Iraq Isis Crisis: Armed US Aircraft Securing Baghdad Airspace

Iraq Isis Crisis: Armed US aircraft securing Baghdad airspaceReuters file photo

The US's armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are flying over Baghdad airspace to protect Washington's interests in the Iraqi capital from the Sunni Islamists.

The surveillance drones are intended to collect intelligence about the activities of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) militants.

"What I would tell you is that we continue to fly both manned and unmanned aircraft over Iraq at the... Iraqi government's request, predominantly for reconnaissance purposes. Some of those aircraft are armed," Pentagon spokesperson Real Admiral John Kirby told reporters.

The New York Times had earlier reported that Predator drones, fitted with Hellfire missiles, are circling over Baghdad.

Averaging about three dozen sorties every day, the US air force has been operating the flights for more than a week. The jets have been pressed into service following the deployment of US advisers on Iraqi soil to assist the Shiite-led administration in its fight against the Sunni extremists.

"The reason that some of those are armed is primarily for force protection now that we have introduced into the country some military advisers whose objective will be to operate outside the confines of the embassy," Kirby said.

Of the 300 planned US troops, nearly two-thirds have already arrived in the Iraqi capital.

"We're flying a great deal (of) manned and unmanned...intelligence and reconnaissance assets, and we're building a picture so that if the decision were made to support the Iraqi security forces as they confront (Isis), we could do so," head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, told a radio interview.

The Obama administration has so far refrained from ordering airstrikes on the Islamists' positions.

'Child Abuse' Archbishop Josef Wesolowski Defrocked in Vatican Trial Sentencing

Archbishop Josef Wesolowski was found guilty of sex abuses by a Vatican court.Reuters

The former Holy See envoy to the Dominican Republic has been convicted and defrocked over child abuse in an unprecedented trial at the Vatican.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office tasked with overseeing the Church's integrity, also known as the Holy Office, found Polish archbishop Josef Wesolowski guilty of sex abuse during his tenure as papal nuncio in Santo Domingo.

The canonical trial's verdict conferred a sentence of laicization - the banishment of a priest from the clergy. It is the harshest penalty possible the Holy Office can hand to a cleric.

The 66-year-old is also facing the prospect of imprisonment in the Vatican's tiny jail, as, when all appeals are exhausted, he will be tried by a criminal tribunal of the city state.

Wesolowski has two months to appeal. During that time, the Vatican said that he will be placed under some unspecified restrictive measures.

The Polish clergyman served as the Apostolic nuncio to the Dominican Republic from 2008 to August 2013, when he was recalled to the Holy See after the archbishop of Santo Domingo, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez, told Pope Francis about claims that Wesolowski had sexually abused teenage boys.

Wesolowski had been exposed by a local television station, which alleged he hired "rent boys".

A 13-year-old boy working as a shoeshiner told NCDN channel that the archbishop paid him to masturbate in his presence and filmed the act on his mobile phone.

The case caused great embarrassment to the Vatican as Wesolowski was an official representative of the Pontiff and had been ordained as a priest and bishop by Pope John Paul II, who has recently been made a saint.

Wesolowski is the highest-ranking Vatican official ever to be investigated for sex abuse, and has become the first top papal representative to receive a defrocking sentence.

Oil Prices Set for First Weekly Drop Since Iraq Crisis

A member of the Kurdish security forces guards an oil refinery on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq, on 22 June, 2014.Reuters

Crude oil prices are on course to log their first weekly-loss in three weeks amid rumours that oil output from Iraq, Opec's second-largest crude producer, will not be hit by the ongoing Sunni insurgency in that country.

Brent August contract was trading at $113.34 a barrel at 11:17 BST in London.

WTI August contract was trading at $105.48 a barrel in electronic trading in New York.

Both contracts are down 1.3% since 20 June.

Commerzbank Corporates & Markets said in a note to clients: "The oil market appears to be gradually pricing out the fear premium associated with Iraq again. Brent is trading at $113 per barrel this morning and has thus shed nearly $3 from the 9½-month high it achieved last week.

The Iraqi picture.Bloomberg, Commerzbank Research

"Increasingly, investors are convinced that the fighting in the north of Iraq will have no impact on the oil supply in the south. There are also signs from the north that give rise to hopes that the oil supply there might soon return to the market. For example, the regional government in Kurdistan intends very soon to double oil exports to 250,000 barrels per day."

"By year's end, an export volume of 400,000 barrels per day is targeted. Oil production is also recovering slowly in Libya: now that a smaller oil field in the west of the country has gone back into operation and a smaller export terminal in the east has reopened, Libyan oil production has climbed to 300,000 barrels per day. All of this points to a continuation of the moderate downturn in the Brent price.

