Iraqi troops battle Islamic State for control of key northern oil city of Baiji

By Erin Cunningham November 12 at 11:15 AM

BAGHDAD — Iraqi troops have claimed victory over Islamic State militants in a key oil hub in the country’s north, but a deadly suicide bombing against government forces and continued clashes with the jihadists have underscored the fragility of such gains.

Iraqi police and army troops backed by pro-government militias entered the industrial city of Baiji on Tuesday, officials said, for the first time since the Islamic State seized the town as part of its lightning offensive across northern Iraq in June. Security forces recaptured three buildings in central Baiji, including the local council, police headquarters and a mosque, officials said.

Security officials said the takeover marked the beginning of a wider operation to also break a months-long siege by militants on a nearby oil refinery — the country’s largest. Baiji is about 140 miles by road north of Baghdad.

But later Tuesday, a suicide bombing killed as many as six soldiers in the same area that government troops claimed to have liberated from the militants. Police Brig. Gen. Khalil Ramal Ahmed said a jihadist lured security forces into an abandoned home before detonating his explosives.

“There are still clashes near the police headquarters” in the center of the city, Brig. Gen. Maan al-Saadi, the head of Iraq’s counterterrorism forces in Salahuddin province, where Baiji is located, said Wednesday afternoon.

Ahmed said government forces have faced suicide bombs, car bombs, snipers and improvised explosive devices in the wake of their push into central Baiji. On Wednesday, security forces defused more than 30 IEDs in the center of the city, he said. Iraqi state television aired footage of sandbagged armored vehicles crawling through deserted streets lined with the signature black flag of the Islamic State, an al-Qaeda offshoot that is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

“It is not safe for people to come home,” Ahmed said. “It is still a battlefield.”

If retaken by government forces, Baiji, with a population of roughly 70,000, would be the largest city wrested back from the Islamic State since June. The group controls wide swaths of territory in both Iraq and Syria, including Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq, and the mid-sized city of Tikrit.

A complete takeover of Baiji by Iraqi troops would cut off supply lines to Mosul, which lies 114 miles north of Baiji by road.

The group’s fighters have also besieged the Baiji oil refinery on the outskirts of the city since June, encircling Iraqi security forces trapped inside.

The troops have managed to hold out against repeated attempts by the militants to seize the refinery. But government forces have been unable to infiltrate Islamic State reinforcements around the facility.

A spokesman for Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a powerful Shiite militia aligned with the government, said some of its forces were with Iraqi troops inside the refinery. He said Islamic State fighters have surrounded the refinery with mortars. In Baiji last month, the jihadists also downed two Iraqi helicopters with surface-to-air missiles.

On Tuesday, U.S. forces airdropped food, water and ammunition to the Iraqi troops inside. Coalition forces have also carried out 18 airstrikes in or around Baiji since Nov. 1, according to the U.S. Central Command.

“We will liberate all of Baiji,” Ahmed said. “And God willing, we will reach the refinery in the coming days.”

Mustafa Salim contributed to this report.

Erin Cunningham is an Egypt-based correspondent for The Post. She previously covered conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan for the Christian Science Monitor, GlobalPost and The National.

Ukraine army prepares for possible rebel offensive - defence chief

Ukrainian Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak arrives for the Security Council meeting in Kiev November 4, 2014.

KIEV Wed Nov 12, 2014

(Reuters) - Ukrainian government forces are redeploying in preparation for a possible new offensive by pro-Russian separatists in eastern regions, Defence Minister Stepan Poltorak said on Wednesday.

He told a government meeting the rebels had received reinforcements despite a ceasefire that was agreed on Sept. 5 but has been repeatedly violated.

"We are repositioning our armed forces to respond to the actions of the (rebel) fighters," Poltorak said. "I see my main task is to prepare for military action."

A military spokesman said on Tuesday the rebels were beefing up their forces, including around the port city of Mariupol in the southeast, control of which would open up roads to territory in southern Ukraine.

