Isis execution site revealed by satellite images, claims human rights group | Obama Proposes New Aid for Syrian Rebels | Ukraine's Poroshenko signs free-trade agreement with EU
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Isis execution site revealed by satellite images, claims human rights group by Associated Press in Baghdad
Grisly photos and satellite images provide evidence of 'horrible war crime' in which at least 160 died, says Human Rights Watch
Iraqi insurgents executed at least 160 captives earlier this month in the northern city of Tikrit, Human Rights Watch has said, citing an analysis of satellite imagery and grisly photosgraphs released by the militants.
The US-based group said militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) killed between 160 and 190 men in two locations in Tikrit between 11-14 June.
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The Obama administration has proposed a $500 million program to train and equip the moderate opposition fighting in Syria.
Long-Time Senator and Watergate Investigator Howard Baker Dies at 88 by webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Long-Time Senator and Watergate Investigator Howard Baker Dies at 88 Former U.S. Republican senator Howard Baker, who became a household name during the 1973 Watergate hearings, has died at 88 following a stroke. Baker was admired by politicians from both parties as a plain-speaking moderate. He was elected to the Senate from Tennessee in 1966 and remained relatively obscure until he was appointed vice chairman of the hearings investigating the Watergate scandal...
DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Rebels in southeast Ukraine early on Friday released four out of eight international observers, captured over a month ago, in an apparent goodwill gesture that could help pave the way to a resolution of the conflict that has so far claimed hundreds of lives.
The Release drug charity was behind a celebrity-backed letter to Downing Street calling for drugs to be legalised and for an international review by the UN
BAGHDAD/ARBIL (Reuters) - Iraqi forces launched an airborne assault on rebel-held Tikrit on Thursday with commandos flown into a stadium in helicopters, at least one of which crashed after taking fire from insurgents who have seized northern cities.
As Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham sweep through Iraq, the small congregation and makeshift defenders of a Baghdad church highlight the precarious condition of the country's Christian community.
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Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro took to the airwaves pleading for obedience from members of his ruling Socialist party.
Yemen: Militants Attack Airport by By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Militants attacked an international airport, a military barracks and a post office in the southern city of Sayoun on Thursday.
Jean-Claude Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg, has become the European Union’s most divisive figure in his run for president of its executive branch, while revealing little of himself.
As Pakistan Advances Against Taliban, Fleeing Civilians Pour Into Northern Townsby By IHSANULLAH TIPU MEHSUD and ISMAIL KHAN
Officials said that more than 500,000 refugees had arrived in Bannu, Waziristan, by Thursday morning.
Following a rocky year when the British intelligence service was thrown into disarray by whistleblower Edward Snowden, M16 boss Sir John Sawers is to step down.
US: Further Sanctions on Russia are ‘Ready’by webdesk@voanews.com (Aru Pande)
The United States says it is fully prepared to impose further sanctions should Russia fail to call on pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine to disarm. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry did not mince words Thursday after meeting with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius in Paris. With an eye to a cease-fire that expires on Friday, Kerry was clear that time is running out. “It is critical for Russia to show in the next hours, literally, that they are moving to help disarm the separatists,...
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A century after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary sparked WWI, tensions persist over the killing and its aftermath.
Articles, maps and archival materials tell the story of the war’s lasting impact.
Ukraine rebels release OSCE observers by Reuters in Donetsk
Four members of international monitoring team handed over but four still held as pro-Russia fighters make 'goodwill gesture'
Rebels in south-east Ukraine have released four out of eight international observers captured over a month ago.
Four observers from the Organisation for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were brought by heavily armed rebels to a hotel in downtown Donetsk, where they were handed over to their colleagues. Another four remain in rebel captivity in the neighbouring Luhansk region.
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Russia’s Military of Internal Affairs is enforcing a crackdown on police attire in response to rapidly rising hemlines on the skirts of Russian policewomen.
The ministry found that policewomen were shortening skirts to above their thighs and wearing stilettos. Policemen, meanwhile, were cutting off their shirtsleeves and incorporating items of civilian clothing into their uniforms, reports Russian daily Izvestia.
The crackdown aims to prohibit all these irregularities. Along with the stricter dress code, new orders also forbid the use of headphones or earphones on duty.
Deputy Interior Minister Sergei Gerasimov insisted that unprofessional apparel would undercut the authority of the police force and said that violators of the new code would be punished. “When you meet people, the first thing you see is their clothing, and for a police officer fulfilling his duties, it is crucial to have a tidy and neat appearance,” Gerasimov told Izvestia.
