Six In The Morning Sunday September 13

Clashes as Israeli soldiers storm Al-Aqsa compound

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas condemns "attack" on Al-Aqsa following clashes at one of Islam's holiest sites.

13 Sep 2015 09:05 GMT

Clashes have erupted after a number of Israeli soldiers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem, police and witnesses said.

The presidency strongly condemns the attack by the occupier's military and police against the Al-Aqsa mosque and the aggression against the faithful who were there Mahmud Abbas, Palestinian president

The Israeli security personnel used tear gas as they entered the compound to arrest what they called Palestinian "stone throwers".

"Masked protesters who were inside the mosque threw stones and fireworks at police," said a police statement carried by AFP news agency.

A Muslim witness accused police of entering the mosque and causing damage, saying prayer mats were partially burned.

Clashes later continued outside the mosque complex, with police firing tear gas and stun grenades.

Refugee crisis: Desperate Iraqi Yazidis join exodus to Europe

Singled out by Isis, believers say they can not stay in Iraq

CATHY OTTEN

 

SHARYA

 

Sunday 13 September 2015

Khatab’s eyes darted around the torch-lit room as he speaks. His family, part of Iraq’s Yazidi minority, sits around him inside the shell of a half-built home as darkness falls.

“Look, we have nothing,” says the nervous-looking 15-year-old, pointing to the plastic-covered holes in the walls where windows should be. Two weeks ago the teenager attempted to reach Europe, walking for 35 hours towards the Turkish-Bulgarian border before he was arrested. “He is still shaking now”, his father says.

Khatab was detained in Turkey for three days before being released and returning to Iraq; only to try again the day before he spoke to The Independent on Sunday. That time he was blocked by fighting between the Turkish army and militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) near the Iraq-Turkey border.

The Vanishing: Why Are Young Egyptian Activists Disappearing?

By Nicola Abé

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's security forces have been kidnapping scores of young activists in the country. They include former revolutionaries and Islamists who are, in many cases, being denied due process.

A paper sun hangs on the wall, and the dresser is covered with bottles of nail polish in all colors. The woman who used to inhabit this room, who has been in the hands of the government for the past three months, seemed to have a fondness for ladybugs. There is a stuffed animal ladybug on the bed, and a rug in the shape of a ladybug on the floor. "Her friends called her the ladybug of the revolution," Duaa El-Taweel, 22, says of her sister, who has disappeared.

El-Taweel says her sister Esraa was restless and constantly on the go, taking pictures wherever she went. The walls are covered with patches of dried adhesive. "We took down the pictures," she says, explaining that anyone depicted in them is in danger. El-Taweel pulls letters from her sister out of a cardboard box. They were folded to make them as small as possible, so that they could be smuggled out of prison. "I was blindfolded for 15 days," El-Taweel reads from one of the letters. "I felt as if I were in a grave. It was so bad that I prayed to God to allow me to be resurrected. But I couldn't kneel down. They kidnapped me on the last day of my period. I couldn't wash myself for 17 days."

South Sudanese flow into Uganda despite peace deal

September 13, 2015 - 4:50PM

Stuart Rintoul

Inside a cattle truck bouncing along a dirt road in northern Uganda are 91 people, tightly huddled on the metal tray, women and children mostly, choking from the dust that whirls up from the road. Their faces are filled with stress and relief – to be moving away from South Sudan. Some children have fallen asleep, from exhaustion and sickness, two are vomiting.

While the world's attention is fixed on Syrian refugees pouring into Europe, the migrant crisis in Africa continues unabated. Uganda – despite high levels of poverty – has absorbed more than half a million refugees and asylum seekers fleeing countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Somalia.

After 20 months of fighting that saw innumerable human rights abuses, South Sudan president Salva Kiir late last month signed a peace deal with rebel leader Riek Machar, his former deputy. 

Despite the peace deal, the flow of refugees out of South Sudan has scarcely changed. At the main entry point into northern Uganda at Elegu, some refugees say they have not heard of the agreement, while others have no confidence it will last. None are thinking of going back to South Sudan any time soon.

Beijing says Hong Kong’s top leader is above legislature, judiciary

REUTERS

Hong Kong’s leader enjoys a special legal position that puts him above the legislature and judiciary, China’s top official in the city said, raising some politicians’ concerns about Beijing’s expanding influence there.

Hong Kong’s leader, the chief executive, reports to the central Chinese government. Thousands of the city’s residents have held protests demanding full democracy, putting pressure on current leader Leung Chun-ying.

Speaking Saturday, Beijing’s chief liaison officer, Zhang Xiaoming, said political systems where branches of government could check the powers of others “is usually established in sovereign states” and that the chief executive’s authority was above all.

Surviving desert marathons: 'Imagine the Devil holding a blowtorch in your face'

By Sheena McKenzie, for CNN

Updated 0257 GMT (0957 HKT) September 13, 2015

When Dean Karnazes ran 135 miles nonstop across Death Valley during the height of summer, the heat was so intense it "caused the epithelia in my mouth and throat to slough off, like a reptile shedding its skin."

"I really enjoyed that race," adds the the legendary 53-year-old American runner.

Indeed, put Karnazes in 130F heat with a headwind like "the Devil's blowtorch" and blisters the size of marbles, and he'll happily tell you he's "never felt more alive."

This, afterall, is the "Ultramarathon Man" who in 2005 ran 350 miles nonstop for almost 81 hours -- that's over three days without sleep (Karnazes later said he experienced bouts of "sleep running,"where his body kept jogging while his mind napped).