Kiev says a column of tanks and truckloads of troops crossed into east Ukraine from Russia last Thursday and officials from the Organization for Security and Cooperation, a security watchdog, have spotted armoured columns on the move.

Russia has denied supporting the rebels militarily in the conflict, in which more than 4,000 people have been killed since mid-April.

(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Elizabeth Piper)

Kim Jong Un's Tin Can Air Force

North Korea's drones are cheap, small, and poorly made. That's exactly why they're so dangerous.

• BY VAN JACKSON-NOVEMBER 11, 2014

North Korea's resistance to change is punchline-worthy. It still operates a command economy, its population remains largely cut off from the Internet, and, with few exceptions, its military relies on old Soviet equipment. So the pictures of North Korean military units operating childish-looking unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) painted with red and orange flames seem ripe for mockery, especially when state-controlled media describe them as "kamikaze drones" ready to attack South Korea. All this makes it hard not to crack a joke. But North Korea's low-tech drones are, in fact, a military innovation -- one that has bested the U.S.-South Korea alliance on several occasions and has the ability to conduct military strikes on South Korea undetected.

Kim Jong Un's Tin Can Air Force by Thavam Ratna

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong politician, says protesters will soon be arrested

Tents set up by pro-democracy protesters are seen at a main road in the occupied area of the Mong Kok district in Hong Kong on Friday on Nov. 7. (Vincent Yu/The Associated Press)

Carrie Lam calls for protesters leave quickly, peacefully

Nov 11, 2014 4:

Hong Kong's acting chief executive on Tuesday called on pro-democracy protesters to clear sites they have occupied in the Asian financial centre for more than six weeks and warned that those who remained could face arrest.

• Stephen Harper very pleased with China trip
• Stephen Harper raises human rights concerns with Chinese president
• Hong Kong student protesters clash with police again

Hong Kong media reported that authorities could start removing protesters as early as Wednesday.

"To those who are unlawfully occupying the roads, we call for you to leave the areas quickly and peacefully," said Carrie Lam, who is acting leader while chief executive Leung Chun-ying attends the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing.

Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong Government Carrie Lam speaks to the media on Oct. 21 after the meeting with Hong Kong Federation of Students. (Anthony Kwan/Getty Images)

Hong Kong media had speculated that China was waiting to clear the protesters until after the APEC summit ends later on Tuesday. U.S. President Barack Obama was due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday before flying out.

U.S. officials have said freedom of speech and assembly are universal values, including in Hong Kong.

Lam spoke a day after a Hong Kong court ruled that police could arrest protesters who defy authorities trying to clear sites in some of the most economically important districts in the Chinese-controlled city.

Lam said police would make arrests as needed but did not give any time frame.

The student-led protesters are demanding fully democratic elections for the city's next chief executive in 2017 instead of the vote between pre-screened candidates that Beijing has said it would allow.

Demonstrators said they were ready to react quickly to any moves to clear the sites.

"All the occupiers have already packed up their belongings and some resource stations have also readied their things to be easily transported at first notice," said Kaven Chan, 20, a protester in the bustling district of Mong Kok.

At the height of the protests, police fired tear gas and pepper spray to disperse thousands of demonstrators, many of whom used umbrellas, gloves and masks to protect themselves.

In this file photo taken Oct. 29, a cut-out picture of Chinese President Xi Jinping is placed in the occupied areas outside government headquarters by pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong's Admiralty. (Kin Cheung/The Associated Press)

Almost nine out of 10 protesters said they were ready to stay on the streets for more than a year to push for full democracy, according to an informal Reuters survey last month.

The protests, the most tenacious since the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, have defied riot police and attacks from hostile mobs, as well as intense government and public pressure.

Why are men paying to learn how to abuse women?

WEDNESDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2014

The Home Office is being urged to deny a visa to a US pick-up artist teaching men how to sexually assault women - but campaigners tell Channel 4 News that women are facing a bigger issue.

