Most children living in IS-controlled Raqqa do not go to school, the Syria Direct news website reports.
Syria Direct has interviewed Hamoud al-Mousa of the activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, who says that children in Raqqa have few options.
"Most stay inside all day as their families prevent them from going outdoors out of fear for their lives. Those who do go out do so to work or sell different items to earn money for the family. Also, many children have pledged allegiance to IS out of this necessity," Mousa said.
Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said that Ankara will impose sanctions on Russia if needed but remains open to talks with Moscow, Turkey's Today's Zaman reports.
Moscow has imposed economic sanctions on Turkey in the wake of the November 24 downing by the Turkish Air Force of a Russian Su-24 jet near the Syrian border.
The Bank of France has cut its forecast for fourth-quarter growth, confirming that business has been affected by the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, Bloomberg reports.
The IS group claimed the attacks, which killed 130 people.
Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said that he wants to visit Baghdad as soon as possible amid a row over Turkish troops deployed in northern Iraq to train Iraqi soldiers in the fight against IS.
Davutoglu said the troops were in Iraq to protect against attacks from IS and accused those who said otherwise of "deliberate provocation," Reuters reports.
The Iraqi government says that it never invited the latest deploment of Turkish troops to northern Iraq and that it will complain to the United Nations if Ankara does not pull them out.
Erdogan's Son Denies Russia's IS Oil Trade Allegations
The son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denied Russian allegations that he and his family were profiting from the illegal smuggling of oil from IS-held territory in Syria and Iraq.
"We build offices in Istanbul ... We do not do business in the Mediterranean, in Syria or Iraq," Bilal Erdogan was quoted as saying in Corriere della Sera newspaper, talking about his own corporate concerns. Bilal controls several ol tankers via his company and partnerships in other companies, Reuters says.
"[IS] is an enemy of my country. [IS] is a disgrace. It puts my religion in a bad light. They don't represent Islam and I do not consider them to be Muslims."
Russia's Defense Ministry said last week that it had proof the Erdogan family was benefitting from illegal smuggling of IS oil.
Defected Tajik Police Chief Disabled After Air Strike, No Longer Useful To IS
A senior Tajik police chief who defected to the IS group has "become an invalid and is no longer useful to IS," a Tajik law enforcement source has told RFE/RL.
Gulmurod Halimov made headlines in May when he appeared in an IS video after defecting to the extremist group.
The law enforcement source said that the information about Halimov's current condition was reported by 26-year-old eyewitness who recently escaped from IS in Iraq and surrendered to the Tajik authorities.
The eyewitness told the Tajik police that he had lived in the same apartment as Halimov, who was wounded in a U.S.-led air strike in June. Halimov was wounded in the leg and in the head, and his health has been seriously affected, the eye witness said.
Images of Halimov with bandages covering his head and one leg circulated on the Internet in June.
A Mandarin-language song that the IS group claims to have released shows the need for closer global cooperation against terrorism, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said.
"Terrorism is the common enemy of mankind," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said, according to Reuters.
IS's propaganda wing Al Hayat claims to have published the recording at the weekend.
The Mandarin nasheed -- an Islamic a capella song -- is four minutes long and is titled "I am a Mujahid."
Its lyrics, chanted by a man, say " To die fighting on the battlefield is my dream."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has refused to comment this morning on reports that Russia plans to raise the issue of Turkey's military actions in Iraq at a UN Security Council meeting today.
Peskov told journalists that they should ask the Foreign Ministry.
"You should ask them, we do not comment on the sources," Peskov said, according to TASS.
Diplomatic sources said earlier today that Russia could raise the matter of Turkish troops in northern Iraq at closed door discussions at the UN Security Council today.
Amnesty International: Most IS weapons seized from Iraqi Army, our news desk reports:
Amnesty International says decades of reckless arms trading and the poorly regulated flow of weapons into Iraq have contributed to the accumulation of a "vast and varied" arsenal of weaponry by Islamic State (IS) militants.
In a report issued on December 8, Amnesty International says IS militants are using the weaponry to commit war crimes on a massive scale in Iraq and Syria.
The report says most of the extremist group's weapons, ammunition, and equipment were looted from the Iraqi Army.
It says the weapons were manufactured and designed in more than two dozen countries -- including Russia, China, the United States, and member states of the European Union.
It says IS militants have also seized weapons from Syrian government forces after capturing military bases there.
Amnesty International called on all states to adopt "a complete embargo" on Syrian government forces and armed opposition groups "implicated in committing war crimes." (AP, AFP)