The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Gaza ceasefire deal reached: Hamas Cairo initiative calls for indefinite halt to hostilities Thousands celebrate in Gaza streets Gaza/Jerusalem, August 26 A ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinians aimed at ending their seven-week conflict in Gaza went into effect on Tuesday and joyous Palestinians streamed into the streets of the battered enclave to celebrate. Minutes before the Egyptian-brokered truce began at 1600 GMT, a rocket fired by Palestinian militants killed one person in an Israeli kibbutz, or collective farm, near the Gaza border, police said. Palestinian and Egyptian officials said the deal calls for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza's blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt and a widening of the territory's fishing zone in the Mediterranean. A senior official of the Islamist group Hamas, which runs Gaza, voiced willingness for the security forces of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the unity government he formed in June to control the passage points. Both Israel and Egypt view Hamas as a security threat and are seeking guarantees that weapons will not enter the territory of 1.8 million people. Under a second stage of the truce that would begin a month later, Israel and the Palestinians would discuss the construction of a Gaza sea port and Israel's release of Hamas prisoners in the occupied West Bank, the officials said. After the ceasefire began, crowds and traffic filled the Gaza streets. Car horns blared and recorded chants praising God sounded from mosque loudspeakers. "Today we declare the victory of the resistance, today we declare the victory of Gaza," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. Israel gave a low-key response to the truce. A statement issued by a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had accepted the Egyptian proposal for "an open-ended ceasefire" and would attend Cairo talks on Gaza's future only if there was a "total end to terror attacks" from the enclave. The conflict has taken a heavy toll in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian health officials say 2,139 people, most of them civilians, including more than 490 children, have been killed in the enclave since July 8, when Israel launched an offensive with the declared aim of ending the rocket salvoes. Sixty-four Israeli soldiers and five civilians in Israel have been killed. Thousands of homes in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged in the most prolonged Israeli-Palestinian fighting since a 2000-2005 Palestinian uprising. "We have mixed feelings. We are in pain for the losses but we are also proud we fought this war alone and we were not broken," said Gaza teacher Ahmed Awf, 55, as he held his two-year-old son in his arms and joined in the street festivities. — Reuters The truce deal The deal calls for an indefinite halt to hostilities, the immediate opening of Gaza's blockaded crossings with Israel and Egypt and a widening of the territory's fishing zone in the Mediterranean Under a second stage that would begin a month later, Israel and the Palestinians would discuss the construction of a Gaza sea port and an Israeli release of Hamas prisoners in the occupied West Bank, the officials said Both Israel and Egypt view Hamas as a security threat and are demanding guarantees that weapons will not enter the economically crippled territory Israel targets Gaza high-rises Israel bombed Gaza's tallest structures on Tuesday, bringing down a 13-storey apartment and office tower and destroying most of a 16-floor residential building. The strikes flattened the Basha Tower and wrecked the Italian Complex, after occupants were warned to get out, and no deaths were reported. Locked in a seven-week-old war and vowing to end rocket fire from the enclave, Israel has now attacked three of Gaza's most prominent high-rise buildings since Saturday, when it destroyed the 13-storey Al Zafer Tower.
	'Iran supplied weapons to Iraqi Kurdish forces' Arbil, August 26 Iran has supplied weapons and ammunition to Iraqi Kurdish forces, Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani said on Tuesday at a joint press conference with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Arbil, capital of Iraq's Kurdish region. The direct arming of Kurdish forces is a contentious issue because some Iraqi politicians have said they suspect Kurdish leaders have aspirations to break away from the central government completely. The move could also be seen by some as a prelude to Iran taking a more direct role in broader Iraqi conflict. "We asked for weapons and Iran was the first country to provide us with weapons and ammunition," Barzani said. Militants from the Islamic State have clashed with Kurdish peshmerga fighters in recent weeks and taken control of some areas on the periphery of Iraqi Kurdistan. Earlier in the day a car bomb was detonated in a mainly Shi'ite district of eastern Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 28, police and medical sources said. The bombing in the New Baghdad neighbourhood followed a series of blasts in the Iraqi capital on Monday which killed more than 20 people. The Islamic State, which controls large swathes of northern and western Iraq, claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the New Baghdad neighbourhood on Monday and said in a statement that the attack was carried out as revenge for an attack against a Sunni mosque in Diyala on Friday which killed 68 and wounded dozens. The Iranian foreign minister held talks with Barzani on Tuesday, one day after visiting senior Shia clerics in southern Iraq. Zarif acknowledged giving military assistance to Iraqi security forces but said the cooperation did not include deploying ground troops in the country. "We have no military presence in Iraq," Zarif said. "We do have military cooperation with both the central government and the Kurds in different arenas." Neither Zarif nor Barzani gave any details whether weapons supplied to Kurdish peshmerga forces had been routed through the central government or given directly to Kurdish forces. Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi said Monday that arms given to the peshmerga had been routed through the central government. — Reuters A contentious issue The direct arming of Kurdish forces is a contentious issue because some Iraqi politicians have said they suspect Kurdish leaders have aspirations to break away from the central government completely. The move could also be seen by some as a prelude to Iran taking a more direct role in broader Iraqi conflict.
	Lahore HC upholds ruling on filing FIR against Sharif brothers Afzal Khan in Islamabad The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday upheld a sessions court's ruling, ordering registration of an FIR against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and 20 other top figures of the Punjab Government over the June 17 Lahore tragedy in which 14 people were killed and 85 injured allegedly in police firing. The court rejected the government petition to vacate the judge's verdict. Its order came hours after Tahir-ul-Qadri, chief of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT), gave a 48-hour ultimatum on Monday night seeking arrest of all accused, including the Sharif brothers, dissolution of assemblies and formation of an interim government. Waving a burial shroud, Qadri hailed the high court ruling. In another significant development, a judicial tribunal set up to probe the mayhem held the provincial government and the police responsible for the massacre. According to a TV channel, the tribunal noted that Shahbaz Sharif falsely claimed on oath that he ordered the police to retreat on learning about the firing. Meanwhile, Shahbaz on Tuesday left for China on an official visit.
	US to track jihadists in Syria with spy planes Damascus, August 26 The United States is poised to send spy planes into Syria to track Islamic State jihadists whose advances have sparked international concern and American air strikes in neighbouring Iraq. A US official confirmed the plans after Syria yesterday said it was willing to work with the international community, including Washington, to tackle extremist fighters. But American officials said they did not plan to ask Damascus for permission for the flights, despite Syrian insistence that any military action on its soil must be coordinated in advance. International concern about IS has been rising after a lightning offensive by the group through parts of Iraq and a string of brutal abuses, including the murder of US journalist James Foley. The United Nations has accused IS and affiliated groups in Iraq of acts that could amount to crimes against humanity. — AFP
	Ukraine crisis: Poroshenko, Putin hold one-on-one talks Minsk, August 26 The leaders of Russia and Ukraine agreed on Tuesday on the need to "de-escalate" the conflict in eastern Ukraine but fundamental differences remain, the Belarussian President who hosted the talks said. After about six hours of negotiations with their Belarussian and Kazakhstan counterparts and top European Union officials, Presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia and Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine began a one-on-one meeting, officials on both sides said. The talks were aimed at defusing a separatist war that has heightened tensions between Russia and NATO and prompted the US and EU to slap sanctions on Russia, drawing retaliation from Moscow. A UN report said at least 2,200 people have died in the conflict. "We all wanted a breakthrough," President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus told reporters. "But the very fact of holding the meeting today is already a success, undoubtedly," he said. "The talks were difficult. The sides' positions differ, sometimes fundamentally... Everybody agreed on the need to de-escalate and free hostages." At the start of the talks, Putin urged Poroshenko not to step up his offensive against the pro-Moscow rebels, and threatened to slap economic penalties on Kiev for signing a trade accord with the EU. Poroshenko replied by demanding a halt to arms shipments from Russia to the separatist fighters. The duo shook hands at the start of meeting in Minsk, hours after Kiev said it had captured Russian soldiers on a "special mission" on Ukrainian territory. Responding to a video of the detained servicemen, a Russian defence ministry source said they had crossed the border by mistake. But Ukraine's military spokesman dismissed it. The US and EU have backed Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia's finance, energy and defence sectors. Moscow has hit back by banning most Western food imports. — Reuters

