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US has broken Islamist siege of Mt Sinjar in Iraq: Obama
Renewed 5-day Gaza truce holds after rocky start
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Little India riots: Indian jailed for 25 months
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US has broken Islamist siege of Mt Sinjar in Iraq: Obama
Washington, August 14 “The situation on the mountain has improved and Americans should be proud of our efforts. Because of the skill and professionalism of our military and the generosity of our people, we broke the ISIL siege of Mount Sinjar. We helped vulnerable people reach safety and we helped save many innocent lives,” Obama said in his remarks to the press at his vacation home in Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. “Because of these efforts, we do not expect there to be an additional operation to evacuate people off the mountain and it's unlikely that we're going to need to continue humanitarian airdrops on the mountain. The majority of the military personnel who conducted the assessment will be leaving Iraq in the coming days," Obama said. Over the last week, the US military conducted humanitarian airdrops every night, delivering more than 114,000 meals and 35,000 gallons of fresh water. The US was joined in this effort by Britain and some other allies. Thousands of families from the Yazidi minority community were trapped on the mountains without food and water after fleeing the rampaging fighters of the Islamic State or
ISIL. The US military was able to successfully strike ISIL targets around the mountain, which improved conditions for civilians to evacuate the mountain safely, he said. A small team of Americans — military and civilian— yesterday completed their review of conditions on the mountain, Obama said, adding that they found that food and water had been reaching those in need and that thousands of people have been evacuating safely each and every night. “The civilians who remain continue to leave, aided by Kurdish forces and Yazidis who are helping to facilitate the safe passage of their families,” he said. Obama said the situation remains dire for Iraqis subject to ISIL's terror through the country.
— PTI UN declares highest level of emergency
Baghdad: The United Nations has announced its highest level of emergency for the humanitarian crisis in Iraq in the wake of the onslaught by Islamic militants who have overrun much of the country's north and west and driven out hundreds of thousands from their homes. The Security Council also said yesterday it was backing a newly nominated premier-designate in the hope that he could swiftly form an "inclusive government" that could counter the insurgent threat.
— AP Militants gathering near north of Baghdad
Islamic State militants are massing near the Iraqi town of Qara Tappa, 122 km north of Baghdad, security sources and a local official said, in an apparent bid to broaden their front with Kurdish peshmerga fighters. The Sunni militants have made a dramatic push through the north to a position near Erbil.
— Reuters Return from vacation, France tells Obama London: The French foreign minister has slammed western leaders such as Barack Obama for continuing their holidays in the middle of the crisis in Iraq, saying that vacations should end immediately because "people are dying". — Agencies
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Renewed 5-day Gaza truce holds after rocky start
Gaza/Jerusalem, August 14 The Israeli military said Gaza militants breached the truce and fired eight rockets at Israel and that in response, aircraft targeted multiple "rocket launchers and terror sites" across the enclave. Hamas official Izzat Reshiq denied the Palestinians had breached the truce, and denounced Israel's air strikes as "a violation of the calm". No casualties were reported in any of the incidents and hostilities ended by dawn. A halt in more than a month of fighting, in which 1,945 Palestinians and 67 Israelis have been killed, had been set to expire at midnight on Wednesday. The violence is the deadliest since the two sides fought a three-week war in the winter of 2008-09. At the last minute, the Palestinians announced in Cairo that the truce was extended by another five days for the sides to work out a long-term ceasefire, mediated by Egypt. "Israel has accepted the ceasefire extension," said an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Bridging the gaps between Israel and the Palestinians in order to secure a permanent ceasefire has proven difficult. Hamas and its allies want an end to the Israeli and Egyptian blockade on Gaza. But Israel and Egypt harbour deep security concerns about Hamas, the dominant Islamist group in the small, Mediterranean coastal enclave, complicating any deal on easing border restrictions. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh told Al-Aqsa Hamas television on Wednesday that the group would insist on "lifting the Gaza blockade" and reducing movement restrictions on the territory's 1.8 million residents, as a prerequisite to a "permanent calm". Members of the Palestinian delegation said they would return to Cairo on Saturday night to begin more talks on Sunday. A Palestinian official with knowledge of negotiations in Cairo said Egypt had presented a new proposal for a permanent truce.
