• Indian soldiers killed in Kashmir

    Five Indian soldiers have died in Kashmir after being attacked by unknown gunmen.

    The Indian army has blamed Pakistan for the attack, but a Pakistani military official has told the BBC that "no fire took place" from their side.

    Omar Abdullah,the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, said such incidents "don't help efforts to normalise or even improve relations with Pakistan and call in to question the Pakistan government's recent overtures".

    Read more here.

  • Western diplomats touch down in Egypt

    International efforts to end the crisis in Egypt gained momentum as diplomats from the Gulf, the EU and the US met the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Khairat el-Shater, today.

    Shater, who is currently imprisoned, met the diplomats in a 1 hour discussion, telling them to negotiate with the deposed president Morsi.

    Shater, an influential Muslim Brotherhood leader who is currently charged with inciting killings during the protests a few days before the military toppled Morsi, told the diplomats that the only person they should be negotiating was the ‘true president of the country’.

    Speaking on the Egyptian unrest, US senator, Lindsey Graham, said,

    “I want to keep the aid flowing to Egypt but it has to be with the understanding that Egypt is going to march towards democracy, not towards a military dictatorship. And that’s the message we’re going to send.”

  • Yemen on 'high alert' from al-Qaeda threat
    Fears of an al-Qaeda linked attack have placed Yemen's security forces on high alert, with tanks and tropps surrounding foreign missions, government offices and the airport in the capital city of Sanaa.

    Both the US and the UK have withdrawn diplomatic staff from Yemen and urged their citizens to leave.

    The Guardian reports that "Yemeni tribal sources and unnamed officials had reported two US drone strikes that killed four al-Qaida operatives in Marib, north-east of Sana'a, including a senior commander who was named by al-Jazeera as Salah al-Jumati."

    The US's Middle-East embassy closures and travel alerts were reportedly in reaction to intercepted conversations between two senior al-Qaeda figures suggesting renewed attacks.

    BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner writes:
    "Washington considers Al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP) to be by far the most dangerous to the West because it has both technical skills and global reach."
    "For the West, AQAP presents three dangers: locally, to western embassies and citizens in Yemen; inspirationally, to potential jihadists around the world through its online magazine Inspire and globally, by putting bombs on planes."
  • Strike in Assam over separate state

    Members of a tribe in north-east India have begun a 100-hour strike to demand the creation of a separate state in Assam.

    The Dimasa tribe want to turn Dima Hasao into their homeland, following on from protests by the neighbouring Karbi tribes people who also demand a separate state.

    The calls follow the creation of the new state of Telengana after protests in Andhra Pradesh.

    Read more here.

  • Human Rights Watch expresses concern over Thailand amnesty bill

    Human Rights Watch expressed concern over a bill, proposed by the Thai government, which will grant amnesty to soldiers and officials responsible for deaths in the 2010 upheavals.

    On 7th August parliament will discuss a bill that provides amnesty for all protestors charged with causing disturbance with no mention of its stance on military officials involved in violence against protestors.

    Criticising the bill, Asia director for Human Rights Watch, Brad Adams, stated,

    “The ruling party’s bill lets both soldiers and militants responsible for deaths during 2010 upheaval off the hook.”

    “To ensure justice for the victims of violence and an end to Thailand’s longstanding culture of impunity the amnesty bill should exclude perpetrators of abuses and instead make them accountable for their crimes.”

  • US extends Middle-East embassy closure
    Several US embassies will remain closed over an extended period, after the state department issued a global travel alert warning of an al-Qaeda threat, which will stay in place until the end of August.

    A spokesperson for the department said in a press statement:

    Given that a number of our embassies and consulates were going to be closed in accordance with local custom and practice for the bulk of the week for the Eid celebration at the end of Ramadan, and out of an abundance of caution, we've decided to extend the closure of several embassies and consulates including a small number of additional posts.

    This is not an indication of a new threat stream, merely an indication of our commitment to exercise caution and take appropriate steps to protect our employees including local employees and visitors to our facilities.

    Posts in Abu Dhabi, Amman, Cairo, Riyadh, Dhahran, Jeddah, Doha, Dubai, Kuwait, Manama, Muscat, Sanaa, Tripoli, Antanarivo, Bujumbura, Djibouti, Khartoum, Kigali, and Port Louis are instructed to close for normal operations Monday, August 5 through Saturday, August 10.

    The following posts that are normally open on Sunday, but were closed on Sunday, August 4, are authorized to reopen for normal operations on August 5: Dhaka, Algiers, Nouakchott, Kabul, Herat, Mazar el Sharif, Baghdad, Basrah, and Erbil.
  • US offers Iran “willing partnership”

    The White House has offered Iran a “willing partnership” after the inauguration of the new president Hassan Rouhani.

    Jay Carney, the White House spokesperson, said Rouhani's inauguration "presents an opportunity for Iran to act quickly to resolve the international community's deep concerns over Iran's nuclear programme".

