that was done here, can help them move on and have a better life,” Brow told WLKYregarding his siblings. That left Joe and Nicole “heartbroken,” as they noted on their Facebook page.

The kids. (Photo: Blessed Little Homestead/The Naugler Family)

Whatever the reality in this situation, DeLugas questions the drastic decision of taking the children out of their home. “Should the remedy be to take the children away, which has a harm level of its own, or provide what is missing?” he asks, suggesting the possibility of bringing in food or other supplies. “How much damage are these children enduring right now?”

According to Christine James-Brown, CEO of the Child Welfare League of America, an advocacy organization established in 1921 to set the standard for child welfare, “It’s always a call,” and never an easy or popular one, for children to be removed from their homes.

“The child welfare system, particularly in the last 10 years, has had an overall push to remove fewer children — but to safely keep these children at home,” she tells Yahoo Parenting. Some of the difficulties for a CPS worker making the assessment, she says, include cultural differences, the fact that “community norms around parenting differ and change,” and also that neglect and poverty are often improperly conflated. Those making decisions must decide if there is a health risk, a risk of imminent danger, and whether or not a situation is chronic or temporary.

In the case of the Nauglers, James-Brown says it would be important to meet the family where they are, as long as it doesn’t cause the child any risk. “It’s a difficult call,” she says, “and it should be.” She notes that CPS workers are “underpaid, undersupported, and go into the worst situations,” and that the other side of the boundary-crossing criticism is one worth pondering.

“A CPS worker might say, ‘OK, the kids are fine, we can’t bother the parents’ — and then three months later, the kids are dead. The community would be up in arms,” she says. “I’d rather err on the side of caution.”

Watch video

Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? Email us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com.

Reuters Videos
Over 40 die in Pakistan bus attack

Pistol-wielding gunmen in Pakistan's biggest city Karachi on Wednesday stormed a bus carrying members of the Shiite Ismaili minority, killing at least 43 in the second deadliest militant attack in the country this year.

The Jundullah militant faction, a splinter of the Pakistani Taliban, later said it was responsible for the massacre while police said they also found leaflets at the scene claiming the attack on behalf of the Islamic State group.

Pakistan has experienced a rising tide of sectarian violence in recent years, particularly against Shiites, who make up around 20 percent of the country's predominantly Muslim population of 200 million.

"According to the initial information which we have received from hospitals, 43 people have been killed and 13 wounded," Ghulam Haider Jamali, police chief of Sindh province told reporters at the site in the eastern district of Malir.

"Six terrorists came on three motorcycles, they entered the bus and began firing indiscriminately. They used 9mm pistols and all those killed and injured were hit by the 9mm pistols," he said.

- Multiple claims -

View gallery

Women mourn as they visit a local hospital following an attack on a bus in Karachi, Pakistan, Wednes …

Prince Karim Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world Ismaili community, confirmed the toll in a statement sent by his office in France.

"This attack represents a senseless act of violence against a peaceful community," the philanthropist and business magnate said.

The killings were also condemned by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief Raheel Sharif, while the provincial government announced a day of mourning Thursday.

A spokesman for the Jundullah militant faction, which has claimed several major attacks in the past including one on a church in Peshawar that killed 81 Christians in 2013, said his group was responsible for storming the bus.

Speaking over the phone from an undisclosed location, Ahmed Marwat said four, not six fighters, had participated, adding: "Shiites and Ahmadis are unbelievers, they are apostates and deserved death."

View gallery

Pakistani ambulances transport the bodies of Shiite Muslims killed in an attack by gunmen in Karachi …

Little is known about Jundullah, its strength, or its organisational structure, but it is believed to be based out of the country's tribal areas and parts of Karachi.

A security official at the scene also showed AFP a copy of a torn and blood-stained pamphlet claiming responsibility on behalf of the Islamic State group -- the second time in as many months that such material has been discovered at the scene of an attack in Karachi.

- Anguished relatives -

Police handed over similar leaflets to reporters after the shooting of US national Debra Lobo, a member of faculty at the city's Jinnah Medical and Dental College, on April 16, but analysts remain doubtful over their authenticity.

The leaflets, seen by AFP, are plain printed text documents with no IS emblems or insignia and there has been no confirmation from the group's leadership in the Middle East that it has carried out any attacks inside Pakistan.

View gallery

Around 1,000 Shiites have been killed in the past two years in Pakistan (AFP Photo/Rizwan Tabassum)

At the city's Memon Hospital Institute, where most of the wounded were rushed, crying relatives formed a human chain outside the main building to keep onlookers away.

A sobbing middle-aged man told AFP: "I have come to collect the body of my young son. He was a student preparing for his first year exams at college."

The bus itself, which had been driven after the attack to the hospital, was blood-drenched and riddled with bullet holes.

Wednesday's attack was the second deadliest in Pakistan this year after 62 Shiite Muslims were killed in a suicide bombing in late January.

