IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Dozens of ISIL mass graves found in Iraq, says UN envoy

    {UN Iraq envoy says there is evidence ‘heinous crimes’ were committed as over 50 mass graves found in former ISIL areas.}

    More than 50 mass graves have been discovered in territory formerly controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq, including three burial pits in a football field, the UN envoy has said.

    Jan Kubis, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, told the Security Council on Friday that evidence of the “heinous crimes” committed by the group in Iraq were being uncovered as territory is retaken from ISIL.

    “More than 50 mass graves have been discovered so far in several areas of Iraq,” he said.

    Iraqi forces, with backing from the US-led coalition that carries out daily air strikes against ISIL, also known as ISIS, have retaken significant ground in recent months.

    In the city of Ramadi, three graves containing a total of up to 40 sets of remains were found in a football field on April 19, said Kubis.

    Ramadi was retaken from ISIL when Iraqi forces seized the main government compound late last year, but the city was completely retaken only in February.

    The envoy said that the humanitarian crisis was worsening in Iraq, with nearly a third of the population, or over 10 million people, now requiring urgent aid – double the number from last year.

    He projected that a further two million people could be displaced by the end of the year by new military campaigns aimed at driving out ISIL.

    Iraqi and Kurdish forces launched an offensive in March in the province of Nineveh, of which ISIL-controlled Mosul is the capital. ISIL have held Mosul since June 2014.

    Kubis urged Iraqi leaders to resolve differences that have led to street protests in Baghdad, saying that the turmoil will only help ISIL maintain its foothold.

    “They are the ones who stand to benefit from political instability and lack of reforms,” the UN envoy said.

    Last week, protesters in Baghdad stormed parliament after MPs again failed to approve nominees for a cabinet of technocrats to replace the government of party-affiliated ministers.

    Iraqi security forces including a forensics team work at the site of a mass grave in the stadium area in Ramadi

  • Syria civil war: Aleppo ceasefire extended

    {US confirms extension of ceasefire in Syria’s northern province, with Russia saying it will be valid for 72 hours.}

    The US State Department has confirmed an extension of the ceasefire in Syria’s northern province of Aleppo.

    Russia late on Friday announced the extension of the truce in Aleppo for 72 hours starting at midnight on Saturday.

    State department spokesman John Kirby said that “the cessation of hostilities has reduced violence in Aleppo, and the United States is committed to keeping it in place as long as possible”.

    “While we welcome this recent extension, our goal is to get to a point where we no longer have to count the hours and that the cessation of hostilities is fully respected across Syria,” Kirby said.

    The renewed truce extends a 48-hour ceasefire that came into effect on Wednesday at midnight Damascus time and was due to expire at midnight on Saturday.

    Sporadic fighting

    The initial ceasefire was supposed to include not only the city of Aleppo but also surrounding districts.

    However, fighting has continued at several locations across Aleppo province.

    On Friday, Syrian rebel group al-Nusra Front captured the strategic village of Khan Touman outside of Aleppo city that could potentially open up new supply routes for rebel-held areas of the city.

    The capture also opens up an alternate supply route to rebel-held areas of the city, connecting it to areas of Idlib that are also controlled by the opposition.

    Syrian government forces have been trying to encircle rebels in the city by cutting them off from supply routes in the north.

    Sources told Al Jazeera that groups involved in the attack included Ahrar al-Sham, Ajnad al-Sham and other factions under the command of the Army of Conquest.

    British-based rights group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said more than 73 people had died in clashes in Khan Touman and surrounding villages, which included at least one al-Nusra suicide bomber.

    The group put the number of government dead at 30 and rebels killed at 43, with dozens of wounded on both sides.

    A boy rides a bicycle near damaged buildings in the rebel held area of Old Aleppo, Syria May 5, 2016.

  • Bangladesh’s Motiur Rahman Nizami to hang

    {Supreme Court rejects final appeal by Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami, clearing the way for his hanging.
    }

    A final appeal by the leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party against a death penalty for involvement in a 1971 liberation war has been rejected, his lawyers said, clearing the way for his hanging.

    The Supreme Court on Thursday passed the order against Motiur Rahman Nizami, head of the banned Jamaat-e-Islami party, which opposed the war for independence from Pakistan.