Controversial 'dating coach' Julien Blanc cut short his Australian tour last week after his visa was cancelled in the wake of protests against his seminars.

Mr Blanc, who travels around the world teaching men how to manipulate women, is due to arrive in the UK for a series of seminars. But a petition on campaigning website change.org, calling for a ban, has gathered more than 5,500 signatures.

In one of Mr Blanc's most widely publicised videos, he describes "seducing" Japanese women with all the subtlety of a billygoat in rut: "At least in Tokyo, if you’re a white male, you can do what you want."

'Trivialises abuse of women'

Sarah Green, spokesperson for the End Violence Against Women Coalition told Channel 4 News: "Julien Blanc is part of a culture which trivialises abuse of women. At worst this tells victims of abuse that what has happened to them doesn't matter, and gives potential abusers the nod that such behaviour will not be taken seriously. We need an urgent public conversation about why a man like this can find a market and profit from the peddling of such vile misogyny."

The campaign has thrown the world of pick-up artists into the spotlight once again after a disturbed gunman killed six people in California earlier this year. Elliot Rodgers, 22, killed six people and injured thirteen others before committing suicide in Isla Vista, California.

Rodgers was hailed as a hero by the underground pickup artist community for men unable to date women. Pick-up artists, or PUAs, are men online who talk about their failure to secure girlfriends - and despair about forever being friends and not lovers.

'Pop culture normalisation'

Rebecca Holmes, communications coordinator at abuse charity Tender, told Channel 4 News: "One of the most concerning elements of this underground movement of pick-up artists is the robust online following that many of their forums have.

"We worry particularly about young people who are just learning to navigate their own relationships and are therefore increasingly vulnerable to this pop culture normalisation of violence against women and girls."

Katie Russell, media co-ordinator at Rape Crisis England & Wales added: "It is concerning that he [Julien Blanc] has been able to build a business and make money out of teaching other men to abuse and objectify women. It's clear there is a real strength of feeling from a diverse range of people that this man should not be allowed to perpetrate his racism and misogyny in the UK.

"But there's also clearly a wider issue here about the trivialisation and normalisation of violence against women and girls both here and around the world that we all have a responsibility to address."

Channel 4 News approached Julien Blanc’s group RSD (Real Social Dynamics) on Tuesday, but have yet to receive a response.

US and China strike deal on carbon cuts in push for global climate change pact

Barack Obama aims for reduction of a quarter or more by 2025, while Xi Jinping sets goal for emissions to fall after 2030

• Reaction to the emissions deal – live
• The joint announcement from the White House briefing room

US President Barack Obama looks on as Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a joint press conference in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Photograph: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images

Lenore Taylor, Guardian Australia political editor, Tania Branigan in Beijing and agencies-Wednesday 12 November 2014

The United States and China have unveiled a secretly negotiated deal to reduce their greenhouse gas output, with China agreeing to cap emissions for the first time and the US committing to deep reductions by 2025.

US and China Strike Deal on Carbon Cuts in Push for Global Climate Change Pact by Thavam Ratna

Beneath the streets of Romania's capital, a living hell

TUESDAY 20 MAY 2014
Deep under the streets of Bucharest - in Europe, in the 21st century - there is a network of tunnels and sewers that is home to hundreds of men, women and children stricken by drug abuse HIV and TB.

This video contains strong scenes of drug use that some viewers may find distressing. All photos courtesy of Radu Ciorniciuc / Casa Journalist

You can travel to the heart of the EU from Bucharest's Gara du Nord, write Paraic O'Brien and Jim Wickens, but our journey will take us just a few metres.

On the surface, the newest member of the European club has worked hard to redefine itself. But there's another Romania, underground.

When Ceausescu fell there were tens of thousands of children in orphanages and in state "care" in Romania. But in 1990 a series of reports revealed what a nightmarish misnomer that was. Scenes of neglect and cruelty reminiscent of the concentration camps.

So what happened to those children?