Anti-Shiite attacks have been increasing in recent years in Karachi and also in the southwestern city of Quetta, the northwestern area of Parachinar, and the far northeastern town of Gilgit.

View gallery

Pakistan has seen a rising tide of sectarian violence in recent years, particularly against Shiites …

Around 1,000 Shiites have been killed in the past two years in Pakistan, with many of the attacks claimed by the hardline Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) who view them as heretics.

There have also been concerns about the IS group tapping support in Pakistan, a country awash with dozens of militant groups.

Leaflets calling for support of IS jihadists have been seen over recent months in parts of northwest Pakistan and pro-IS slogans have appeared on walls in several cities.

Some disaffected Pakistani Taliban cadres have also said they have switched allegiance to IS, but the true extent of links to the group's Middle East operations remains unclear.

Karachi, a sprawling city of roughly 20 million, has long had a reputation for high crime rates as well as ethnic, political and sectarian violence.

But the violence has fallen significantly since 2013 after police and paramilitary rangers launched a crackdown that rights activists say has led to extra-judicial killings of suspected criminals and militants.

Wochit
Wisconsin Police Officer Who Killed Black Teenager Won't Be Charged

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A white Wisconsin police officer won't be charged for fatally shooting an unarmed 19-year-old biracial man, a prosecutor announced Tuesday, prompting peaceful demonstrations but none of the immediate violence that has hit some other U.S. cities in similar cases.

Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said he wouldn't file charges against Madison Officer Matt Kenny in the March 6 death of Tony Robinson, saying the officer used lawful deadly force after he was staggered by a punch to the head and feared for his life.

Ozanne, mopping his brow repeatedly but speaking forcefully for some 25 minutes, took pains to outline his own biracial heritage before announcing his decision.

"I am the son of a black woman who still worries about my safety," Ozanne said. "I am a man who understands the pain of unjustified profiling, and I am the first district attorney of color, not only in Dane County, but in the state of Wisconsin."

Then, Ozanne walked through evidence from the scene, 911 callers, Robinson's friends, police affidavits, crime lab reports and more to paint a picture of a young man out of control from a mix of hallucinogenic mushrooms, marijuana and Xanax. Kenny rushed to the apartment building and immediately became concerned that Robinson was attacking someone upstairs. He fired his weapon only after he was punched in the head and feared he might be disarmed and killed, Ozanne said.

Kenny wasn't wearing a body camera. Dashcam video released Tuesday shows the outside of the home, and the shots fired can be heard.

View gallery

Demonstrators walk down East Washington Avenue to protest the shooting of Tony Robinson at the state …

"I conclude that (Robinson's) tragic and unfortunate death was the result of a lawful use of deadly police force and that no charges should be brought against Officer Kenny in the death of Tony Robinson Jr.," Ozanne said. He quickly wrapped up and left to meet Robinson family members.

Robinson's mother, Andrea Irwin, said she was not surprised by the decision. The investigation wasn't thorough enough, she said.

"They could have done a lot. What they didn't do was give my son any respect," she said. But family members, as they have since the shooting, asked that protests remain peaceful.

About 100 people gathered at Robinson's apartment house in the wake of Ozanne's decision. One of them, Jivonte Davis, 19, said he had known Robinson since the fifth grade.

"I can go out and break stuff and do anything I want right now," Davis said. "But rioting and everything, what would that achieve? We're no Ferguson; we're no Baltimore. We're going to do this the right way. We're going to do this peacefully."

View gallery

This undated file photo provided by the Madison, Wis., Police Department shows Officer Matt Kenny. K …

The protesters, eventually estimated by police at 250 to 300 people, began marching to the state Capitol about a mile and a half away. Some had dogs and strollers and were bound for a nearby church for a prayer service. Marchers chanted, "No justice, no peace. No racist police," and held a banner that read "Justice for Tony." They eventually dispersed.

One lead group in organizing earlier protests, the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition, had earlier announced plans to demonstrate on Wednesday.

Jim Palmer, Kenny's attorney and the executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the state's largest police union, issued a statement praising Ozanne's decision. Palmer noted that Kenny suffered several injuries including a concussion.

Robinson's death forced Madison — a liberal bastion that is home of the University of Wisconsin and the state capital — to confront racial divisions. Blacks make up about 7 percent of the population but more than that in arrests, incarceration and poverty. One demand from the Young, Gifted and Black group was to drop plans to renovate the county jail and to free 350 black inmates.

Police Chief Mike Koval wrote in a blog post following Ozanne's announcement that the city was at a crossroads, with the chance to show that "civic dissent and even acts of civil disobedience" can co-exist with police. Koval's post included how protesters could avoid the most damaging arrests, and he posted a list of ordinance violations, misdemeanors and "protected activities" complete with fine amounts for the violations.

View gallery

Supporters of Tony Robinson gather outside the Dane County Public Safety Building in Madison, Wis. T …

But police were also ready for the possibility of violence. A Madison police captain warned city leaders in an email before Ozanne's decision that police had received threats from reliable sources that gang members planned violence against officers.