Mikhail Pashkin, a chairman of the police officers’ union, suggested that policewomen had been flouting regulations because they wanted civilians to find them attractive. “Perhaps the girls want to get married,” Pashkin told UPI.
Kerry Heads to Saudi Arabia for Talks on Iraqby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets Friday with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to discuss how to confront Sunni extremists that have taken over large parts of Iraq and Syria. Kerry met Thursday in Paris with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, in an effort to rally regional unity against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL. The al-Qaida breakaway group is believed to receive much of its funding from sources in Sunni Gulf...
Barack Obama asks US Congress for $500 mn to train, equip Syrian rebels
Zee News Washington: With the conflicts in Syria and Iraq becoming increasingly intertwined against the same Sunni extremist group, President Barack Obama moved on Thursday to ratchet up US efforts to strengthen more moderate Syrian rebels. Obama's request to ... and more » |
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BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that he would not support the nomination of Jean-Claude Juncker for EU Commission president.
 The Independent |
EU leadership: David Cameron warns UK could leave Union if Jean-Claude ...
The Independent David Cameron warned other European leaders last night that the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker to the top job in Brussels would make it more likely that the British public will vote to leave the EU. As EU leaders gathered in Belgium ahead of a crunch ... Very well, alone: David Cameron hopes his doomed fight over Juncker will be a ...Telegraph.co.uk (blog) Juncker expected to get Commission nod at EU summiteuronews all 550 news articles » |
KIEV (Reuters) - Four Ukrainian servicemen were killed and five wounded in an overnight attack by separatist fighters on a military post in the east of the country, a military analyst said on Friday.
Mass gay wedding in Toronto for 115 couplesby AFP news agency
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A mass wedding in Toronto brings 115 gay and lesbian couples together as part of the city's World Pride Week (Duration 01:11)
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From: AFP news agency
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Court ruling comes as Obama's use of power tested
WIS (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File). FILE - In this Wednesday, June 25, 2014, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks at the League of Conservation Voters Capitol Dinner at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. and more » |
Vladimir Putin's adviser calls Ukrainian president a 'Nazi' as EU deal signed by Shaun Walker in Moscow and agencies
Sergei Glazyev tells BBC before the signing in Brussels that Petro Poroshenko lacks legitimacy to make the deal
A senior adviser to Vladimir Putin has called the Ukranian president a "Nazi" as Ukraine signed an association with the European Union.
While mainly an economic deal to set up a free-trade zone between the EU and three former Soviet republics Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova the agreement has political and strategic ramifications, and it was former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych's U-turn over signing it at the end of last year that led to his ousting in a popular revolt.
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KABUL (Reuters) - Thousands of angry protesters marched on the Afghan president's palace on Friday in support of candidate Abdullah Abdullah's allegations that mass fraud had been committed during the presidential election by organizers and state officials.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Ukraine's president signed a free-trade and political cooperation agreement with the European Union on Friday, the culmination of months of upheaval and signaling a historic split with Russia.
Ashraf Ghani claims Afghan presidential election victoryby Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul
Campaign team says Ghani has beaten rival by more than 1.3m votes, but Abdullah Abdullah withdraws because of alleged fraud
Ashraf Ghani believes he has won Afghanistan's heavily contested presidential election by more than 1.3 million votes, according to data compiled by his campaign team.
Ghani said the vocal support of clerics, a higher turnout of women, a series of televised town-hall style meetings and polling day transport for potential voters enabled him to pick up support from more than 2 million extra voters in the second round of the poll.
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Poroshenko Signs Ukraine-EU Free Trade Agreementby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko has said this is "one of the most historic days," ahead of signing a long-awaited free trade agreement with the European Union. Poroshenko spoke to reporters in Brussels Friday ahead of the signing of the agreement, which was the trigger for last year's political upheaval that led to the ouster of pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych and, later, Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. He said Ukraine will use...
Ukraine signs landmark agreement with E.U. by Michael Birnbaum
KIEV, Ukraine — Three former Soviet republics on Friday signed landmark agreements with the European Union, opening new paths westward but also going down the same route that sparked the worst tensions with Russia since the Cold War.
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Isis execution site revealed by satellite images, claims human rights group by Associated Press in Baghdad
Grisly photos and satellite images provide evidence of 'horrible war crime' in which at least 160 died, says Human Rights Watch
Iraqi insurgents executed at least 160 captives earlier this month in the northern city of Tikrit, Human Rights Watch has said, citing an analysis of satellite imagery and grisly photosgraphs released by the militants.
The US-based group said militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) killed between 160 and 190 men in two locations in Tikrit between 11-14 June.
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Human Rights Watch analyses photographs and satellite images that back up claims of mass killings by militants in Iraq.