    The 73-year-old, who was also given life sentences for four other war crimes convictions, has exhausted all legal options and only a presidential pardon could now save him.

    Jamaat called a 24-nationwide strike for Sunday in a response published on its website.

    The Supreme Court in January upheld the death penalty for Nizami on convictions of genocide, rape and orchestrating the massacre of top intellectuals during the war.

    The Jamaat leader, in jail since 2010, was originally handed the death sentence by a war crimes tribunal in 2014.

    Bangladeshi authorities say about three million people were killed and more than 200,000 women raped during the conflict. The former East Pakistan broke away to become Bangladesh after the war.

    The tribunal has sparked violence and drawn fierce criticism from opposition politicians, including Jamaat-e-Islami, who say it is victimising Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s opponents.

    No Peace Without Justice, a rights group based in Italy, has called the tribunal “a weapon of politically influenced revenge whose real aim is to target the political opposition”.

    The government denies that.

    A senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader living outside of Bangladesh told Al Jazeera in a reaction that the news of the verdict was “devastating”.

    “This is the not the first death sentence confirmed by the judicial system and quite a distinguished line of others are waiting after him,” said the party official, who wished to remain anonymous.

    “Not only that; at least 20,000 Jamaat workers are in prison without any charges.

    “Police have raided and arrested many people attending religious or Quran classes. Even the international community rejects the allegations and also the court process.”

    ‘Politicised process’

    International legal experts expressed concern over the lack of an appropriate accountability mechanism in Bangladesh and called on the United Nations to support an internationally supervised mechanism.

    A joint statement, signed by six legal experts, said: “It is with deep regret that the current practice of the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal (BICT) is failing to uphold the highest international standards required in such cases, in particular where there is the imposition of the death penalty.”

    The experts, affiliated with a wide range of institutions, from the International Criminal Court to the US State Department, said that the central issue is that “any judicial mechanism, post conflict or otherwise, is about the pursuit of justice and accountability, it is not about revenge or political retribution”.

    “Sadly, the BICT has shown itself to be merely that, a politicised process that fails to uphold the very standards it was set up to address,” the statement read.

    The verdict came as the nation has seen a surge of violence in which atheist bloggers, academics, religious minorities and foreign aid workers have been killed.

    In the last month alone, five people, including a university teacher, two gay activists and a Hindu, have been hacked to death by suspected armed groups.

    The government has blamed that violence on Jamaat and other opposition groups. Jamaat denies any involvement.

    Four opposition politicians, including three Jamaat leaders, have been executed since late 2013 after tribunal convictions.

  • Republican leaders divided on supporting Trump

    {House Speaker Paul Ryan refuses to endorse Trump, saying presumptive presidential nominee must do more to unite party.}

    The Republican party is facing a divide, with party leader Paul Ryan refusing to support Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee, insisting that the businessman must do more to unite the party.

    Appearing on CNN’s show The Lead, Ryan, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said on Thursday that many Republicans wanted to see “a standard-bearer who bears our standards” and “unifies all the wings of the Republican Party”.

    “I’m just not ready to do that at this point. I’m not there right now,” the Wisconsin Republican said.

    It comes two days after Trump essentially clinched the nomination with a commanding win in Indiana that forced his last two opponents – Ted Cruz and John Kasich – from the race.

    Trump, who has become party’s presumptive presidential nominee, responded by saying he is not ready to support Ryan’s agenda either.

    “Perhaps in the future we can work together,” the billionaire businessman added.

    {{Unifying the party
    }}

    Ryan is not the only one to have aired opposition to Trump. Former Presidents George H W Bush and George W Bush and several other senior Republicans have refused to back the real estate mogul.

    But Indiana Governor Mike Pence and former Texas Governor Rick Perry threw their weight behind the presidential nominee.

    Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, however, said that Ryan and Trump will work out their differences after he spoke to both of them.

    The highly unusual salvos between the likely White House nominee and the House speaker came at a moment when all involved would normally be turning from the primaries to unifying the party for November’s elections.

