Six in The Morning Wednesday June 10

U.S. Embracing a New Approach on Battling ISIS in Iraq

By MICHAEL R. GORDON

WASHINGTON — In a major shift of focus in the battle against the Islamic State, the Obama administration is planning to establish a new military base in Anbar Province and send 400 American military trainers to help Iraqi forces retake the city of Ramadi.

Although a final decision by the White House has yet to be announced, the plan follows months of behind-the-scenes debate about how prominently plans to retake another Iraqi city, Mosul, which fell to the Islamic State last year, should figure in the early phase of the military campaign against the group.

The fall of Ramadi last month effectively settled the administration debate, at least for the time being. American officials said Ramadi is now expected to become the focus of a lengthy campaign to regain Mosul at a later stage, possibly not until 2016.

Pakistan executes man who was 15 when sentenced to death

Two decades after he was convicted of murder, and despite allegations that his confession was forced, Aftab Bahadur was hanged in Lahore

Reuters in Lahore

Wednesday 10 June 2015 05.15 BST

Pakistan has executed a man who was 15 when he was sentenced to death for murder and whose lawyers say was tortured into confessing, in a case that has prompted concern among rights groups and the United Nations.

Aftab Bahadur was sentenced to death for killing three people in 1992 and human rights group Reprieve said two witnesses who implicated Bahadur had since recanted, saying they were tortured.

At the time, the death penalty could be passed on a 15-year-old, but the minimum age was raised to 18 in 2000.

Testimony obtained by torture is also inadmissible.

“Aftab Bahadur was hanged at District Jail Lahore on Wednesday at 4.30am,” a jail official in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore said, declining to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media on the issue.

Isis's dirty bomb: Jihadists have seized 'enough radioactive material to build their first WMD'

Nato and the Australia Group 'really worried' by latest defence reports

ADAM WITHNALL 

 

 

Wednesday 10 June 2015

The Isis militant group has seized enough radioactive material from government facilities to suggest it has the capacity to build a large and devastating “dirty” bomb, according to Australian intelligence reports.

Isis declared its ambition to develop weapons of mass destruction in the most recent edition of its propaganda magazine Dabiq, and Indian defence officials have previously warned of the possibility the militants could acquire a nuclear weapon from Pakistan.

According to the Australian foreign minister, Julie Bishop, Nato has expressed deep concerns about the materials seized by Isis from research centres and hospitals that would normally only be available to governments.

EU report finds rampant racism, xenophobia in Hungary

The Council of Europe has criticized Hungary in a new report, condemning xenophobia and violence against migrants and minorities. The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban denies any wrongdoing.

Migrants aren't welcome in Hungary. The government made that pretty clear with deeply leading questions in a national consultation. Sent out to 8 million citizens aged 18 or older, the survey compares Syrians fleeing civil war to "economic migrants." The survey also asks Hungarians whether they think that refugees should be deported, locked up or sentenced to forced labor during their stay in Hungary. That's just one recent example of the right-wing government's attitude toward migrants.

Now, the Council of Europe has published a report that strongly criticizes widespread racism in Hungary. The authors, from the Council's European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), emphasize that not only is the radical nationalist Jobbik, the third-largest party in Hungary's parliament, to blame for the country's xenophobic atmosphere - the entire political spectrum shares in the guilt.

Africa tracks: construction of key Djibouti-Ethiopia rail line to finish

 

By Karim LebhourJune 9, 2015 3:08 AM

The leaders of Djibouti and Ethiopia will oversee the completion of a railway linking their two capitals on Thursday, with the ambition that the link might eventually extend across the continent to West Africa.

Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn will attend the ceremonial laying of the last track in the 752-kilometre (481-mile) railway, financed and built by China, linking the port capital of Djibouti with landlocked Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

The first scheduled train is expected to use the desert line in October, reducing transport time between the capitals to less than 10 hours, rather than the two days it currently takes for heavy goods vehicles using a congested mountain road.

Sports | Wed Jun 10, 2015 4:29am EDT

FIFA to kick off Blatter succession process in July

ZURICH

Scandal-hit FIFA will hold an extraordinary executive committee meeting in July to discuss dates for the election to replace president Sepp Blatter, who announced his resignation next week.

Soccer's governing body said in a statement that there were "various date options" for the extraordinary Congress and did not confirm a report by the BBC that the election would take place on Dec. 16.

Last week, Domenico Scala, head of FIFA's audit and compliance committee and the man responsible for overseeing the election, said it could take place any time between December and March.

"It requires an extraordinary Executive Committee that needs to confirm a date and agenda for the extraordinary elective Congress," said a FIFA spokesperson in a statement sent to Reuters.