Seventeen Bangladeshis finally returned home Thursday after being thrown off a boat bound for Malaysia and forced to swim two hours to shore, after attempting to join a migrant exodus, officials said.

The Bangladeshis had spent two months aboard the boat in the Bay of Bengal packed with migrants fleeing poverty to Southeast Asia, before they were thrown overboard in the early hours of Thursday.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Thursday announced his nominee for the country's defense minister post in a bid to complete his cabinet after months of infighting as the Taliban's annual spring offensive grinds on.

Ghani nominated Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, the secretary of the High Peace Council for the crucial position left vacant for months over disagreements between Ghani and his chief executive officer, Abdullah Abdullah.

Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday that restricting welfare payments to EU workers was an "absolute requirement" of his efforts to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the bloc, as he unveiled a new crackdown on immigration.

The Conservative leader's comments came as new figures dealt a further blow to his long-held promise to reduce net migration to below 100,000, showing it rose from 209,000 in 2013 to 318,000 last year.

European lawmakers urged Thailand on Thursday to crackdown on smugglers and corrupt officials it said were responsible for the thousands of migrants stranded at sea, many Muslim Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

"Thousands of Rohingya people and other migrants continue to be smuggled through Thailand and from other countries in the region by human traffickers, in some cases including corrupt local Thai authorities," the MEPs said in a resolution that was voted through in European Parliament.

A veteran Taiwanese opposition figure and human rights activist launched a bid Thursday to stand for president next year, posing the latest threat to the embattled ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party.

Shih Ming-teh earned the title "Taiwan's Mandela" from local media after he was twice imprisoned by the KMT for sedition when it ruled the island under martial law.

Ten soldiers and a militiaman were killed in fresh violence in conflict-strewn Libya, security and medical sources said Thursday.

They said 10 soldiers were killed and 36 wounded in clashes Wednesday in the eastern city of Benghazi, birthplace of the 2011 revolt that ousted longtime strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Thursday urged the Russian leadership to boost its involvement in the fight against the Islamic State group, with Moscow pledging to supply weapons.

On a visit to Moscow, Abadi warned Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev that terrorism is spreading, days after IS fighters seized the strategic Iraqi city of Ramadi, dealing a major blow to the government.

The gap between the rich and poor in most of the world's advanced economies is at record levels, according to an OECD study that also found glaring differences between men and women.

In most of the 34 countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development the income gap is at its highest level in three decades, with the richest 10 percent of the population earning 9.6 times the income of the poorest 10 percent.

They were always seen as the key to defeating the jihadists in their bastions but the fall of Ramadi has deepened the distrust that Iraq's Sunni tribes feel towards the government.

Many tribal leaders in Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital, said they would continue to fight the Islamic State group, not for the sake of a government they say never offered the adequate support, but because they have no other choice.

Palmyra, the ancient Syrian city that has fallen to the Islamic State jihadist group, has withstood the last 2,000 years with its immaculate temples and colonnaded streets.

Listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, the "pearl of the desert" is a well-preserved oasis 210 kilometers (130 miles) northeast of Damascus.