    Ryan, his party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, had been seen as a possible “white knight” candidate who could emerge as an alternative to Trump at a contested convention slated to be held in July. He called a press conference last month to rule himself out.

    Trump’s Indiana victory pushed him to 1,047 delegates. He needs 1,237 to clinch the nomination.

    Ryan's announcement of not supporting Trump has sent shockwaves through the Republican establishment

  • North Korea holds first party congress in decades

    {Ruling Workers’ Party is holding its first meeting in 36 years, as leader Kim Jong-un seeks to cement his absolute rule.}

    North Korea is holding its first party congress in nearly 40 years, as leader Kim Jong-un seeks to cement his absolute rule in the isolated country.

    The congress drew thousands of selected delegates from across the country to the capital, Pyongyang, for what, in theory at least, was a gathering of North Korea’s top decision-making body.

    The 33-year-old Kim, who was not even born when the last Workers’ Party Congress was held in 1980, was expected to deliver a keynote address which will be minutely scrutinised for any policy shift or personnel changes in the governing elite.

    The 1980 gathering was staged to crown Kim’s father Kim Jong-Il as heir apparent to his own father, the North’s founding leader Kim Il-Sung.

    Kim Jong Il, who died in December 2011, never held a party congress of his own.

    Kim may decide to take on the post of party general secretary, a position held by his late father, elevating himself from first secretary.

    “It is now his era, and the elders have passed away, and the idea will be that if he remains first secretary, then he might think he won’t get enough respect because of that,” said An Chan-il, a former North Korean military official who now heads a think-tank in Seoul.

    Hidden state: Inside North Korea

    The current congress was understood to have begun on Friday morning inside the imposing April 25 Palace, whose facade was adorned with huge portraits of the two late leaders, along with giant red and gold ruling party banners.

    At the congress, Kim is expected to declare North Korea a nuclear weapons state and formally adopt his “Byongjin” policy to push simultaneously for economic development and nuclear capability.

    It follows Kim’s father’s Songun or “military first” policy and his grandfather’s Juche, the North’s home-grown founding ideology that combines Marxism and extreme nationalism.

    “Let’s uphold Great Comrade Kim Jong-un’s Songun revolutionary leadership with patriotism!,” one banner read.

    North Korea has conducted a series of weapons tests, including three failed launches of an intermediate-range missile, in the run-up to the Workers’ Party congress.

    Kim has aggressively pursued nuclear weapons and could be looking to a successful fifth test this week as a crowning achievement, analysts told Reuters news agency.

    South Korea, meanwhile, has expressed concern that Pyongyang could conduct a nuclear test during the rare event.

    Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from Seoul, said the lack of any significant Chinese presence in the congress is a sign that North Korea’s relationship with its main benefactor is also strained as a result of Kim’s nuclear ambitions.

    “In 1980, China sent one of the chief members of its communist party to North Korea to give weight to the Workers Party Congress held by Kim’s father,” Fawcett said, “This time there appears to be no such delegation. Even no such invitation from North Korea.

    “North Korea has been pursuing a viable nuclear weapon. This has greatly upset China. They even signed up to the tougher sanctions by the UN.”

    North Korea has invited foreign media to cover the congress, although journalists’ movements are closely managed and much of the country and its people remain off-limits to outsiders.

    Security has been stepped up ahead of the key event, which, a South Korean official said, is expected to last four or five days.

  • Dozens dead in air raid on camp for displaced in Idlib

    {Camp for internally displaced Syrians near Turkish border destroyed with at least 30 people killed, including children.}

    An air strike on a camp for internally displaced Syrians near the country’s border with Turkey has killed at least 30 people, activists said.

    The attack on the camp in Idlib province on Thursday also left dozens of others injured. A number of those killed were children, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

    The Observatory said the dead included women and children and the death toll from the air strikes was likely to rise.

    Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from the Turkish city of Gaziantep, said activists were split on whether Russian or Syrian planes were behind the attack.

    “Many in the opposition believe that with strikes like this there’s proof the government is not serious about the cessation of hostilities,” Khodr said.

    “These people [internally displaced] live close to the Turkish border in search of safety…they think that the closer they are to the border, the safer they are.”