Juncker is wrong person for European commission job, says David Cameron by Nicholas Watt and Ian Traynor in Brussels
Prime minister attacks the frontrunner for the leadership, who he says has been dedicated to increasing the power of Brussels
David Cameron has launched a strong personal attack on Jean-Claude Juncker, declaring that the former prime minister of Luxembourg is the wrong person to lead the European commission.
Continue reading...Sudanese woman Meriam Ibrahim 'safe and well' in US embassyby David Smith and agencies
Husband of Christian woman whose apostasy death sentence was overturned says she and children doing well
The husband of a Sudanese Christian woman facing threats after her apostasy death sentence was overturned has expressed relief that the family has been given refuge at the US embassy in Khartoum.
"Really, it's good," Daniel Wani, the American husband of Meriam Ibrahim, told Agence France-Presse by telephone on Friday, adding that embassy staff had been "very helpful and very nice".
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China ‘Effectively Bans’ Hillary Clinton’s Memoirby Stephanie Burnett
Hillary Clinton’s new memoir, which focuses on her tenure as U.S. secretary of state, will not be sold in mainland China, according to her publisher in an interview with BuzzFeed.
Simon & Schuster said they were not able to secure translation rights with Chinese publishers and that one of the nation’s leading import agencies, Shanghai Book Traders, has refused to distribute the English-language version.
Jonathan Karp, president of Simon & Schuster, said that China’s reaction to the book is an “effective ban.”
Clinton’s memoir is seen as critical of the People’s Republic. She wrote how the country is “full of contradictions” and the “epicenter of the antidemocratic movement in Asia.”
Ironically, she also wrote of her address to the U.N. Conference on Women in Beijing, where she “felt the heavy hand of Chinese censorship when the government blocked the broadcast of my speech.”
[BuzzFeed]
EU Heads Disagree Over Executive Leadershipby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
Heads of European Union nations are in Brussels for a two-day summit in which they are expected to select a new head of the European Commission, the union's executive branch. Jean-Claude Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg, is widely expected to be confirmed as the next head of the commission. However, British Prime Minister David Cameron opposes Juncker's prospective leadership as commission president, saying Friday that he is "not the right person to take this...
 RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty |
HRW: ISIL Executed At Least 160 In Iraqi City
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty Shi'ite volunteers who have joined the Iraqi Army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant parade down a street in Karbala, southwest of Baghdad, on June 26. Tweet · Follow @RFERL ... Group: Insurgents executed dozens in Iraq13WHAM-TV Iraq's top cleric wants deal on PM before TuesdayBeaumont Enterprise Rights group: Iraq militants executed 160 captivesWaterloo Cedar Falls Courier Press Trust of India all 78 news articles » |
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Ukraine Signs Trade Agreement with European Unionby By ANDREW HIGGINS and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Moscow warned of “serious consequences” after Kiev finalized the sweeping economic pact, which had set off protests and fighting in Ukraine.
 Fox News |
Ukraine signs historic trade and economic pact with European Union
Fox News Ukraine signed up to an historic trade and economic pact with the European Union Friday, with President Petro Poroshenko describing it as the "most important day" for his country since it became independent from the Soviet Union. The move drew an ... Ukraine-Led Trio Signs EU Pacts Risking Russia's IreBusinessweek Ukraine signs landmark agreement with EUWashington Post Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova agree closer ties with EUFinancial Times Hindustan Times -USA TODAY -Reuters India all 267 news articles » |
The Ukrainian government said a cease-fire with pro-Russian fighters would end Friday evening if last-minute talks between the two sides failed to yield any agreement.
Four monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe are released on Thursday after being detained by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine for more than a month. Four international observers remain in custody of the rebels. OSCE observers are in Ukraine to monitor an agreement aimed at de-escalating the crisis in the country Continue reading...
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi helicopters fired on a university campus in Tikrit on Friday to dislodge insurgents who overran the city in an onslaught that has given them control of most majority Sunni regions and brought them close to Baghdad.
Iraq’s Shiite politicans wrangle over prime minister choiceby Loveday Morris, Liz Sly
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s leading Shiite politicians, divided over who should steer the country, wrangled over their nomination for prime minister as evidence emerged Friday that Islamist insurgents executed at least 160 captives earlier this month as part of their savage blitz now threatening the future of the state.
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(BAGHDAD) — Iraqi insurgents executed at least 160 captives earlier this month in the northern city of Tikrit, Human Rights Watch said Friday, citing an analysis of satellite imagery and grisly photos released by the militants.
The U.S.-based rights group said militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant killed between 160 and 190 men in two locations in Tikrit between June 11 and June 14. “The number of victims may well be much higher, but the difficulty of locating bodies and accessing the area has prevented a full investigation,” it said.
