Iraq: Isis 'is Massacring Women and Children from Ethnic Minorities', Amnesty Warns

Yazidis who fled their home due to the assaults of IS, take shelter under a bridge in Dohuk, Iraq on 28 August, 2014.(Getty Images)

The Islamic State (formerly known as Isis) is targeting ethnic minorities in northern Iraq, Amnesty International has warned.

The human rights organisation collected evidence that the Islamic insurgents have launched a "campaign of ethnic cleansing" against non-Arabs and non-Sunni Muslims, and said they are responsible for war crimes including extrajudicial executions and mass abductions.

The NGO interviewed people from the Yazidi community in the Sinjar region, who said the insurgents took dozens of people, including many women and children, to the outskirts of their village where they massacred them.

Thousands of people have also been abducted since the IS started their offensive against the Iraqi government last June, prompting more than 800,000 people to flee the occupied areas.

"There was no order, they [IS] just filled up vehicles indiscriminately," Said, who survived after being shot five times by the insurgents in Kocho, told Amnesty.

Another survivor, Salem, who managed to hide and survive near the massacre site for 12 days, said: "Some could not move and could not save themselves; they lay there in agony waiting to die. They died a horrible death. I managed to drag myself away and was saved by a Muslim neighbour; he risked his life to save me; he is more than a brother to me."

One man who gave Amnesty a list of 45 names of missing relatives, all of whom are women and children, said: "We get news from some of them but others are missing and we don't know if they are alive or dead or what has happened to them."

Sunni Muslims and Arabs believed to be against IS have also been targeted.

Amnesty urged the Iraqi government to intervene and stop the killings of innocent civilians.

“Iraq's government should focus on protecting all civilians regardless of their ethnicity or religion.”

Donatella Rovera - Amnesty International

"Instead of aggravating the fighting by either turning a blind eye to sectarian militias or arming Shi'a militias against the Islamic State as the authorities have done so far, Iraq's government should focus on protecting all civilians regardless of their ethnicity or religion," said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's senior crisis response adviser.

IS is well known for its brutal killings, which are often recorded and shared on social media. The group recently sparked worldwide outcry after posting a video showing an IS militant beheading American journalist James Foley.

The Islamic insurgents, who already control large swaths of Iraq and Syria, are attracting dozens of young fighters from abroad.

Hot Shots Photos of the Day: Sikh Warriors, West Indian Day, Maradona and the Pope

Diego Maradona gives Pope Francis an Argentina football shirt during an audience before the Inter-religious Match For Peace in Rome(Getty)

Diego Maradona takes a penalty during the Inter-religious Match for Peace, watched by Pope Francis, at the Olimpico Stadium in Rome(Getty)

May Myat Noe, winner of Miss Asia Pacific World 2014, attends a press conference in Yangon, Myanmar. The dethroned beauty queen said she would not return her jewel-encrusted Swarovski tiara, said to be worth between £60,000 and £120,000 until the pageant's organisers apologised for calling her a liar and a thief. The pageant committee reportedly paid for her to undergo breast enhancement surgery(AFP)

Costumed women walk out of a train as they arrive for the West Indian Day Parade in the Brooklyn borough of New York(Reuters)

Men participate in the annual West Indian Day parade in the Brooklyn borough of New York City(Getty)

A Sikh man performs a stunt with fire during celebrations of the 410th anniversary of the installation of the Guru Granth Sahib, the religious book of Sikhs, in the northern Indian city of Amritsar(Reuters)

A Nihang, or Sikh warrior, poses at the Golden Temple in Amritsar on the 410th anniversary of the installation of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy book of the Sikh religion(AFP)

Tourists have dinner as fish swim around them, at the Tianjin Haichang Polar Ocean World in Tianjin, China(Reuters)

Droplets of dew cling to a spider's web in Godewaersvelde in northern France along the Belgian border(AFP)

A piece of a mortar projectile is embedded in a road near the airport in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine(Reuters)