    Video of the incident posted on social media showed tents on fire and victims buried underneath debris as rescuers tried to put out flames.

    Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Stephen O’Brien, called for an immediate, impartial and independent investigation into the air strikes, which, if found to be deliberate, could amount to a war crime.

    “All parties to this appalling conflict should understand that they will one day be held accountable for violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.”

    He said that initial reports indicate that at least 30 people were killed, and more than 80 injured, among them many women and children, while dozens of tents were destroyed or badly damaged.

    Idlib is not part of the partial ceasefire that was announced yesterday after an agreement between the US and Russia.

    Aleppo bombardment

    The attack is the latest deadly strike on civilians in Syria, with much of the recent focus on the divided city of Aleppo where nearly 300 people were killed in nearly two weeks of air strikes and shelling.

    Fighting has calmed in the area after the US-brokered cessation of hostilities but violations of the agreement were reported on Thursday.

    Syria’s government has been at war with rebels after it violently put down an initially peaceful uprising against President Bashar al-Assad five years ago.

    An estimated 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to the UN, with millions more displaced internally and in neighbouring states.

    The crisis has also given rise to the European refugee crisis, as Syrians join hundreds of thousands of others in seeking refuge on the continent.

  • EU referendum: Donald Trump backs Brexit

    {The UK would be “better off without” the European Union, US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has said.}

    He told Fox News the migration crisis had been a “horrible thing for Europe” and blamed the EU for driving it.

    The Republican said he was not making a “recommendation” but his “feeling” was that the UK should vote to sever ties with the EU in its 23 June referendum.

    Democratic President Barack Obama expressed support for the UK remaining in the EU last month.

    Mr Trump, who has emerged as the Republican presumptive nominee for the US presidency, told Fox News: “I think the migration has been a horrible thing for Europe, a lot of that was pushed by the EU.

    “I would say [the UK] are better off without [the EU], personally, but I’m not making that as a recommendation, just my feeling.

    “I know Great Britain very well, I know the country very well, I have a lot of investments there.”

    He added: “I want them to make their own decision.”

    In April, Mr Obama said Britain would go to the “back of the queue” for trade deals with the US if it votes to leave the European Union, sparking anger among Leave campaigners in the UK.

    He said Britain was at its best when “helping to lead” a strong EU and membership made it a “bigger player” on the world stage.

  • Turkey’s Davutoglu set to go as talks fail: reports

    {Ahmet Davutoglu expected to resign after what is reported as a falling out with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.}

    Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is about to be replaced, reports have said, after talks aimed at easing tensions between the premier and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan failed.

    Davutoglu, who is also the leader of the ruling AK Party, will hold a news conference early on Thursday after a gathering of the party’s central executive committee, the official Anatolia news agency said.

    No official statement has been released but after a 90-minute crisis meeting on Wednesday that local media described as critical for Davutoglu’s future, domestic news organisations CNN-Turk and NTV reported that an extraordinary congress would be held later this month, which could signal his exit.

    Such a meeting would allow for the election of a new party head.

    According to AKP convention, the posts of party boss and head of government always go to the same person.

    Davutoglu had carved out his own strong profile, but tension had reportedly been growing between the men for months.

    The premier championed a deal with the EU to stem the flow of refugees, while the president has shown less interest in the accord. He has also clashed with Erdogan over whether journalists should be held in pre-trial detention.

    A decision last week by the executive committee of the AKP to remove Davutoglu’s right to appoint regional party officials was also seen by analysts as a severe blow to his authority.

    Potential successors include Transport Minister Binali Yildirim and the youthful Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, 38, who is married to the president’s eldest daughter, Esra.

    Ahmet Davutoglu is expected to resign on Thursday amid reports of mounting tensions between the premier and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

  • Donald Trump becomes presumptive Republican nominee

    {Path clear for controversial billionaire as main rivals Cruz and Kasich bow out of race for US presidential nomination.}

    Donald Trump has gone from long-shot contender to the Republican party’s presumptive nominee for president with a crushing win in Indiana that forced his main rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich out of the race.

    Addressing jubilant supporters at Trump Tower in New York after romping to his seventh straight state-wide victory, the real estate mogul promised them: “We’re going to win in November, and we’re going to win big, and it’s going to be America first.”