— Reuters
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Israeli-Palestinian talks face major hurdles as new ceasefire begins Gaza/Jerusalem, August 14 After agreeing to Egypt's proposal to extend the halt in hostilities until August 18 — a deal clinched with barely an hour to run on the previous, 72-hour pause —Palestinian and Israeli negotiators left Cairo to consult with their leaders. One Palestinian faction headed for Ramallah, the main city in the West Bank, to meet Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, while some representatives of the Islamist group Hamas flew to Qatar to see Khaled Meshaal, their leader in exile, and others returned to Gaza. Few precise details of the indirect negotiations have emerged, but the broad outlines are well known: the Palestinians want an end to Israel's blockade of Gaza, an extension of the strip's maritime and security boundaries and the building of a sea port and reopening of an airport in the enclave. For their part, the Israelis want an end to rocket fire from Gaza, the full demilitarisation of the territory, and for Abbas's PA to take over responsibility for managing Gaza's 12-km border with Egypt at Rafah, an effort to prevent the smuggling of weapons and other military-use equipment. In any negotiation, no party ever ends up getting everything it wants. But perhaps nowhere in the world is it harder to secure compromises than in the Middle East, making Egypt's high-stakes mediation particularly touch-and-go. While Hamas, which controls Gaza, is likely to accede to the PA taking over administration of the Rafah border, and Israel can agree to loosen maritime restrictions and allow a freer flow of goods into Gaza, steps beyond that become trickier. — Reuters
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Russian convoy rolls on as fighting intensifies in Ukraine
Donetsk, August 14 The nearly 300 vehicles headed towards south-eastern Ukraine, even as intense shelling there in the insurgent bastions of Donetsk and Lugansk — where the trucks appear headed — sharply increased the death toll from fighting. Health authorities in Donetsk, the centre of which was under heavy shelling by the army, said 74 persons were killed in fighting over the past three days. Government forces at the same time reported nine dead and 18 injured among its troops, following four months of fighting that have left over 2,000 dead and many residents without power, running water and with dwindling food supplies. Meanwhile, Ukraine dispatched aid convoys of its own from three cities to a government-held eastern town as it tried to race Moscow to hand out much-needed aid to residents in the blighted region. The Russian convoy, a 3 km file of white-tarpaulin-covered lorries, reached the Rostov region in south-western Russia on Thursday, a spokesman for the Russian emergencies ministry said.
— AFP Ukraine okays law on sanctions against Russia
Kiev: The Ukrainian parliament approved a law on Thursday to impose sanctions on Russian companies and individuals supporting and financing separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine. The government has already prepared a list of 172 citizens of Russia and other countries, and of 65 Russian companies on whom they could impose sanctions "for financing terrorism".
— Reuters Moscow does not want war or confrontation Crimea: Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country would stand up for itself but not at the cost of confrontation with the outside world. He was speaking to Russian ministers and MPs in Crimea, the Ukrainian region annexed by Russian this year. He said, “We need to consolidate and mobilise but not for war or any kind of confrontation ... for hard work in the name of Russia." — Reuters
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UN Chief honours sacrifice of Indian soldiers in WW-I
United Nations, August 14 "India, then part of the British Empire, provided more than one million men. More than 60,000 died in action, along with so many others from Africa, Asia and Europe. All too often, the histories ignore this enormous sacrifice," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his remarks at the event yesterday. Ban along with President of the UN General Assembly Ambassador John Ashe released the 113-page book "Indian War Memorials of the First World War" that contains a brief overview of the many battlefields where Indian soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice. Ambassador to the Permanent Mission of India to the UN Asoke Mukerji said the event coincides with the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's letter of August 14, 1914 to the British Government, in which he had said that India's voluntary participation in the war effort was "an earnest of our desire to share the responsibilities of membership of this great Empire, if we would share its privileges." — PTI
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Little India riots: Indian jailed for 25 months
Singapore, August 14 The prison sentence of Samiyappan Sellathurai was backdated to his arrest on December 15, 2014, at the airport here when he was trying to leave Singapore. Described as an "instigator" in the riot, Samiyappan admitted to smashing a concrete slab and throwing the pieces at civil defence personnel and public service vehicles while intoxicated during the riot on the night of December 8. He also smashed a metal rack against a wall at a subway station in Little India to bring it down. The riot left 54 police and civil defence officers injured and 23 emergency vehicles damaged.
— PTI
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84,000 officials punished for graft in China India-born British singer's home searched over sex offence MH17: Malaysia national mourning day on Aug 22
Roadside bomb kills three Afghan policemen Pakistani beheaded in Saudi for drug trafficking UK Sikhs question Indian-origin tycoon’s elevation Kerry eyes US-China partnership despite tension 
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