People mourn inside School Number One during a ceremony commemorating the victims of the 2004 hostage crisis in the southern Russian town of Beslan(Reuters)

Members of the Polish military take part in a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland, at the World War Two Westerplatte Memorial in Gdansk(Reuters)

Kurdish Peshmerga forces celebrate after they recaptured Sulaiman Pek, north-west of Tikrit, from Islamic State militants(Reuters)

Rebel fighters with fake weapons take part in a military display as part of a graduating ceremony at a camp in eastern al-Ghouta, Syria(Reuters)

Malaysian Airline Shares Gain on Khazanah's Restructuring Plan

Malaysia Airlines

Shares in troubled Malaysian Airline System (MAS) have gained as much as 4% as investors seem happy with the company's restructuring announced by state fund Khazanah Nasional, the majority shareholder in the company.

The shares opened 2% higher at 0.255 ringgit from 0.25 ringgit when the stock was suspended on 29 August, and rose as much as 4% at 0.26 ringgit. They are trading at 0.255 ringgit as at 7:30am BST.

Khazanah Nasional earlier announced a restructuring plan to return disaster-hit MAS to profitability by 2017.

It will take over minority shares for 1.38bn ringitt ($429m, €321m, £255m) to become the sole owner of the airline, leading to the delisting of the company from the country's stock exchange.

The 12-point plan includes creating a new company to house MAS's operations by July 2015, and spending up to 6bn ringgit to fund the restructuring exercise. As part of the plan, the company will axe 6,000 jobs, representing 30% of its workforce.

The shares are expected to be relisted by 2020 if the measures become successful.

Adding to its longstanding financial problems, MAS was hit by two major disasters in 2014.

In March, its flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared with 239 people on board. A search is under way in the Indian Ocean for the missing plane.

In July, another MAS flight heading to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam was shot down in eastern Ukraine, which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists, killing 298 people.

MAS earlier reported that its second-quarter net loss widened to 307m ringgit from 176m ringgit a year earlier.

Ebola: Liberia Nurses On Strike Demanding Higher Pay And Protective Gear

Nurses on strike at Monrovia hospital are demanding protective equipment which they say has not been provided.REUTERS

Nurses at Liberia's largest hospital have gone on strike demanding higher salaries as well as protective equipment against Ebola.

At the John F Kennedy hospital in Monrovia, the nurses sought personal protective equipment, hazmat-style suits that protect against the spread of the disease, reports AFP.

Despite the deadly nature of the disease which places health care workers at maximum risk, local health care workers, including nurses, are not adequately protected, said a spokesperson.

"From the beginning of the Ebola outbreak we have not had any protective equipment to work with. As result, so many doctors got infected by the virus. We have to stay home until we get the PPEs," he said.

The protective equipment includes scrubs, gum boots, gloves, suit, mask, hood, apron and goggles to ensure that no part of the body is left exposed.

Ebola spreads by contact with bodily fluids.

There have been 694 registered deaths in Liberia alone from the present Ebola outbreak.

US Launches Airstrikes in Somalia Targeting Key al-Shabab Figures

Ugandan soldiers serving in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) patrol in a formation near the Jilacow underground cell inside a national security compound after an attack by suspected militants in MogadishuFeisal Omar/Reuters

The US has launched airstrikes in Somalia targeting key al-Shabab Islamist figures, the Pentagon has announced.

It is still unclear who the exact targets of the bombardment were, as US officials said they were assessing the impact of the attack.

"We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate," Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters.

The US has also not revealed the timing of the operation nor where it took place.

US media outlets cited a military official as saying "a senior al-Shabab operative" was the target of the attack.

Local reports from Somalia suggest the airstrikes were carried out by US drones which launched Hellfire missiles near the port city of Barawe, a stronghold of al-Shabab.

It is not known if US ground forces were involved in the operation.

Last October, the US Navy Seals carried out an anti-terror operation, including a ground attack, in Barawe in a bid to capture senior commander Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulkadir.