    Kasich announced he dropped out of the Republican presidential race on Wednesday evening.

    Trump won at least 51 of 57 possible delegates awarded in Indiana, according to the Associated Press news agency delegate tracker. His victory in the state pushed him to 1,047 delegates of the 1,237 needed to clinch the nomination, compared with 153 for Kasich.

    Cruz had 565 delegates before suspending his campaign.

    “This phenomenon is just amazing,” Peter Mathews, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera. “Trump seems to have got free television time. He got an estimated $1bn of free time during the election.”

    Trump’s immediate challenge is to unite deep fissures within the Republican Party as many party loyalists are appalled at his bullying style, his treatment of women and his signature proposals to build a wall on the border with Mexico and deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

    Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Trump the party’s presumptive nominee in a tweet and said, “We all need to unite and focus” on defeating Clinton.

    The former reality TV star himself called for unity in a speech at a victory rally that was free of his usual bombast and flamboyance.

    Calling Indiana a “tremendous victory”, he immediately directed fire at Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

    “We’re going after Hillary Clinton,” he said. “She will not be a great president, she will not be a good president, she will be a poor president. She doesn’t understand trade.”

    Clinton upset

    Clinton on Tuesday suffered an upset in Indiana as her rival Bernie Sanders mounted a come-from-behind victory, denying the former secretary of state a feather in her cap as she seeks their party’s presidential nomination.

    Sanders, a self-declared socialist, beat Clinton by 53.2 percent to 46.8 percent with about three quarters of precincts reporting – although Clinton remained well ahead in the overall delegate battle for the nomination.

    “Bernie Sanders was behind several points just a few weeks ago. Thousands were turning up to his rallies even in thunderstorms to hear what he had to say,” Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Indianapolis, said.

    “A narrow victory in Indiana is enough to re-inject his campaign with momentum and for him to say that he is going to take it all the way to Democratic convention in Philadelphia in the summer.”

    As the race was called overwhelmingly in Trump’s favour, Cruz conceded to supporters in Indianapolis that he no longer had a viable path forwards.

    “We left it all on the field in Indiana,” Cruz said. “We gave it everything we’ve got, but the voters chose another path.

    “And so with a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.”

    Al Jazeera’s Fisher said that Indiana had become a pivotal point in the race.

    “On the Republican side, Cruz lost the primary by a significant margin. His appeal to voters simply did not work,” he said.

    Trump, who has never held public office, is likely to formally wrap up the nomination on June 7 when California votes, although Ohio Governor John Kasich had vowed to stay in the race as his last challenger.

  • Brazil Senate report backs Rousseff impeachment trial

    {Senator tasked with reviewing president’s impeachment process recommends she be put on trial for breaking budget laws.}

    The senator tasked with reviewing Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment process has recommended that she be put on trial for breaking budget laws, bringing the leftist leader one step closer to suspension from office.

    Senator Antonio Anastasia presented his findings to a 21-member Senate impeachment committee, which is expected to vote overwhelmingly on Friday to send his recommendation to the full chamber.

    The Senate is due to vote on May 11 to try Rousseff, at which point she will be automatically suspended, pending a trial that could last up to 180 days.

    Vice President Michel Temer will take over as acting president and, if Rousseff is convicted, he will serve out the remainder of her term through 2018.

    Request for investigation

    Brazilian media has also reported a leaked request by chief prosecutor Rodrigo Janot for the Supreme Court to authorise an investigation into Rousseff, ex-president Lula da Silva and other close allies over their alleged involvement in a vast corrupton network centred on state oil giant Petrobas.

    Janot’s reported request for the corruption probe names 31 politicians and other figures, also including opponents of Rousseff, illustrating the way that the Petrobras embezzlement and bribery scheme allegedly spread throughout the ruling class.

    But the request has yet to be confirmed by officials.

    Dozens of people have already been charged, prosecuted or imprisoned, including some of the country’s richest men and leaders of all political stripes in Congress.

    Rousseff has not been named in any direct corruption charges, although she was chairman of Petrobras during much of the time the scheme was under way.

    The Senate is due to vote on May 11 to try Rousseff