"That said, the continuing tail risks of disruptions to supply in Iraq argue against any sharper price fall, meaning that the price is likely to remain above $110 per barrel. WTI dropped to a two-week low of $105 per barrel [on 26 June]. Speculation about a relaxation of the crude oil export ban in the US, which drove the WTI price up for a while this week, already appears to be abating again. What is more, we do not expect any decision to be taken on this matter before the congressional elections in November," Commerzbank added.

Commerzbank Corporates & Markets said in a separate note: "Against the backdrop of continued fighting in Iraq, the price of Brent oil should stay well above $110 per barrel for the time being. That said, new estimates of [Opec] production are likely to confirm that oil production in Iraq has not been affected by the advance of the Sunni terror group in northern and western Iraq.

"The oil market therefore remains in plentiful supply. Furthermore, as we do not expect significant outages in the south of the country in the medium-term either, the oil price should surrender its gains again in the coming weeks."

BDS Scores Another Victory with Italy and Spain Warning Against Business in Israeli Settlements

An ultra-Orthodox youth walks past a construction site in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Modiin Illit (Reuters)

Spain and Italy's governments have warned their citizens against doing business with Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights.

Following the advice of French foreign ministry, which issued a similar notice to their nationals, Madrid and Rome said that any business conducted in the settlements entails legal risks as they are built upon land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The European Union and its members do not recognise Israeli rule there, which is illegal under international law.

"The current situation could lead to disputes over land, water, quarries or natural resources that were acquired or in which money was invested," read the statement from the Spanish Foreign Ministry. "Companies must take into account that [financial activity in the settlements] is liable to lead to their involvement in breaking international law and violating human rights."

Spain officially opposes sanctioning or boycotting Israel, foreign ministry officials explained. The warning was an implementation of a decision by the European Union and alignment with actions taken by other European countries. The UK and Germany issued similar warnings several months ago.

Italy's foreign minister Federico Mogherini also cautioned Italians "not to get involved in financial activity and investments" in settlement. The warning was given "in accord with other European countries" said Mogherini, in a bid to implement a political decision taken earlier.

Earlier, France's foreign ministry said that financial activity in the settlements "such as money transfers, investments, acquisition of property, provision of supplies or the performance of any other economic activities that benefit the settlements involves risks".

The statement continued to warn of the risks posed by settlement investment because of the international community's refusal to recognise them as part of Israel.

"This could lead to a high likelihood of land disputes or disagreements regarding water, quarries or other natural resources," the French statement added.

"This involves risk to the image of those who carry out such economic activity... We call upon citizens or businesspeople who are considering becoming involved in economic activity in the settlements to seek appropriate legal advice before going ahead."

An Israeli diplomat told Haaretz that the warnings were unwelcome at a time when three Israeli teenagers remain missing after being kidnapped in the occupied West Bank.

Dani Dayan, the chairman of the YESHA (Hebrew acronym for Yehuda Shomron, Aza) Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria tweeted that French citizens "keep joining" the West Bank's Jewish communities and that their "investment won't stop".

The warning from Italian, French and Spanish governments comes as a victory for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as the decision, though not legally-binding, is likely to lead to an increased boycott of the countries' financial activity within the settlements.

Argentina Blames US Court's 'Absurd' Ruling for Assisting 'Global Usurers'

The Economy Ministry building is seen in Buenos AireReuters

A US judge has scheduled a hearing today to consider Argentina's stance on payments to holdout creditors, as the country struggles to avoid slipping into another debt default spiral.

Earlier, the court blocked the country's attempt to pay its restructured bondholders. Argentina had deposited about $832m (£489m, €610m) at New York banks to make interest payments, which were due 30 June on its foreign-currency bonds, without paying the holdout creditors.

Agentina's Economy Minister Axel Kicillof said: "The absurd ruling...constitutes a sophisticated way to try and bring us to our knees before global usurers."

Argentina has been engaged in a long legal battle with hedge funds, Elliott Management and Aurelius Capital, which refused take part in the country's debt restructurings. About 92% of the country's creditors agreed to swap debts and accept less money.

Earlier, US District Judge Thomas Griesa ordered that Argentina must compensate the holdout creditors at the same time it pays investors, who took part in its debt restructuring.

Argentina claimed that if the country paid the suitors on their terms, it would lead to claims from other holdouts of around $15bn in debt.

Following the adverse ruling, Argentina said it was willing to negotiate with the so-called "vulture funds" to settle the 12-year-long legal dispute, and asked the court to stay its order to "allow the Republic to engage in a dialogue with the plaintiffs in a reasonable time frame."

Without the stay, Argentina would not be able to make the 30 June coupon payment on its restructured bonds. If it does not make the payment, it is likely to fall into technical default after a 30-day grace period.

The lawsuits have kept the country from accessing the international capital markets since defaulting on its debt in 2001.