The operation proved unsuccessful following a brief gunfire with the insurgents.

African forces retook the country from the al-Qaeda-inspired group in 2011 but the armed Islamist organisation, which controlled southern Somalia from 2006, remains a dominant force in the region, frequently staging major attacks.

The latest American attack has come on the heels of the extremists launching a car bomb attack on an intelligence facility in the capital Mogadishu in an effort to release al-Shabab detainees.

The encounter left seven militants and five others dead.

Israel: Aerial Video Shows Devastated Gaza City's Al-Shejaiya Suburb

Palestinians walk on the rubble of their destroyed houses in the Tufah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.(MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images)

The scale of the devastation caused by Israeli shelling on Gaza during the recent two-month conflict has been shown in an online video.

The brief footage by Palestinian-based production company Media Town was taken from the air above Gaza City's eastern suburb of Al-Shejaiya.

A series of buildings shattered or completely reduced to rubble can be seen in the one-minute footage that was recorded at the end of August.

Al-Shejaiya was the site of fierce fighting and, on 19-20 July, underwent one of Israel's heaviest bombardments during Operation Protective Edge.

At least 60 residents of the densely populated neighbourhood were killed and thousands were forced to flee their homes.

Some 13 Israeli soldiers from the Golani Brigade were also killed during the clashes, Arutz Sheva 7 reported.

Fighting in the Gaza strip has ceased as an open-ended truce between Israel and Hamas was agreed last week.

According to international organisations, at least 17,000 Gaza housing units were destroyed or severely damaged during the conflict, adding to a pre-existing shortage of 75,000 homes.

Inter-agency Shelter Cluster, which is chaired by the Norwegian Refugee Council with the participation of the UN refugee agency and the Red Cross, said that if the current blockade on the strip remains in place, it will take up to 20 years to rebuild the necessary housing stock.

Palestinian officials have estimated that total costs of reconstruction could surpass $6bn (£3.6bn).

In the seven-week conflict, over 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians and 68 Israelis - of whom all but five were soldiers - were killed.

Vladimir Putin Continues Soviet Rhetoric by Questioning Kazakhstan's 'Created' Independence

Presidents Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan (front L) and Vladimir Putin of Russia arrive at the Summit of Head of States of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in Moscow.(Reuters)

Fears are growing in Kazakhstan over Moscow's rhetoric towards the country following Russia President Vladimir Putin's claim that "Kazakhs never had any statehood", it was "created".

The Russian leader told a pro-Kremlin youth camp at Lake Seliger near Moscow that Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev had "created a state on a territory that never had a state."

"Kazakhs never had any statehood, he has created it," he said.

It is believed by analysts that Putin's statement of Kazakh independence only being achieved because of Nazarbayev is a warning that it could easily vanish when the 74-year-old is no longer in office.

In response, Nazarbayev warned that Kazakhstan may leave the Russian-led Customs Union, an economic coalition which includes Belarus, if it feels that its independence is threatened in any way by Moscow.

"Kazakhstan has a right to withdraw from the Eurasian Economic Union," he told the Kazakh television station Khabar.

"Kazakhstan will not be part of organisations that pose a threat to our independence."

Kazakhstan was the last Soviet republic to declare independence from the Soviet Union when it finally did so in December 1991.

"Our independence is our dearest treasure, which our grandfathers fought for," Nazarbayev added. "First of all, we will never surrender it to someone, and secondly, we will do our best to protect it."

Putin's comments conjure memories of a statement he made to former US President George Bush in 2008 when he said that "Ukraine is not even a state!" during a Bucharest summit.

According to The Moscow Times, many Kazakhs have taken to social media in counter Putin's claims that Kazakhstan "never had any statehood", demanding that people "send a history textbook to Putin".

Russia's annexation of the Crimea Peninsula and its alleged incursion into eastern Ukraine and support of pro-Russian separatists have contributed to fears in Astana that Moscow may set its sights on other areas of the former Soviet Union.