We've been told that some moved into the tunnels underneath Bucharest. Drug addiction is rife, some have had children of their own.

The entrance to this underworld is a hole in the pavement on a traffic island in front of the station. By late afternoon they start to wake up, clambering up out of the ground like the undead.

Among them is a little boy, Nicu, who looks about 12. We find out later that "little" Nicu is in fact 17 but his development has been stunted by the drug abuse. He agrees to send word down that we would like to meet the boss.

This underworld, we're told, has an overlord and you only get to go down by invitation. A couple of hours later and word comes back up: he will see us now.

On our hands and knees we pothole down into the darkness and a parallel universe. It's the heat that hits you first. These old tunnels were part of Ceausescu's grand design to centrally heat the city.

Then there's the smell: a metallic paint called Aurolac, snorted by the addicts from small black bags. Next up the music.

The whole place is wired with electricity, there's a stereo system pumping out dance music. If they had a club night in hell it would feel like this.

We're in the first chamber: they call it The Office. You try not to gawp. Out of the corner of your eye, a woman with a syringe between her legs; a little boy stares at you with the Aurolac bag at his mouth, pumping slowly, like a black heart.

Everyone here is HIV positive, a quarter have TB. They're all on their way to "the counter".

The man behind the counter is called "Bruce Lee" (pictured above) after his street fighting days. He points to a tattoo on his inner thigh, it reads: "Bruce Lee, King of the Sewers".

He will be our guide down Bucharest's surreal, tragic rabbit hole.

‘Kissing bug’ disease creeps into US, but symptoms often missed

Spread through the feces of blood-sucking insects, Chagas can cause heart failure and damage intestines

November 7, 2014 11:00AM ET

by Deepashri Varadharajan

Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States have been infected with the potentially fatal “kissing bug” disease, but U.S. health care workers’ lack of awareness often prevents successful diagnosis and treatment, according to a report released this week. 

The dearth of federally licensed drugs to combat the disease also limits patients' access to treatment, according to findings presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) on Thursday.

“This is a real health concern in the United States that deserves much more attention, research and funding for patient care and education,” said Dr. Jennifer Manne-Goehler, a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston who was the lead author of the study.

More than 300,000 people in the U.S. have kissing bug, or Chagas, disease, endemic to Mexico, Central America and South America — where there 8 million people have been infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

At the onset, symptoms of the disease — caused by a parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, which is spread through the feces of kissing bugs — can include fever, fatigue, body aches, rash, diarrhea and vomiting, according to the CDC (PDF). After the initial acute stage, most people enter a prolonged asymptomatic state, during which few parasites are found in the blood, the CDC says. Regardless of symptoms, the disease can be transmitted to others. People are often unaware they have been infected and can know for sure only if they complete blood tests.

Over time, the disease can cause heart failure and intestinal complications.

An ASTMH press statement released Tuesday called the disease a “stealthy parasitic infection,” often spread via blood-sucking kissing bugs, which “feed on people’s faces during the night.” Transmission can also occur through blood transfusions or organ donations from infected people, according to the CDC. During pregnancy, mothers can transmit the disease to their babies.

The Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved two medicines — nifurtimox and benznidazole — that are currently used to treat the disease but carry a risk of nerve damage, nausea and weight loss, according to the ASTMH statement.

The CDC makes the drugs available "when no satisfactory alternative treatment exists," according to the FDA, adding that "subjects are generally willing to accept greater risks from test articles that may treat life-threatening and debilitating illnesses."

Manne-Goehler’s study used data collected from the American Association of Blood Banks and the CDC. From 2007 to 2013, 1,908 blood donors tested positive for Chagas disease, but only 422 doses of medications have been administered by the CDC.

“This highlights an enormous treatment gap,” Manne-Goehler said in the ASTMH statement. 

‘The silent disease’

The infection rate in the U.S. is much higher than previously thought, the ASTMH reported, and the effects can be deadly.

