Iraq: ISIS Release Video Showing Children Brandishing Arms at 'Juniior Jihadis' Training Camp


ISIS Video

Chidlren look on as a child assembles an automatic gun.CNN



Terror group ISIS have released a video showing children as young as ten at a training camp for "junior jihadi's."


The video shows the youngsters brandishing military weapons and firing machine guns while masked in balaclavas.


Children look on as a small child struggles to control an automatic weapon, as he fires it.


Another boy is seen expertly assembling a weapon, while children watch in the background.


It also shows the young children taking an oath pledging an allegiance to the Islamic State.


A small child is asked on camera what he would like to say to infidels.


He replies: "Infidels... you are to be killed."


ISIS Video

CNN



It is thought the video is aimed at recruiting more children and young people to the militant group, who in recent months have taken over swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq as their murderous onslaught continues.


A boy, who managed to flee from one of the training camps, told CNN how ISIS tried to recruit him when he was 13 issuing threats to behead his father if he attempted to intervene.


The boy revealed he was forced to attend the camp, where he joined other children for exercise, studied about the Quran and took courses on weapons. He revealed that the children were often forced to watch gruesome videos of beheadings and torture.


"When we go to the mosque, they order us to come the next day at a specific time and place to [watch] heads cut off, lashings or stonings.


"We saw a young man who did not fast for Ramadan, so they crucified him for three days, and we saw a woman being stoned [to death] because she committed adultery."


ISIS Video

CNN



The boy managed to escape the camp after his father pulled him out. He and his family then fled to safety in Turkey.


The Islamic State also released a decapitation video yesterday in which they threatened America with more beheadings of hostages.


Just hours earlier Islamic State had released shocking footage of the mass execution of 300 Syrian national army soldiers in the Syrian Desert titled '2ndAmessagetoAmerica.'


The group's first warning ten days ago was entitled 'A Message to America' and showed the decapitation of American journalist James Foley.


ISIS video

CNN



The video comes after David Cameron announced yesterday that more armed police will patrol Britain's streets to counter the threat posed by fanatics returning from Iraq and Syria.


He warned that the return of hundreds of extremists from Iraq to the UK, posed a greater threat to British security than Al Qaeda or the IRA ever did.


His comments came as Theresa May announced the official terror threat level had been raised to 'severe' – the second-highest state – for the first time in three years.



Jewish Lev Tahor Sect 'Forced From' Guatemalan Village


Children of the Lev Tahor in San Juan la Laguna. (Reuters)

Children of the Lev Tahor in San Juan La Laguna. (Reuters)



An Orthodox Jewish community has been forced from a village in a remote Guatemalan countryside, after a dispute with members of the local indigenous Mayan people became increasingly venomous.


Mayan elders asked the Lev Tahor community to leave the village of San Juan La Laguna, which is about 150km west of capital Guatemala City.


They claimed the Jews had shunned the other villagers, and attempted to impose their customs and religion. On Friday the Lev Tahor loaded their luggage and bags onto buses bound for the capital.


"We are a people of peace and in order to avoid an incident we've already begun to leave," Lev Tahor member Misael Santos told the AFP news agency.


"We have a right to be there, but they threatened us with lynching if we don't leave," he added.


The Lev Tahor members said that they had been subjected to verbal abuse, and threats had been made to cut off their water and electricity supplies since they arrived from Canada in March.


A man from the Lev Tahor loads bags onto a bus as the community depart San Juan La Laguna. (Reuters)

A man from the Lev Tahor sect loads bags onto a bus, as the community depart San Juan La Laguna.(Reuters)



Their customs clashed with those of the locals, who claimed that the Lev Tahor were trying to undermine their Catholic faith.


"We felt intimidated by them in the streets. We thought they wanted to change our religion and customs," village elder Miguel Vasquez Cholotio told Reuters.


Founded in the 1980s by Israeli Shlomo Helbrans, the group practices a fundamentalist form of Judaism. Their name means "Pure Heart" in Hebrew.


In Canada, critics and relatives of group members accused Lev Tahor of keeping children in unsanitary conditions, underage marriage and physical abuse.


The group will not settle in Israel, as they regard the Jews as a people in exile.



Oil Logs Second Straight Monthly Loss on Supply and Demand Concerns


Oil Logs Second Straight Monthly Loss on Supply and Demand Concerns

Pipelines and crude oil storage tanks at an oil refinery in Zawia, 55km west of Tripoli, Libya.(Reuters)



Crude oil futures rose on 29 August, and finished higher for the week, as upbeat US economic data and the Russia-Ukraine conflict buoyed prices.