The shooting was another in a series of police confrontations that have ignited racial tension across the nation in the past year. Most recently in Baltimore, riots erupted after the funeral for Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. Other high-profile cases of officers killing unarmed black residents include the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Eric Garner in New York City; and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Six officers involved in Gray's death have been charged, as has the officer who killed Scott. Grand juries declined to charge the officers involved in Brown's and Garner's deaths.

___

Associated Press writers Scott Bauer and Dana Ferguson contributed to this report.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Federal investigators arrived Wednesday to determine why an Amtrak train jumped the tracks in a wreck that killed at least six people, injured dozens and plunged screaming passengers into darkness and chaos.

The mayor said some of the 238 passengers remained unaccounted for, raising fears the death toll could rise.

Train 188, a Northeast Regional, was en route from Washington to New York with 238 passengers and five crew members when it derailed as it was rounding a sharp curve in the city's working-class Port Richmond section shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said.

Passengers had to scramble through the windows of toppled cars to escape. One of the seven cars was severely mangled.

The accident closed the nation's busiest rail corridor between New York and Washington as federal investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived to begin examining the twisted wreckage, the tracks and the signals.

"It is an absolute disastrous mess," Mayor Michael Nutter said. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."

Philadelphia Mayor: 5 Dead in Train WreckPlay video

Nutter confirmed five deaths. Temple University Hospital said Wednesday a person died there overnight from a chest injury.

More than 140 people went to hospitals to be evaluated or treated for injuries that included burns and broken bones.

Amtrak said the cause of the derailment was not known.

Passenger Jillian Jorgensen, 27, was seated in the quiet car — the second passenger car — and said the train was going "fast enough for me to be worried" when it began to lurch to the right.

The train derailed, the lights went out and Jorgensen was thrown from her seat. She said she "flew across the train" and landed under some seats that had apparently broken loose from the floor.

Raw: Amtrak Train Derailed in PhiladelphiaPlay video

Jorgensen, a reporter for The New York Observer who lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, said she wriggled free as fellow passengers screamed. She saw one man lying still, his face covered in blood, and a woman with a broken leg.

She climbed out an emergency exit window, and a firefighter helped her down a ladder to safety.

"It was terrifying and awful, and as it was happening it just did not feel like the kind of thing you could walk away from, so I feel very lucky," Jorgensen said in an email to The Associated Press. "The scene in the car I was in was total disarray, and people were clearly in a great deal of pain."

Early Wednesday, authorities on the scene seemed to be girding for a long haul. Several portable toilets were delivered for investigators and recovery workers. Heavy equipment was brought in, and Amtrak workers in hard hats walked around the wreck.

All seven train cars, including the engine, were in "various stages of disarray," Nutter said. He said there were cars that were "completely overturned, on their side, ripped apart."

View gallery

Emergency personnel help a passenger at the scene of a train wreck, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Philad …

An AP Press manager, Paul Cheung, was on the train and said he was watching a video on his laptop when "the train started to decelerate, like someone had slammed the brake."

"Then suddenly you could see everything starting to shake," he said. "You could see people's stuff flying over me."

Cheung said another passenger urged him to escape from the back of his car, which he did. He said he saw passengers trying to get out through the windows of cars tipped on their sides.

"The front of the train is really mangled," he said. "It's a complete wreck. The whole thing is like a pile of metal."

Gaby Rudy, an 18-year-old from Livingston, New Jersey, was headed home from George Washington University. She said she was nearly asleep when she suddenly felt the train "fall off the track."

View gallery

Emergency personnel work the scene of a train wreck, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia. An Amtr …

The next few minutes were filled with broken glass and smoke, said Rudy, who suffered minor injuries. "They told us we had to run away from the train in case another train came," she said.

Another passenger, Daniel Wetrin, was among more than a dozen people taken to a nearby elementary school.

"I think the fact that I walked off kind of made it even more surreal because a lot of people didn't walk off," he said. "I walked off as if, like, I was in a movie. There were people standing around, people with bloody faces. There were people, chairs, tables mangled about in the compartment ... power cables all buckled down as you stepped off the train."

Several people, including one man complaining of neck pain, were rolled away on stretchers. Others wobbled as they walked away or were put on buses. An elderly woman was given oxygen.

The Port Richmond neighborhood is a mix of warehouses, industrial buildings and homes.

View gallery

Emergency personnel work the scene of a deadly train wreck, Tuesday, May 12, 2015, in Philadelphia. …

The area where the wreck happened is known as Frankford Junction. It is not far from the site of one of the nation's deadliest train accidents: the 1943 derailment of the Congressional Limited, from Washington to New York, which killed 79 people.

Amtrak's busy Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston serves 11.6 million passengers a year.

The mayor, citing the mangled train tracks and downed wires, said: "There's no circumstance under which there would be any Amtrak service this week through Philadelphia."

___

Associated Press reporters Maryclaire Dale and Josh Cornfield contributed to this story.