Gold Hovers Near Two-Month High on Weak Asia Demand and Uneven US Recovery

Gold prices hover near two-month high in London on 27 June.Reuters

Gold prices hovered near a two-month high in London on 27 June amid reports of weak Asian demand and after recent data highlighted that the US's road to economic recovery appears to be an uneven one.

Spot Gold prices hovered at $1,317.09 an ounce at 9:16 BST in London, according to Bloomberg data.

Gold for delivery in August inched up 0.1% to $1,318 on the Comex in New York.

Commerzbank Corporates & Markets said in a note to clients: "According to data from the Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong government, Chinese gold imports from the former British crown colony declined [in May 2014] on a net basis for the third consecutive month to total just 52.6 [tonnes].

China picture.Hong Kong Statistics Dept, Reuters, Commerzbank C&M

"Although this marked their lowest level since January 2013, prices hardly responded at all, unlike following the announcement of the April figures - which were likewise poor - four weeks ago..."

"407 [tonnes] of gold have been imported net from Hong Kong to China since the beginning of [2014]; extrapolated to the year as a whole, this would imply net imports of well under 1,000 [tonnes] and thus a noticeable decline year-on-year. Both the World Gold Council and the Shanghai Gold Exchange had recently expressed the expectation that Chinese gold demand would probably achieve roughly the same level as [2013].

"That said, gold could increasingly have been imported via the Shanghai free trade zone, meaning that the data from Hong Kong no longer give a complete picture of Chinese gold demand. This may explain the reaction of the gold price [on 26 June]. However, statements by the regional [Federal Reserve] President Bullard, who said that US key interest rates might already be raised in the first quarter of 2015, were also ignored by the market," Commerzbank added.

China Scandal

China's commodities trading sector has been dealt a fresh blow after its National Audit Office (NAO) discovered that tens of billions of renminbi (RMB) in loans were obtained on the back of false gold transactions.

The NAO on 26 June said that RMB94.4bn ($15.2bn, €11.2bn, £8.9bn) worth of loans had been backed by falsified gold transactions.

Meanwhile, a Standard Bank report on 26 June said gold demand in Asia, the leading consumer of the precious metal, remained weak.

US Data

Data from the US on 26 June showed that American consumer confidence held near its 2014 high during the week ended 21 June.

Earlier, data released on 25 June showed that the US economy experienced its worst quarter for five years over the first three months of 2014. The news weighed on the US dollar, which dropped to a seven-week low.

Revised statistics from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) showed that the world's leading economy contracted by 2.9% in the first quarter, having grown by 2.6% over the final quarter of 2013.

Asia Pricing

China and Singapore are competing to provide viable gold pricing benchmarks in Asia.

China, on 25 June said at an industry conference that it wants to increase its influence on the global gold market and that it hopes to have its own price "fix".

Singapore said at the same conference it will roll out a physical gold contract on an exchange, to set up a transparent form of pricing.

The moves, to establish localised pricing of the yellow metal, come ahead of a World Gold Council (WGC) meeting that hopes to "explore reform of the London Gold Fix", an age-old pricing of gold twice daily that has drawn regulatory scrutiny for its alleged lack of transparency.

30,000 Indian Shia Muslims Ready to Fight Isis 'Bare Handed' in Iraq

Men scramble to get election pamphlets from the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of various Shia political and religious parties, at Buratha Mosque in Baghdad, in the run-up to national elections - File photo.hris Hondros / Getty Images

Some 30,000 Indian Shia Muslims have submitted their passports and are ready to travel to Iraq to defend Shiite holy shrines from the advancing Sunni Islamist insurgents by any means available.

According to recruiters a further 100,000 have pledged support for the cause and are also willing to travel and defend their faith.

Shia Muslim organisations said many of the volunteers are well-educated, have filled out forms and are "ready to go any moment".

Syed Bilal Hussain Abidi, a senior Shia cleric said: "The volunteers are educated young men from different backgrounds. We do not plan to train them in arms. We will go there to fight them bare handed."

India is home to around 175 million people of Islamic faith. Although the majority of the country's Islamic population are Sunni, Shia Muslims are estimated to make up between 40 million and 50 million.

Apparently the aim is to build a volunteer corps of a million people who will "form a human chain around the holy shrines of Karbala and Najaf".

“"We are looking at a million volunteers to form a human chain around the holy shrines of Karbala and Najaf, in case the Isis attacks. We will do everything to stop the advance of the enemies."”

- Syed Bilal Hussain Abidi, leader of Anjuman E Haideri

One of the organisations that recruits the "fighters" has said it plans to march to the Iraqi embassy in New Delhi to submit the visa applications.

"We could travel to Iraq to form a human chain to save people from being tortured. We could fetch water and donate blood and do anything to save our shrines," Abidi of Anjuman E Haideri, told Reuters.

Anjuman E Haideri, whose headquarters is located off Karbala Road in New Delhi, is only one of such organisations that recruit people in an unprecedented campaign to save the faith.

