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Ukraine claims more territory as fight intensifies with rebels
After Iraqi army crumbles, PM turns to state TV for help
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Malaysia Airlines mulls name change
Abu Sayyaf gunmen kill 21 Filipinos
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Ukraine claims more territory as fight intensifies with rebels
Kiev/Donetsk, July 28 Ukrainian officials said troops had recaptured two rebel-held towns near the crash site and were trying to take the village of Snezhnoye, near where Kiev and Washington say rebels fired the surface-to-air missile that shot down the airliner with loss of all 298 on board. One pro-government militia said 23 of its men had been killed in fighting in the past 24 hours. Analysis of black box flight recorders from the airliner showed it was destroyed by shrapnel from a missile blast which caused a "massive explosive decompression", a Ukrainian official said on Monday. Investigators in Britain, who downloaded the data, had no comment. They said they had passed information to the international crash investigation led by the Netherlands, whose nationals accounted for two-thirds of the victims. In a report on three months of fighting between government forces and separatist rebels who have set up pro-Russian "republics" in the east, the United Nations said more than 1,100 people had been killed. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said increasingly intense fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions was extremely alarming and the shooting down of the Malaysian airliner on July 17 may amount to a war crime. Western leaders say rebels almost certainly shot the airliner down by mistake with a Russian-supplied surface-to-air missile. Russia accuses Kiev of responsibility. The separatists are still in control of the area where the plane was shot down but fighting in the surrounding countryside has been heavy as government forces try to drive them out. On Monday at least three civilians were reported killed in overnight fighting, and Kiev said its troops recaptured Savur Mogila, a strategic piece of high ground about 30 km (20 miles) from where the Malaysia Airlines Boeing hit the ground, and other areas under rebel control. A spokesman for Ukraine's Security Council, Andriy Lysenko, said Kiev was trying to close in on the crash site and force the rebels out of the area but was not conducting military operations in the immediate vicinity. He said Ukrainian troops were now in the towns of Torez and Shakhtarsk, both formerly held by the rebels, while fighting was in progress for Snezhnoye and Pervomaisk. The towns are all located in rolling countryside near the wheat and sunflower fields filled with debris from the downed airliner. Government troops were also readying an assault on Gorlovka, a rebel stronghold north of the provincial capital Donetsk. The site of the crash of the Malaysian airliner has yet to be secured or thoroughly investigated, more than 10 days after the crash. After days in which bodies lay untended in the sun, rebels gathered the human remains and shipped the bodies out, and turned over the flight recorders to a Malaysian delegation.
— Reuters Tougher sanctions against Russia? n The downing of the Malaysian airliner has led to calls for much tougher action against Russia from Western countries who had previously imposed sanctions but only on small numbers of individuals and firms. n European Union member states were expected to try to reach a final deal on Tuesday on stronger measures that would include closing the bloc's capital markets to Russian state banks, an embargo on future arms sales etc. n The EU added new names on Friday to its list of individuals and companies facing travel bans and asset freezes over their alleged involvement in Ukraine. It could agree to extend the list further as early as Monday. Downing of MH17 may be war crime: UN London: The downing of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine may constitute a war crime, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said Monday. Ukraine and the West believe that pro-Russian rebels shot down MH17 using a missile system supplied by Russia, BBC reported. Putin may be sued
London: Russian President Vladimir Putin could be sued for allegedly supporting the pro-Russian separatists thought responsible for the downing of Malaysian airlines MH17 in Eastern Ukraine. The case is being arranged by British lawyers and might be heard in the US. According to Metro, if the case is successful and the Russian President fails to pay compensations, his assets would be frozen.
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After Iraqi army crumbles, PM turns to state TV for help
Baghdad, July 28 Since the humiliating loss of much of Iraq's north to Islamic State insurgents, the official Iraqiya channel has been churning out patriotic videos of marching soldiers, heavily-armed commandos and even singers and actors to rally the public behind the government. The theatrics are reminiscent of life under Saddam Hussein, whose propaganda machine put a positive spin on disasters like his 1990 invasion of Kuwait or 1980-88 war with Iran. Instead of increasing confidence in Maliki, the campaign has highlighted what critics say is the Shi'ite Muslim premier's failure to unite Iraq against Islamist insurgents who have put the country's survival as a unified state in jeopardy. "We laugh, of course with pain, when the government repeats the same bullshit as Saddam," said Qassim Sabti, a 60-year-old artist. Mohamed Abdul Jabar al-Shaboot, head of the Iraqi Media Network that broadcasts Iraqiya, said feedback on the videos had been generally good across Iraq's communal spectrum. "There have been some voices that did not approve of these kind of activities, saying they recalled the patriotic songs that filled TV screens under Saddam Hussein," he told Reuters. "But there's a big difference because our songs emphasise love of homeland and steadfastness and tolerance while the songs of Saddam's time glorified one person, certified worship of the one and only leader and focusing on Saddam's personality." Still, many Iraqis see Maliki as a polarising figure who has deepened sectarian divisions, and Iraqiya as his propaganda arm rather than the unifying public service it says it is. His marginalisation of Sunni Muslims has caused some to find common cause with the Islamic State, which aims to reshape the Middle East and impose its radical ideology. Maliki, who has served in a caretaker capacity since an election in April, has defied calls by Sunnis, Kurds and even some Shi'ites to step aside in favour of a less polarising leader needed to lead a unified response to the insurgency. The man who spent years in exile plotting against Saddam seems content to use the same tactics the dictator, a Sunni, employed to create the impression of invincibility. "Maliki is presenting himself as a national leader pitted against Sunni militants. The message is: if you're against me, you're with the terrorists," said analyst Ramzy Mardini. "In his mind, now is not the time to compromise and look weak and vulnerable," said Mardini, a non-resident fellow at the Washington think-tank Atlantic Council. For many, the television clips are a reminder that Iraq's turmoil never seems to let up: war and misadventure under Saddam and now a repeat of the sectarian bloodshed that brought the country to civil war during the US occupation that ousted him. Iraq's government, meanwhile, has pressed privately-owned media to create the same narrative as state television.
