Gaza war resumes as talks break down
Fresh hostilities bring more deaths, while Palestinians accuse Israelis of turning down a viable peace deal in Cairo
The conflict in Gaza has flared up with renewed rocket fire and air strikes as talks in Cairo aimed at forging a durable ceasefire in the six-week war broke down.
Israel accused Hamas of violating the latest of a series of temporary ceasefires after rockets were launched from Gaza on Tuesday hours before the end of the latest truce, triggering a swift military and political response. A woman and a two-year-old girl – reported to be the wife and child of Mohammed Deif, Hamas’s military chief, whom Israel has wanted to eliminate for years – died in an air strike on a house in Gaza City on Tuesday evening. A third unidentified person was also killed and at least 15 people injured.
Seven members of one family, including a woman and three children, were killed when a house in central Gaza was hit early on Wednesday. The offices of the Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa TV were also hit in at least 60 air strikes following the breakdown of the ceasefire. Hundreds of civilians fled their homes for UN shelters.
West blamed for ‘almost zero’ response to Ebola outbreak crisis
Death toll in West Africa outbreak has exceeded 1,200, says World Health Organisation
The international community has made “almost zero” response to the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, with western leaders more interested in protecting their own countries than helping contain the crisis that has now claimed more than 1,200 lives, a senior aid worker said yesterday.
Brice de la Vigne, the operations director of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said politicians in industrialised countries urgently needed to take action or risk the outbreak spreading much further. “Globally, the response of the international community is almost zero,” he said. “Leaders in the West are talking about their own safety and doing things like closing airlines – and not helping anyone else.”
His comments came as the World Health Organisation announced that the death toll in the world’s worst Ebola outbreak has now exceeded 1,200. The haemorrhagic disease, which kills up to 90 per cent of those infected, is ravaging Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, and also has a toehold in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy.
Caliphate of Fear: The Curse of the Islamic State
Images of Yazidis fleeing parts of Iraq and Syria have shocked the world and the battle against the jihadists with the Islamic State has united Americans, Europeans, Kurds and Iranians. Can the Islamists be stopped?
In Raqqa, Syria, the Islamic State's "caliphate" has already become a reality. All women in the city are required to wear the niqab veil and pants are banned. Thieves have their hands hacked off and opponents are publicly crucified or beheaded, with the images of these horrific acts then posted on networks.
Any person caught out on the street during the five daily prayer times is risking his or her life.
Is the Kremlin's two-avenue 'diplomacy' in Ukraine paying off?
Russia's dueling shipments of humanitarian aid to refugees and arms to rebels in Ukraine go toward the same end, experts say: leveraging a peace on Kremlin terms.
MOSCOW — A diplomatic solution to the conflict in Ukraine could finally be coming to fruition, experts say, amid a flurry of activity by the major players in the region.
And the change, they suggest, is borne out of a wave of seemingly contradictory steps orchestrated by the Kremlin both to pressure Ukraine militarily and clear the way for Kiev politically to end the six-month old conflict with a peace acceptable to Russia.
Ongoing talks over recent days between foreign ministers of Russia, Germany, France, and Ukraine have not so far produced a cease-fire deal. But top aides ofRussian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenkomet amid semi-secrecy in Sochi last Friday, in what could lead to a face-to-face summit between the two leaders in Minsk next week. In another sign that something may be afoot, German Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to visit Kiev on Saturday, an event the Ukrainian foreign minister describes as "unusual."
Heavy rains, landslides kill 27 in Japan
August 20, 2014 -- Updated 0735 GMT (1535 HKT)
Residents combed through mud and debris looking for bodies of their loved ones after heavy rains triggered landslides that swallowed up homes in the western Japanese city of Hiroshima on Wednesday.
The landslides killed at least 27 people, including a 2-year-old boy who was buried alive, authorities said.
At least 10 others are missing. Authorities fear the number could be much higher since the landslides hit a crowded residential area.
Among the missing is the 11-year-old brother of the boy who died.
Heavy rains have pounded the area. In the last 24 hours, it received a record 9.5 inches of rain, the Kyodo news agency said.
20 August 2014 Last updated at 00:38
Chileans baffled by persistent bomb attacks
Santiago is generally regarded as one of the safest capital cities in Latin America, so it comes as something of a shock to visitors to find out that it has been hit by around 200 bomb attacks over the past decade.
The latest devices exploded in the early hours of 12 August outside two police stations, shattering windows in nearby buildings.
No one was hurt but the attacks have added to the sense of unease that many Chileans feel about the safety of their capital city.
"In both cases these were home-made explosive devices made from gunpowder inside a fire extinguisher, just as we've seen in so many attacks in the past," said Raul Guzman, a state prosecutor investigating the bombings.
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