Baghdad (AFP) - The international coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group bombed a key jihadist command and supply hub in the area of Ramadi, capital of Iraq's Anbar province, it said Wednesday.

A video of the strike on the football stadium showed a massive secondary explosion at the site.

"The stadium was a key (IS) command and supply hub in the Ramadi region and was being used to store large amounts of homemade explosives, weapons and ammunition," the coalition said in a statement.

"Destroying this hub will significantly disrupt (IS's) ability to conduct operations and resupply their fighters in Ramadi."

IS overran Ramadi in mid-May in a major setback for Iraqi forces, which had held out against militants in parts of the city for well over a year.

IS seized swathes of Iraqi territory in a June 2014 offensive, and the coalition is carrying out daily air strikes against the jihadists to assist Iraqi forces, which have made little progress on the ground in recent weeks.

Beirut (AFP) - The jihadist Islamic State group has used the shocking image of drowned Syrian toddler Aylan Kurdi to warn refugees against trying to flee to the West, calling it a "major sin".

Three-year-old Aylan's body was photographed lying in the sand in Bodrum, Turkey after he drowned in a boat accident while his family tried to reach Greece -- an image that helped to focus international attention on the plight of refugees.

In the latest issue of its English-language magazine Dabiq, IS published the boy's image under the headline: "The danger of Abandoning Darul-Islam," or the land of Islam, including the group's self-declared "caliphate" in Syria and Iraq.

"Sadly some Syrians and Libyans are willing to risk the lives and souls of those whom they are responsible to raise... sacrificing many of them during the dangerous trip to the lands of the war-waging crusaders," it said.

It said Muslims were committing a "dangerous major sin" by bringing children to the West, where "they are under the constant threat of fornication, sodomy, drugs and alcohol".

IS seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq last year, imposing a brutal rule of mass killings, torture, institutionalised slavery and widespread rape.

The group claims to be instituting Islamic rule but has been denounced by mainstream Muslims as perverting religion.

Thousands of Syrians and Iraqis have fled areas under its control.

BALTIMORE (AP) — A Baltimore pastor has been arrested a week after police say he blocked traffic while protesting during pre-trial hearings in the Freddie Gray case.

Police say they arrested 27-year-old Westley West on Wednesday after obtaining a warrant charging him with attempting to incite a riot, malicious destruction of property, disorderly conduct, disturbance of the peace, false imprisonment and failure to obey.

Online court records list an inactive case in which West was charged last week with walking on a road where a sidewalk is provided, but don't list a lawyer.

Police say they recorded West, the pastor at Faith Empowered Ministries, stepping in front of a pickup truck and hitting the hood with his bullhorn. Others joined West blocking traffic, but fled when officers approached.

The arrest came a day before another pre-trial hearing for six officers charged in the death of Gray, a 25-year-old black man fatally injured in police custody.

Jerusalem (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday likened the EU parliament's motion to label products from Jewish settlements to the Nazi era.

"We remember history and we remember what happened when the products of Jews were labelled in Europe," the premier said in a statement issued by his office.

In April, France and 15 other European Union countries urged the bloc to clearly label products sold in member countries that originated in Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories and annexed east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, all occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

"This is unjust. It's a distortion of justice and of logic, not to mention that it does not advance peace," said Netanyahu.

Tzipi Hotovly, Israel's deputy foreign minister, said the Jewish state would not accept "discrimination" between goods produced in different parts of its territory.

"Labelling of products amounts to a boycott," she said, hours after the European parliament voted in favour of a non-binding resolution to label products from Jewish settlements.

The EU has consistently condemned Israeli settlement building as a threat to the Middle East peace process through eroding the basis for a future Palestinian state.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution Thursday allowing the Palestinians and the Holy See to raise their flags at U.N. headquarters — a symbolic step pursued by the Palestinians in their quest for an independent state.

Israel strongly objected to the proposal and joined seven other countries, including the United States, in voting "no"; 119 nations voted "yes" and 45 abstained.

The resolution allows non-member observer states to raise their flags alongside those of the 193 U.N. member states. The Palestinians and the Vatican are the only two observers, but the Holy See has backed away from the effort, saying it will not raise its flag before Pope Francis visits the U.N. later this month.

With Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations stalled and little prospect of a two-state solution emerging, the Palestinians have successfully pursued symbolic recognition as a state at the United Nations — winning General Assembly approval in late 2012 to raise their status from an observer to a non-member observer state, by a vote of 138 in favor and nine against. That has allowed the Palestinians to join U.N. bodies, including its cultural organization UNESCO, and many international treaties, including the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, hailed the "historic vote," calling it "another step towards fulfillment of the promise of independence made to the Palestinian people nearly seven decades ago."

He said last week that the Palestinians would like President Mahmoud Abbas to raise their flag after he addresses the General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders Sept. 30.

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FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2007, file photo, the flags of member nations fly outside of the United Nat …

"Of course we know that raising our flag will neither end the (Israeli) occupation nor solve the conflict immediately," Mansour said. "But raising the flag will signal to our people everywhere ... that their freedom is inevitable, and the international community supports them in their journey for justice."

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor called the goal of the resolution "a photo op," saying it will not advance prospects for peace, but in his final speech at the United Nations he looked forward to that day.

"History proves to us that negotiations can be fruitful, that peace is possible, and that we can create a new reality for the people of the region," he said. "I look forward to seeing the image of an Israeli prime minister and a Palestinian leader standing side by side, raising the flags of our two peoples, living together in peace. That will be a photo truly worth taking."

Mansour called the resolution "a contribution to the international effort to salvage the two-state solution" and expressed hope that "we may see the day when the state of Palestine and the state of Israel live side by side in peace, coexistence and security, and sharing the bonds of a new era in our region and in our global community."

While General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, the United Nations has said it will be guided by the vote. The resolution allows 20 days for implementation and holes for additional flagpoles already exist.

The Palestinians' supporters had hoped that no nation would block the proposal and risk offending the Vatican on the eve of Pope Francis' first U.S. and U.N. visit. But the Holy See asked that it not be named in the resolution.

Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Vatican's U.N. ambassador, told the assembly after the vote that "the Holy See has always respected the 70-year practice and tradition of the United Nations that there are only flags of member states that are flown at the United Nations." But he said it didn't object to the Palestinian proposal and respects the assembly's decision.

He told reporters Wednesday that "we have generally different priorities," and while he ruled out raising the Vatican flag before the pope's Sept. 25 visit, he left open the possibility that it might fly at U.N. headquarters sometime in the future.

Some 135 countries — the vast majority in Asia, Africa and Latin America — have recognized a state of Palestine. In May, the Holy See added its recognition, and Auza reiterated the Vatican's support for a two-state solution.

The United States and Israel oppose recognizing a Palestinian state, arguing that it undermines efforts to negotiate a peace agreement.

"Our vote reflects the reality that the parties themselves must ultimately take the constructive, responsible steps required to achieve a two-state solution and end the cycle of violence and suffering that has persisted for far too long in the Middle East," U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told the General Assembly just before the vote.

Canada, Australia and several small island states also voted "no." Europe was divided with France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Poland among those voting "yes" while Britain, Germany, the Baltic states and others abstained.