Rooting out IS won’t be easy: Obama

Charlotte, August 26
US President Barack Obama vowed to punish the Islamic State (IS) killers of American journalist James Foley on Tuesday but said rooting out the militant group in Iraq and Syria will not be fast or easy.

As Obama spoke, the US was moving ahead with surveillance flights over Syria to identify targets for a potential presidential order to launch air strikes against IS targets in what would be a direct US military intervention into a country embroiled in a three-year civil war. "America does not forget. Our reach is long. We are patient. Justice will be done," Obama told veterans gathered at a convention of the American Legion in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Obama said he would do whatever was necessary to go after those who harmed Americans. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

Michael Brown Sr cries as the casket is lowered into the ground at St. Peter’s Cemetery in St. Louis on Monday. Civil rights leaders joined family and friends to pay final respects to Michael Brown, the 18-year-old shot dead in a fatal encounter with police in Ferguson, US, on August 9. AFP

Abdullah threatens to pull out of Afghan poll audit
Kabul: Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah threatened on Tuesday to withdraw from an audit of votes cast in the election, a move that could wreck UN efforts to rescue the country's first democratic transfer of power. The June 14 election has triggered a standoff between Abdullah and his poll rival Ashraf Ghani, with both candidates claiming victory amid allegations of massive fraud. AFP

Indian-origin scientist finds way to develop better drugs
New York: An Indian-origin researcher at Michigan Technological University has deciphered how Glycoconjugates, biomolecules that hold sugars in the body like scaffolds for reacting with other molecules, can lead to new and better drugs. Glycoconjugates are found naturally in the body, but they are also an important class of drugs that include anything from cancer treatments to vaccines. ians

Prison riot leaves five dead in Brazil
Cascavel: Rioting inmates who took over most of a prison in Brazil killed five fellow prisoners, beheading at least two of them, before ending the uprising early on Tuesday and releasing two hostage guards. The riot, which erupted on Sunday, ended after authorities agreed to transfer 850 inmates to other jails. ians