Earlier, the All India Shia Husaini Fund (AISHF) had said around 4,000 people volunteered to travel to Iraq and fight against the Isis militants.

However, the government of India has said it would not allow Indians to travel to Iraq because of security issues, and it's not clear how the Iraqi embassy in India will deal with the visa applications.

Moreover, the recruiters do not seem to have a clear idea about what the faith-driven fighters will do in Iraq.

AISHF Secretary General, Syed Hasan Mehdi, told IBTimes UK the "fighters" are amateurs and have been given no combat training. He said the volunteers would primarily be involved in aiding the efforts to rescue abducted Indians in Iraq and protect the holy Shiite shrines.

When pressed further whether the group was putting the lives of thousands in danger, Mehdi replied "Allah is with us."

Among those who signed up are engineers, police officers and students. They application form that they signed states: "I firmly believe that terrorism of all kinds including the one which is being inflicted by known terror groups in Iraq is not only a serious threat to innocent Iraqis (irrespective of their religious beliefs) but is also a threat to the entire humanity."

Syed Bahadur Abbas Naqvi, the general secretary Anjuman E Haideri, said they had to step in and send fighters to Iraq as the government of India did not have plans to send forces to Iraq.

"We have nearly 30,000 volunteers who have filled in the forms and given their passports and are ready to go any moment. Another hundred thousand have got in touch with us and have pledged their support. We are looking at a million volunteers to form a human chain around the holy shrines of Karbala and Najaf, in case the Isis attacks. We will do everything to stop the advance of the enemies," added Abidi, according to news portal Iraqi News.

Thailand: Buddhist Monk Jailed for Raping 15-year-old Girl in his Temple

The National Office of Buddhism (NOB) launched a 24-hour hotline to report monks behaving badly.Reuters

A Buddhist monk has been jailed for raping a teenage girl in his temple in Bangkok, Thailand.

Sanan Kamsridaeng, 65, was sentenced to five and a half years in jail after he confessed to raping the girl at his temple.

The victim, who was reportedly aged under 15 at the time the rape took place, had also been detained against her will in the temple by the monk.

"He was sentenced on Thursday to six years in jail for the first count... and five years for the second count. But because he confessed, the judge cut his sentence to five years and six months," a Bangkok criminal court official told AFP.

The conviction comes as the leader of Thailand's military junta, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, expressed concern over the image of Buddhism.

"There have been a lot of cases regarding bad behaviour related to monks, so we just want to fix this problem," said the junta spokesman Werachon Sukondhapatipak, in a report in The Guardian.

Last September, according to that same report, authorities seized nearly US$800,000 (£469,971) worth of assets - including a Porsche and a Mercedes-Benz - from a monk who was defrocked after travelling in a private jet and following accusations that he'd fathered a child by an underage girl a decade earlier.

In response to the growing concern regarding monks' misbehaviour, the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) launched in June a 24-hour hotline to report monks' bad conduct.

Napparat Benjawattananant, head of the office, said at the time the hotline was launched, "People can file a complaint if they see monks are involved in irreligious things. For example if they see fake monks collecting donations.

"We don't have enough staff to check every monk, so we need to mobilise the general public."

The hotline has received 142 complaints against unruly monks so far.

"But for sexual complaints we have to carry out in depth investigation," Benjawattananant said, adding monks found to have had sex should also face criminal charges.

Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin Bag $1.28bn US Helicopter Deal

A file photograph of a US Air Force UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.Reuters

Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies, and Lockheed Martin have bagged a $1.28bn contract to develop a new combat rescue helicopter (CRH) for the US Air Force.

The deal could eventually be worth about $7.9bn (£4.6bn, €5.8bn).

The initial contract covers the development and delivery of four CRHs based on Sikorsky's UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter -- the US Air Force has, for nearly 15 years, been trying to replace its aging fleet of HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters.

The Air Force said Sikorsky and its key supplier, Lockheed, beat the service's affordability target by about $700m. Lockheed will supply the mission systems and special equipment for the new helicopters.

Sam Mehta, president of Sikorsky Defense Systems and Services, told Reuters that Sikorsky bid aggressively to secure the contract.

The new contract - and a separate one for a new presidential helicopter - will boost Sikorsky's production 2019 onwards, but the firm faces challenges in the near-term owing to waning US military spending, Mehta added.

On 24 June, the US Pentagon approved the sale of Black Hawk helicopters to Mexico, a deal worth $225m.

Controversy

The CRH contract has suffered a fair share of controversy.

The US revisited the procurement programme in 2012 after protests from Sikorsky and Lockheed forced the government to cancel an earlier contract awarded to Boeing.

However, Boeing, Airbus and Northrop Grumman exited the 2012 bidding process arguing that the Air Force had altered its requirements to favour Sikorsky's helicopter.