The United States has signalled it is preparing to insert itself directly in the Syrian civil war by for the first time giving direct military support, including arms, to moderate rebels fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
The move, confirmed by a senior foreign policy official, coincided with a formal determination by the White House, also for the first time, that President al-Assad has used chemical weapons in the two-year-old struggle. It was that assessment, they said, that persuaded President Barack Obama to offer the rebels military hardware.
“The president has said that the use of chemical weapons would change his calculus, and it has,” White House deputy national security adviser Benjamin Rhodes told reporters in a conference call on Thursday evening. He said that US intelligence estimates that attacks using the chemicals had killed between 100 and 150 people.
Turkish police: we're fighting inhuman work conditions, not protesters
Officers in Istanbul's Gezi Park and elsewhere have been on duty for weeks without rest, yet face major hurdles in unionising
Tired after spending the second night in a row sleeping on his shield on a city centre pavement, deprived of washing and toilet facilities, hungry and thirsty, the Turkish police officer sounded rather fed up.
"We have now been working for 56 hours straight," he said.
The 30 exhausted riot police officers sitting on a pavement in a side street by Istanbul's Taksim Square had had one hour of rest the night before. Some of them dozed, their heads against a wall.
The officer lifted his security vest, filled with teargas cartridges. "Between this, the teargas gun and my shield, I carry about 10kg. But after a couple of hours on duty, it feels like I am carrying 100."
ELECTIONS
Iran votes for a president to replace Ahmadinejad
Iran’s supreme leader has urged a large turnout to discredit those who have called today’s election unfair. Reformists rallied around the moderate cleric Hassan Rowhani; conservatives and hardliners remain divided.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Iranians to vote in large numbers and derided international misgivings about the credibility of the election.
"Recently I have heard that a US security official has said they do not accept this election," Khamenei said. "OK, the hell with you."
Iran's Guardian Council barred several candidates from the ballot, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who is seen as sympathetic to reform. Instead, voters may choose from a slate of six candidates, all of whom were approved to run by the council.
Tunisian rapper Weld El 15 jailed for threatening police
Tunisian rapper Ala Yaacoub has been sentenced to two years in prison for insulting and threatening the police.
Police clashed with his supporters outside the court in the capital, Tunis, with three of them arrested, AFP news agency reports.
Known to his fans as "Weld El 15", he had posted a song, The Police are Dogs, on the internet.
Yaacoub emerged from hiding for his one-day re-trial after being given the same sentence in absentia in March.
He turned himself in in the hope of receiving a more lenient sentence, reports the BBC's Sihem Hassaini from Tunis.
In 2013, the kids aren't always all right – face war, exploitation
A series of recent high-level reports raise the alarm about child labor, exploitation, and the impact of conflict on the young.
The world has become much less peaceful since 2008 – 5 percent less so, to use the exacting numbers of those who calculate them. And a large share of this burden falls on the world’s most vulnerable group: children.While some countries, such as Kazakhstan and India, have improved their war-to-peace ratios – another 110 nations have seen these rankings drop according to the 2013 Global Peace Index (GPI) report. That's not proving healthy for the youngest of the young in these places.
The problem for kids extends past just exposure to war and violence. Many children around the world face abuse and deprivation on a daily basis, often at the hands of those they rely on for food and shelter. Threats continue to range from various forms of slavery to sexual exploitation and hunger.
Korea
June 14, '13
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Rank row puts full stop to Korean talks
By Aidan Foster-Carter
There are times when you just want to grab both Koreas by the scruff of the neck and bang their heads together. Don't you? (Non-violently, of course.) This is such a time.
One minute - well no, more like over 17 hours: crazy but a good sign, suggesting seriousness - they were about to hold their first senior official talks in six years. Next thing, it's all off. Why?
Because they're both a bunch of rankers, and each has accused the other of a rank injustice.
This is all too petty and dull even to write down, but needs must. The issue that sparked the hissy-fit was over who should lead each side's delegation, and how to ensure parity of rank.
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