“The disease can be fatal if not treated,” said Melissa Nolan Garcia, a research associate at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and co-author of a separate study on Chagas disease in Texas published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene on Tuesday.

“You are normally asymptomatic until disease has progressed at which time treatment is not helpful. We call this the silent disease,” Garcia said.

“The concerning thing is that majority of the patients [I spoke to] are going to physicians, and the physicians are telling them, ‘No you don’t have the disease,’ she said.

Garcia spoke to several groups of physicians and cardiologists as part of an educational campaign to increase physician awareness.

“A lot of the cardiologists were aware of Chagas disease, but they don’t make the connection when the patient is sitting in front of them,” she said.

Protest against sexual violence held in North-East (Pictures: Uthayan)  10 November 2014 A protest against sexual violence was held by campaigners from the North-East, demanding justice for victims of rape, highlighting a recent case of an 18-year-old woman who was kidnapped and raped in Ariyalai, reported the Uthayan. The campaigners gathered at Vembadi Junction in Jaffna, demanding that violence against women is stopped and pledged to continue voicing for the rights of victims.

SL probe: UN trapped in its bureaucratic web

By Shamindra Ferdinando-November 10, 2014

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has rejected submissions as regards accountability issues in Sri Lanka on the basis the complainants couldn’t provide English, French, Spanish or Russian translations of all supporting documents.

 Petitions and Inquiries Section of the OHCHR has ruled that those wanting to lodge complaints should meet three main conditions including translated documents.

 A senior government official told The Island that the OHCHR hadn’t demanded supporting documents to be in English, French, Spanish or Russian when it called for submissions in accordance with a UNHRC resolution adopted in late last March.  

Responding to a query, the official alleged that the OHCHR had deprived some victims of making submissions. The official pointed out that as the OHCHR had assured submissions could be made in English, Sinhala or Tamil; there couldn’t be any justifiable reason to expect Sri Lankans making submissions in Tamil to furnish supporting documents in some other language.

 According to Petitions and Inquiries Section of the OHCHR, in addition to the condition relating to supporting documents, the Human Rights Committee has stipulated that those making submissions should specify the circumstances in which violations had been committed in terms of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Human Rights Committee has insisted that supporting documents in English, French, Spanish or Russian, too, should be submitted.

 Sources pointed out that the Human Rights Committee had emphasized that complaints shouldn’t be made unless all domestic judicial and administrative remedies had been exhausted. The particular condition would challenge the very basis of the external investigation being conducted at the behest of an influential section of the international community, they said.

 Ministerial sources told The Island that the action of the OHCHR should be examined in the backdrop of a response given by OHCHR spokesperson to a query raised by the Sri Lankan media recently. Commenting on Oct. 30, 2014 deadline to accept submissions, the spokesperson had said that though the deadline wouldn’t be extended, late submissions wouldn’t be necessarily refused.

 Sources said that the OHCHR ha made its position known soon after Northern Provincial Councilor; Ananthi Sasitharan requested the investigators to extend the deadline by at least a month. 

The OHCHR is on record as having said that all submissions should be made on or before Oct. 30, 2014 as investigators need time to draft the report two months before its presentation in March 2015.

I was offered Rs 50m to pledge support to govt: Naleen Pradeep Uduwela

I was offered Rs 50m to pledge support to govt: Naleen Pradeep Uduwela

Nov 11, 2014

A media briefing was convened by the Democratic Party on Tuesday to elaborate on certain members of the party joining the government.

Speaking at the event, Western Provincial Councilor Naleen Pradeep Uduwela revealed that even he was called to pledge support to the ruling party.

“I was offered 50 million rupees. In addition I was offered a parliamentary vehicle licence. Then, I was told if required me and my entire family would be given a citizens’ visa to either Canada, Australia or the Netherlands.”

“They also told me that I would be made co-organiser of Homagama as there is already a chief-organizer. I finally told them that I do not live on the expectations of money. It is enough if I have just the right amount of money to survive.”

Several other members of the party also expressed their views at the briefing.