UN condemns attack on Saudi embassy in Iran
The UN Security Council has strongly condemned an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran by protesters angered by the execution of a Shia cleric.
The statement made no mention of the execution of the cleric, Nimr al-Nimr.
Saudi Arabia broke off diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday after its embassy was ransacked and set alight.
On Monday, Turkey's Deputy PM Numan Kurtulmus urged both countries to calm the row, saying the Middle East was "already a powder keg".
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The UN Security Council, in response to a Saudi letter, condemned the attack on the embassy in Tehran and another attack on a Saudi consulate in the Iranian city of Mashhad.
The council called on Iranian authorities "to protect diplomatic and consular property and personnel, and to respect fully their international obligations in this regard".
It urged both sides to "maintain dialogue and take steps to reduce tensions in the region".
Burundi civil war fears as president accused of campaign of murder
As president Pierre Nkurunziza continues to cling to power, Amnesty International has documented arbitrary arrests, disappearances and deaths
Innocent Ntawumbabaye had obeyed police orders to open his front door when two officers walked wordlessly into his home and shot him several times in the head.
The 44-year-old milk seller wasn’t the only victim that day. On 11 December, after an attack on military installations in the capital, security forces loyal to president Pierre Nkurunziza responded by summarily executing 87 civilians in the space of a few hours.
Nkurunziza, a former rebel turned president, announced in April that he would run for a controversial third term, in a move many observers say contravened a 2005 peace deal that ended the 12-year civil war which claimed 300,000 lives.
Isis video: 'New Jihadi John' suspect Siddhartha Dhar is a 'former bouncy castle salesman from east London'
Siddhartha Dhar, a British-Indian Muslim convert, skipped bail and slipped out of Britain to travel to Syria 15 months ago
Shortly after skipping bail and slipping out of Britain to travel to Syria 15 months ago, Siddhartha Dhar published an e-book comparing the Caliphate declared by Isis to a “plush holiday resort”. Across 46 pages, the British jihadist eulogised about attractions from the quality of its coffee to the diversity of its inhabitants.
The online brochure, published last May, was dismissed as a risible, rose-tinted attempt at propaganda to attract new recruits to the terror group. But what went less noticed was the final paragraph written by the father-of-four from east London who had become a familiar figure in fringe Islamic circles prior to fleeing Britain in 2014.
The 32-year-old wrote: “When we descend on the streets of London, Paris and Washington the taste will be far bitterer, because not only will we spill your blood, but we will also demolish your statues, erase your history and, most painfully, convert your children who will then go on to champion our name and curse their forefathers.”
Senior TV managers resign in Poland in anticipation of new media law
Four senior managers at Poland's public broadcaster TVP have announced their resignations. Poland's imminent adoption of new media legislation would likely have resulted in their dismissals.
The Polish newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza" reported that four senior managers at Poland's public broadcaster TVP had announced their resignations. The news website wirtualnemedia.pl added that the resignations came from the heads of the channels TVP1, TVP2, TVP Kultura and the human resource department of the TVP group. The director-general at TVP reportedly accepted the notices.
The daily "Gazeta Wyborcza" explained that the managers in question may likely have intended to pre-empt their anticipated dismissals from the public broadcaster after a controversial new law passed through both chambers of the Polish parliament, which would allow the ruling party to choose their own heads for the public broadcaster.
What scientists discovered in Greenland could be making sea-level rise yet worse
Chelsea Harvey
Rising global temperatures may be affecting the Greenland ice sheet - and its contribution to sea-level rise - in more serious ways that scientists imagined, a new study finds.
Recent changes to the island's snow and ice cover appear to have affected its ability to store excess water, meaning more melting ice may be running off into the ocean than previously thought.
That's worrying news for the precarious Greenland ice sheet, which scientists say has already lost more than 9 trillions tons of ice in the past century - and whose melting rate only continues to increase as temperatures keep warming up.
Tensions surge as China lands plane on island in S. China Sea
Analysts say China's increasing military presence in the disputed sea could lead to a Beijing-controlled air zone, ratcheting up tensions in one of the world's most volatile areas.
HONG KONG / BEIJING — China's first landing of a plane on one of its new island runways in the South China Sea shows Beijing's facilities in the disputed region are being completed on schedule and military flights will inevitably follow, foreign officials and analysts said.
China's increasing military presence in the disputed sea could effectively lead to a Beijing-controlled air defense zone, they said, ratcheting up tensions with other claimants and with the United States in one of the world's most volatile areas.
Chinese foreign ministry officials confirmed on Saturday that a test flight by a civilian plane landed on an artificial island built in the Spratlys, the first time Beijing has used a runway in the area.
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