After overrunning large swaths of northern Iraq and capturing the cities of Mosul and Tikrit earlier this month, the Islamic extremist group posted graphic photos on a militant website that appeared to show fighters loading dozens of captured soldiers onto flatbed trucks before forcing them to lie in a shallow ditch with their hands tied behind their backs. A final set of photos shows bodies.
“The photos and satellite images from Tikrit provide strong evidence of a horrible war crime that needs further investigation,” Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Chief Iraqi military spokesman Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi confirmed the photos’ authenticity on June 15, after they first surfaced, and said he was aware of cases of mass murder of captured Iraqi soldiers in areas held by the Islamic State.
He told The Associated Press at the time that an examination of the images by military experts showed that about 170 soldiers were shot to death after their capture.
Captions on the photos showing the soldiers after they were shot say “hundreds have been liquidated,” but the total could not be verified.
The massacre appeared to be aimed at instilling fear in Iraq’s demoralized armed forces — which melted away as militants seized much of the north in a matter of days — as well as the country’s Shiite majority, whom the Islamic State views as apostates.
“This is the fate that awaits the Shiites sent by Nouri to fight the Sunnis,” one caption read, apparently referring to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
The rapid advance of the Islamic State and allied Sunni militants has ignited sectarian tensions, with heavily armed Shiite militias vowing to defend Baghdad and revered shrine cities to the south. On Thursday a bombing killed 12 people in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad that houses a revered shrine, and police found the bullet-riddled bodies of eight Sunnis south of the capital.
Prominent Shiite leaders are meanwhile pushing for the removal of al-Maliki, who has come under mounting pressure to reach out to the country’s disaffected Sunni and Kurdish minorities and rapidly form a unified government following April’s parliamentary elections.
Even al-Maliki’s most important ally, neighboring Iran, is said to be looking at alternatives.
A senior Iranian general who met with Shiite politicians in Iraq during a 10-day visit this month returned home with a list of potential prime minister candidates for Iran’s leadership to consider, several senior Iraqi Shiite politicians who have knowledge of the general’s meetings told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The general, Ghasem Soleimani, is expected to return within days to inform Iraqi politicians of Tehran’s favorite, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations.
The rapid advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the north as well as the restive western Anbar province has plunged Iraq into its worst crisis since U.S. troops withdrew in 2011 and raised fears of a region-wide conflict. The radical group has carved out a self-styled Islamic state straddling the Syrian-Iraqi border, where it has imposed a brutal version of Shariah law.
Russia’s U.N. ambassador said Thursday that there is a real prospect of a terrorist state springing up from Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo to Iraq’s capital Baghdad.
Vitaly Churkin, the current president of the U.N. Security Council, said he told the 14 other council members that a terrorist state “is a very, very serious prospect” that the council needs to address “because really we are lagging behind … in our responses.”
He argued that Russia’s support for President Bashar Assad’s government in Syria was aimed at preventing the Islamic State from taking over.
The United States is also looking to Syria, with President Barack Obama requesting $500 million to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels in the hopes of opening up a new front against the Islamic State, which has been at war with other Islamic and secular rebel groups since the start of the year.
The rebel groups turned on the Islamic State because of its alleged brutality toward rivals and activists. Massacres like the one depicted in the online photos from Iraq could alienate some Sunnis while emboldening the armed forces and Shiite militias.
Human Rights Watch said that using satellite imagery from 2013 and publicly available photos taken earlier, it was able to pinpoint the execution site in a field near a former palace of the late dictator Saddam Hussein, next to the Tigris river.
It said satellite imagery of the site from June 16 did not reveal bodies but showed indications of vehicles and earth movement consistent with the two shallow trenches visible in the photos.
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European leaders arrive at a meeting in Brussels on Friday ahead of an expected decision on a nominee for the president of the European Commission. The vote is mired in controversy as David Cameron stands against his fellow leaders in not supporting the favourite for the role, Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker. Cameron believes Juncker will limit the powers of EU nations and increase the powers of Brussels Continue reading...
Ukraine signs agreement with EU by CNNInternational
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Ukraine signs sweeping economic agreement with the European Union.
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From: CNNInternational
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BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese court has sentenced 25 members of a banned religious group to prison terms of up to eight years, state media said on Friday, the largest in a series of prosecutions against a group that China calls an illegal cult.
Moscow warns of "grave consequences" after Ukraine, along with two other former Soviet republics, signs a trade deal with the EU.
Italy will seek to curb US and German attempts to broaden the scope of sanctions against Russia at an EU summit on Friday
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