    "Should this new government choose to engage substantively and seriously to meet its international obligations and find a peaceful solution to this issue, it will find a willing partner in the United States," he said.

    Rouhani struck a conciliatory tone in his inaugural speech to the Iranian parliament, saying that his country would not cause a war.

    "In international interactions, my government will try to build mutual trust between Iran and the regional and global countries," he said.

    "Transparency is the key to open a new chapter in mutual trust. And the transparency we are talking about cannot be a one-way transparency, and without practical measures in our bilateral and multilateral relations."

  • AU declares Zimbabwean elections free and fair
    The African Union (AU) observer mission monitoring the Zimbabwean elections has declared the process free, fair and credible.

    Head of the mission, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, concluded that the will of the Zimbabwean people had been expressed despite minor problems.

    The African Union judgement comes amidst various calls of fraud in the Zimbabwean elections.
  • Zimbabwe opposition supporters "attacked"

    Supporters of the main opposition party in Zimbabwe have claimed to have been attacked after President Mugabe's election victory.

    Zanu-PF supporters are alleged to have attacked members of the MDC, whose leader Morgan Tsvangirai is disputing the results of the election.

    Read more here.

  • Telangana sparks protests
    India's decision to create a new state of Telangana has sparked protests in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

    Protests resulting in the closing of schools, colleges and business are in their third day, whilst a total of 36 legislators have resigned outraged at the state's splitting into two. In Kurnool, anti-Telangana protesters attacked a statue of the former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. See here.

    The sharing of Hyderabad - a hub of information technology and pharmaceutical industries - as the capital of both states, is the main source of contention.
  • Controversy over Mugabe victory
    Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president of over thirty years, has been re-elected on a landslide victory on Saturday.

    While international commentators voiced concern over the fairness of the election, defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa told AFP:

    "The West will now have to climb down, they must find a ladder and climb down... A democratic election has taken place in Zimbabwe,"

    Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai slammed the result as "fraudulent and stolen", declaring that cohabitation days were over and that the result would be challenged in court.

    One of the nine official electoral commissioners also resigned over "the manner" in which the polls "were proclaimed and conducted", delivering another blow to the credibility of the elections.
  • Syrian rebels to face UN investigation

    The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has called for investigations into atrocities alleged to have been committed by Syrian rebels.

    The call comes after footage emerged of executions of captured Syrian soldiers in Khan al-Assal in July.
    Pillay said the images were shocking and those responsible for violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law on all sides have to be held accountable.

    "Opposition forces should not think they are immune from prosecution. They must adhere to their responsibilities under international law," she said.

    "These images, if verified, suggest that executions were committed in Khan al-Assal. There needs to be a thorough independent investigation to establish whether war crimes have been committed. And those responsible for such crimes should be brought to justice."

  • Kerry pledges to end Pakistani drone strikes ‘soon’

    The US Secretary of State John Kerry has pledged to end drione strike on militants in Pakistan “very, very soon”, on the last day of his visit to the country.

    "I think the programme will end as we have eliminated most of the threat and continue to eliminate it," Mr Kerry said in a television interview.

    "The president has a very real timeline and we hope it's going to be very, very soon," he said.

    "We are here to speak honestly with each other, openly about any gaps that may exist that we want to try to bridge. Our people deserve that we talk directly."

    Pakistan has demanded an end to attacks on its territory, an issue which has strained relationships between the two countries.

    CIA drone strikes have killed up to 3,460 people in Pakistan since 2004 and high level security talks were halted after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in a US attack in 2011. The countries have now agreed to resume the talks.

  • System Of A Down call for genocide affirmation in the U.S

    The lead singer of the Grammy Award winning rock band, System Of A Down, Serj Tankian, challenged a full capacity crowd, at one of their Hollywood Bowl concerts, to imagine a world in which those who claim to speak for the international community remained silent on the Holocaust, as they do with various other genocides.

    Speaking to the band's 18000 fans, Tankian asked,

    "Imagine if this is the 1940s, and World War II had just started, and America decided not to enter war on the side of Britain."

    "Imagine if, Americans became allies with Nazi Germany and decided that we're going to push away the Holocaust, never use the word Holocaust in Government policy."

    "Imagine being Jewish and living in L.A and not hearing your President or Congress use the word Holocaust."

    "That's exactly what Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians feel when our government doesn't use the word genocide."

    The four members of System of  Down have been at the forefront of calling on the United States and international community to work toward a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian genocide and all genocides across the world.

  • Next Israeli-Palestinian talks to take place in Israel
    The next Israeli-Palestinian talks will take place in Israel, during the second week of August, said Israel's chief negotiator on Friday.

    The first set of Palestinian prisoners are expected to be freed by then.

    In a broadcast interview, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said:
    "We and the Palestinians both determined that the first meetings would be held once in Israel and once in the Palestinian Authority ... we want to do it directly (and close to home). The next meeting will be in the second week of August in Israel,"
    This week, peace talks took place for the first time in almost three years, in Washington, hosted by the US Secretary of State John Kerry.
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