— Reuters
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Palestinian fighters raid Israel on Gaza ‘truce’ day Gaza/Jerusalem, July 28 The clash, in which Israeli television said five gunmen were killed and the Islamist Hamas movement said it had killed 10 Israeli soldiers, appeared to wreck international hopes of turning a brief lull in fighting into a longer-term ceasefire. After the infiltration at Nahal Oz, a kibbutz collective village due east of Gaza City, the Israeli army warned thousands of Palestinians to flee their homes in areas around Gaza City. Such warnings usually precede retaliatory strikes. As night fell over Gaza, army flares illuminated the sky and the sound of intense shelling could be heard. The incident was not the only breach of the fragile truce. Eight children and two adults were killed by a blast at a park in northern Gaza and four Israelis were reported to have been killed by cross-border Palestinian mortar fire. Residents blamed the park explosion, which also wounded 40 adults, on an Israeli airstrike, but Israel said a misfiring rocket launched by Hamas militants had hit the public garden in the Beach refugee camp. Israeli media said four Israelis were killed by a mortar round fired out of Gaza in a separate incident. The military declined immediate comment. Israeli forces had said they were firing only when fired upon while army engineers hunted infiltrator tunnels from the Gaza Strip's eastern frontier. They accused Palestinians of launching at least 17 rockets across the border. Gaza's dominant Hamas Islamists had called for a pause in hostilities on Monday, the 21st day of their conflict with Israel, to coincide with Eid, which marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Israel initially balked, having abandoned its own offer to extend a 12-hour truce from Saturday as Palestinian rockets kept flying. However, calm gradually descended through the night with just the occasional exchange of fire heard until a series of blasts shook Gaza in the afternoon. Pools of blood lay on the ground in the Beach refugee camp garden in the aftermath of one of the blasts. "We came out of the mosque when I
saw the children playing with their toy guns. Seconds later a missile
landed," said Munther Al-Derbi, a resident of the camp. Obama, UNSC urge immediate ceasefire
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Malaysia Airlines mulls name change
Kuala Lumpur/London, July 28 The Malaysian flag carrier, majority-owned by the government, is likely to change its name as part of a radical overhaul and also seek new investors to rebuild its business after two major tragedies within six months killing 537 people, The Telegraph reported. In March, MH370, which was traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, lost touch with air traffic control, an hour after take-off. It was carrying 239 passengers, including 5 Indians, and crew. The wreckage of the plane is yet to be found. While earlier this month, the Boeing 777 with 298 people on board was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur as it was downed between Krasni Luch in Luhansk region in Ukraine. All 298 people were killed.
— AFP Boosting reputation
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Abu Sayyaf gunmen kill 21 Filipinos
Manila, July 28 Eleven other civilians were wounded as the group travelled in two vans in a coastal village in Talipao town in predominantly Muslim Sulu province, where the militants have survived in jungle camps despite years of US-backed Philippine military offensives. About 40 to 50 Abu Sayyaf militants armed with assault rifles opened fire on the vans, marine Brig Gen Martin Pinto and other military officials said. The motive was not immediately clear, but Pinto said some of the dead belonged to a civilian security force and were engaged in a clan feud with the Abu Sayyaf. Violent clan wars, known as "rido," have complicated security worries in the country's south, which is already mired in decades-long Muslim rebellions. The Abu Sayyaf, which has about 300 armed fighters split into several factions, was organised in the early 1990s, but has been crippled by government operations and endures largely by conducting ransom kidnappings. It now holds about 10 hostages, including two German tourists seized in April and two birdwatchers, who were kidnapped two years ago.
— AP
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Veteran Radio Beijing Hindi announcer dies in China Japanese get anti-radiation pills ahead of N-restart Thousands mourn death of Indian-origin Israeli soldier 
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