Tag: Six In The Morning

ISIS Extremists Claim to Behead British Hostage David Haines

 

 By Phil Helsel

Terrorist group ISIS released a video Saturday purportedly showing the execution of British aid worker David Cawthorne Haines.

If confirmed, it is the third time the organization, which has seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria, beheaded a captive and released a video of the execution, intending to send a message to Western nations. Britain recently said it would send machine guns and ammunition to Iraq to help that government battle the militants, and it is weighing whether to participate along with the U.S. in possible airstrikes in Syria against the terror group.

Haines, 44, like others in taped executions by the terror group, is forced in the new video to read a script in which he blamed his death on British Prime Minister David Cameron and the British government’s decision to join the U.S. in its battle against ISIS.

Ukraine crisis: Ceasefire shaken by fresh shelling

 7 September 2014 Last updated at 07:58

 

There has been fresh shelling near Donetsk airport in eastern Ukraine, raising fears that a 36-hour-old ceasefire is near to collapse.

The truce held for much of Saturday but overnight shelling in Mariupol was followed by the explosions near Donetsk airport early on Sunday.

The truce and 12-point peace roadmap was signed at talks involving Ukraine, Russia, the rebels and the OSCE.

Fighting in the east has left some 2,600 people dead since April.

Before the ceasefire was agreed on Friday, the separatists had been advancing on both Donetsk airport and Mariupol, a key city on the route to Crimea and an economic prize for any possibility of independence for the eastern Ukraine region.

The teenage girl whose baseball success provides a flimsy bridge across America’s great racial divide

 Out of America: Mo’ne is a black 13-year-old bringing a small ray of light against the dark backdrop of Missouri

 RUPERT CORNWELL Sunday 24 August 2014

At last there’s a good news story from America. Put aside the chaos abroad and the beheadings in Iraq, the sense of a president adrift and aloof, and the violence in Ferguson, Missouri, ripping open racial wounds that seemed to be healing. Instead, consider the feats of Mo’ne Davis.

Mo’ne is a black girl, aged 13, who hails from inner-city Philadelphia – and right now she’s probably the most famous baseball player on the planet. She’s on the cover of the latest Sports Illustrated; Michelle Obama has tweeted about her and every talk show in the land has tried to land her.

Baseball is a game for males, right? Not in the case of the Taney Dragons little leaguers, for whom Mo’ne is star pitcher and hitter. Little League has its own version of the World Series, for children between 11 and 13. Girls have featured in it before, but none with the impact of Mo’ne.

Dozens defy Missouri curfew in riot-hit Ferguson

 17 August 2014 Last updated at 07:32

 BBC

US police fired smoke bombs and tear gas at a crowd which defied an overnight curfew in Ferguson, where a black teenager was shot dead by police last week.

About 150 protesters refused to disperse before a midnight (05:00 GMT) deadline in the St Louis suburb.

The governor of Missouri has imposed the curfew until 05:00 (10:00 GMT).

The move comes after a week of violent clashes between heavily armed local police and protesters.

Michael Brown, 18, was shot dead on a street in Ferguson on 9 August.

Hundreds of protesters gathered on the main road in Ferguson in poor weather conditions hours before the curfew was due to go into force on Saturday evening.

Iraq conflict: US in new air strikes on militants

 10 August 2014 Last updated at 08:20

 BBC

The US military says it has carried out a third round of air strikes on Sunni Muslim militants to defend civilians in northern Iraq.

It said jet fighters and drones had destroyed armoured vehicles that were firing on members of the Yazidi sect trapped by jihadists on Mount Sinjar.

The US authorised the strikes last week to halt the lightning advance of Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

France’s foreign minister has arrived in Iraq to discuss the crisis.

Laurent Fabius, who landed in the capital Baghdad on Sunday morning, will also oversee the first delivery of French aid for displaced people in the Sinjar region.

Health crisis looms over Gaza’s death and destruction

 August 3, 2014 – 4:22PM

 Ruth Pollard

Middle East Correspondent

Gaza City: Mohamed Badran is just 10 years old but already he has lost more than most people will in a lifetime.