However, concerns surrounding abundant supplies and weak global demand pulled down prices for the month as a whole, the second successive monthly loss.


Brent October contract finished 73 cents, or 0.7%, higher at $103.19 a barrel on Friday.


The European benchmark finished 0.9% higher for the week as a whole, but shed 2.7% in August.


US October contract finished $1.41, or 1.5%, higher at $95.96 a barrel on Friday.


Light, sweet crude finished 2.5% higher for the week, but shed 2.3% in August.


Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity markets at BNP Paribas, told MarketWatch that the oil market faced a rangebound future "where any bounces in volatility are opportunities to sell into".


Earlier, Commerzbank Corporates and Markets said in a note to clients: "Brent reacted hardly at all to the latest escalation of the Ukraine-Russia conflict and is continuing to trade below $103 per barrel. After all, it is extremely unlikely that Russia would suspend oil shipments in the event that further sanctions were to be imposed. Instead, the already subdued oil demand could dwindle yet further."


"According to consultant firm Oil Movements, [Opec] shipments in the four weeks to 13 September will decline by 340,000 barrels per day as compared to the previous four-week period.


Libya Oilfields, Ports and Refineries

(Reuters)



"Oil Movements attributes this to lower demand due, among other things, to upcoming maintenance work in European and American refineries, an economic slowdown in Asia and lower US imports due to growing US production. There is currently nothing on the supply side to argue in favour of a price recovery, either. According to a Reuters survey, [Opec] oil production in August climbed by 90,000 to 30.15 million barrels per day, primarily on the back of increased oil production in Libya and Angola.


"This was partially offset by lower production in Iraq, though this was not due to the ongoing fighting in the north of the country but to weather-related delays in the south. ARA gasoil stocks continued their upswing this week and, according to PJK International, grew by a further 11,000 to 2.752 million tons. This puts them at their highest level in nearly 2½ years, which suggests that Western Europe is amply supplied with middle distillates," Commerzbank added.



BREAKING: Military 'Coup' Under Way in Africa's Lesotho


Lesotho Coup

Military coup is reportedly under way in Africa's LesothoGoogle Maps



Military personnel are storming government buildings in Africa's landlocked Lesotho in what is suspected to be a coup attempt.


Gunfire has erupted as the troops attempted to seize the police headquarters and other government buildings.


"Military police have surrounded State House and there are reports of gunfire," an unnamed diplomat from the Lesotho capital Maseru told Reuters.


Private radio stations have reportedly been told to shut down in Africa's mountainous kingdom.


Earlier in June, the country's first coalition government, comprising three main political parties, is said to have collapsed.


Lesotho's International Relations Department spokesperson Clayson Monyela was quoted as saying: "The department will either convene a media briefing or issue a statement later today regarding the situation in Lesotho."



Gold Prices to Contend with Economic News and Geopolitical Tensions


Gold Prices to Contend with Geopolitical Tensions and Economic News

Gold prices to contend with geopolitical tensions and economic news next week.Reuters



Gold prices could trade sideways next week with the precious metal having to contend with geopolitical pressures and economic news.


As many as nine of 22 analysts polled in a Kitco Gold Survey said they expected gold prices to trade higher next week, while six predicted that prices will drop and seven forecast prices to trade sideways.


Any further escalation of geopolitical tensions in Ukraine, Iraq or the Middle East will boost the yellow metal's safe-haven status.


Prices will also take their cues from the outcome of 4 September's ECB meeting and a US nonfarm jobs report due on 5 September.


Adrian Day, CEO, Adrian Day Asset Management said: "With heightened tension in Ukraine and the possibility of a US strike on ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) inside Syria, with all that might mean, there will be a strong bid under gold. This follows a period when geopolitical tensions appeared to be easing, so we are looking for gold to continue to recover from early August sell-off."


Richard Baker, Editor, Eureka Miner Report, said: "Other than geopolitical spurts, it is unlikely that gold can sustain higher prices in a broadly declining commodity market. My present commodity value of gold when compared to oil, copper and silver is $1,215 suggesting the yellow metal is carrying a $70 per ounce premium to this aggregate. As this premium declines, gold will approach its commodity value in the range of $1,100 to $1,210 per ounce by year-end."


Gold Ends Higher


US gold futures for delivery in December finished $3 lower at $1,287.40 an ounce on 29 August.


Prices inched up 0.6% for the week as a whole.


Spot gold traded 0.3% lower at $1,286 an ounce.