He is the only surviving member of his immediate family of 10 following an Israeli air strike on his home in the crowded Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza on July 30.

And now he is blind, rendered sightless in the attack that stole his family from him, in one of dozens of “mass family deaths” at the hands of the Israel Defence Forces since this latest round of hostilities began on July 8.

Israel-Gaza conflict: Secret report helps Israelis to hide facts

 World View: The slickness of Israel’s spokesmen is rooted in directions set down by pollster Frank Luntz

 PATRICK COCKBURN Sunday 27 July 2014

Israeli spokesmen have their work cut out explaining how they have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, compared with just three civilians killed in Israel by Hamas rocket and mortar fire. But on television and radio and in newspapers, Israeli government spokesmen such as Mark Regev appear slicker and less aggressive than their predecessors, who were often visibly indifferent to how many Palestinians were killed.

There is a reason for this enhancement of the PR skills of Israeli spokesmen. Going by what they say, the playbook they are using is a professional, well-researched and confidential study on how to influence the media and public opinion in America and Europe. Written by the expert Republican pollster and political strategist Dr Frank Luntz, the study was commissioned five years ago by a group called The Israel Project, with offices in the US and Israel, for use by those “who are on the front lines of fighting the media war for Israel”.

Cameron in new EU sanctions warning to Russia over plane

 20 July 2014 Last updated at 07:13

 BBC

Tougher EU sanctions against Russia will be needed if Moscow does not change its “approach” to the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane over Ukraine, David Cameron has indicated.

The PM said the EU should stand up for its principles, amid claims Russia-backed rebels were involved.

Writing in the Sunday Times, he said it may be “time to make our power, influence and resources count”.

The Russian ambassador to the UK warned sanctions would have a negative effect.

Alexander Yakovenko said he regretted recent decisions by the US and EU to impose sanctions, claiming it “can only encourage the Ukrainian authorities to continue violence”.

Gaza: Israel hits security HQ and rocket site

 13 July 2014 Last updated at 06:57

 BBC

Israel has carried out overnight air strikes against Gaza’s security headquarters and police stations, in the heaviest bombardment since operations began on 8 July.

It also said its troops had carried out a brief raid against a rocket-launching site in the coastal territory.

Israel added that Palestinian militants fired about 90 rockets from the Gaza Strip into its territory on Saturday.

At least 159 Palestinians have died in the air strikes, Gaza officials say.

They are said to include 17 members of one family who died in an Israeli missile strike on Saturday evening.

Ukraine President Poroshenko hails ‘turning point’

 5 July 2014 Last updated at 23:01

 BBC

Ukraine’s president has hailed the recapture of the rebel stronghold of Sloviansk as the start of a turning point in the three-month conflict.

Petro Poroshenko said it was not a total victory, but rather an event of “huge symbolic importance”.

Government forces have made territorial gains since launching an offensive this week in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, following the breakdown of a ceasefire.

Pro-Russian rebels still hold the two regional capitals and other key areas.

But Sloviansk had been considered a focal point of the rebellion, and was the military centre of the self-declared People’s Republic of Donetsk.

Iraq receives Russian fighter jets to fight rebels

 29 June 2014 Last updated at 07:13

 BBC

Iraq says it has received the first batch of fighter jets it ordered from Russia to help it as it fights an offensive by Sunni rebels.

The defence ministry said five Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft would enter service in “three to four days”.

The insurgents control large swathes of the north and west after a string of attacks over the past three weeks.

On Saturday, the government said it had retaken the northern city of Tikrit, but rebels dispute this.

Iraq ‘struggling’ against Isis militants, say diplomats

 22 June 2014 Last updated at 03:50

 BBC

Iraq’s government is struggling in its battle against militants, diplomats and politicians have told the BBC.

Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) said they seized a border crossing to Syria and two towns in north-west Iraq on Saturday.

Correspondents say Isis appears to be better trained, better equipped and more experienced than the army.

The Sunni extremists attacked the city of Mosul in June and have since seized large swathes of territory across Iraq.