UK warned over US drone cooperation

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A former director of Britain’s spy agency has warned that British soldiers working along with US troops on controversial drones program could be at risk of breaking international law.  

David Omand, former head of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), issued the warning in a report released on Wednesday.

The report raised concerns about “embedded” officers from UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) working along with American colleagues and piloting US drones. The British military and intelligence experts are based at the US Air Force’s command and control facility for remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA) in Nevada.

Omand argued that UK’s cooperation with the US military in its deadly drone strikes must not involve British officers in any illegal activity.

The former GCHQ called for new guidelines to ensure that Britain “does not inadvertently collude in RPA or other counter-terrorism actions that could be held contrary to international law.”

Jennifer Gibson, a lawyer at the legal charity, Reprieve, commented on Oman’s remarks, saying “When figures such as the former head of GCHQ suggest Britain needs to distance itself from the US drone program, the UK government needs to listen.”

“There can no longer be any doubt that covert US drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen contravene international law. As long as the UK continues to support this program – through the sharing of intelligence, air bases and personnel – it is complicit in these illegal drone strikes,” Gibson added.

The UK currently possesses 500 of its own drones, with the number expected to rise significantly over the next years amid a £2-billion investment program. In addition, a £1-billion contract with French aerospace multinational Thales will see the addition of a fleet of Watchkeeper surveillance drones.

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Ebola tests spark riot in Sierra Leone

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Two people in Sierra Leone have died in a riot sparked by health workers attempting to take a blood sample from an elderly woman suspected to be infected with Ebola, doctors say.

At least two people have died and 10 others wounded during clashes between security forces and a machete-wielding mob in the eastern town of Koidu on Tuesday, hospital doctors said on Wednesday.

“Two bodies are now at the mortuary. I cannot say whether they have bullet wounds or what caused their deaths as the corpses have not … been examined [yet],” said one of the doctors.

The group of men successfully prevented the medical doctors from drawing blood from a 90-year-old woman, who was the mother of a youth leader, to test for the deadly Ebola virus.

“Ebola contact tracers visited the house of a prominent youth leader to take a blood sample of his ailing 90-year-old mother but were barred by a gang of youths” who said the woman did not have the disease, an eyewitness said.

Police are on the lookout for the son of the elderly woman, a youth leader named Adamu Eze, who commands wide support in the town and is thought to have gone into hiding.

Health organizations say the deadliest Ebola epidemic on record has infected over 6,000 in Sierra Leone and neighboring Liberia and Guinea, killing nearly half of them.

In Sierra Leone alone, the epidemic has claimed nearly 1,200 lives as of October 14, according to latest World Health Organization figures.

Globally, more than 4,500 people have died from the disease.

Ebola is a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding.

The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.

Ebola remains one of the world’s most virulent diseases and kills between 25 to 90 percent of those who contract the disease. There is currently no known cure for Ebola.

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Lawmakers slam Obama policy on Iran

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Key lawmakers on Capitol Hill are openly criticizing the White House for its plans to avoid a vote in Congress on any nuclear accord with Iran.

“I disagree with the administration’s reported assertion that it does not need to come to Congress at this point during negotiations with Iran,” said Eliot Engel (D-NY), the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s top Democrat, in a statement on Tuesday, according to the Foreign Policy magazine.

Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, also said that “Congress cannot be circumvented” as Iran and the P5+1 group are negotiating to narrow their differences over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear energy program ahead of a November 24 deadline.

The US Treasury Department has conducted a study concluding that President Barack Obama has the authority to suspend “the vast majority” of sanctions on Iran without a congressional vote,The New York Times revealed Monday.

Sources close to the Iranian negotiating team say the main stumbling block to resolving Western disputes over Iran’s nuclear issue is the removal of sanctions, not the number of centrifuges or the level of uranium enrichment.

The Obama administration is reportedly planning to suspend sanctions without an immediate vote in Congress, but it says lawmakers will have the final word on whether to permanently terminate sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The powerful Israel lobby is leading the charge against lifting anti-Iran sanctions.

“We have long supported a strong congressional role,” a source with American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) said.

White House spokesman Eric Schultz has rejected the reports that the Obama administration is trying to bypass Congress on a nuclear deal with Iran.

“The notion that we are trying to avoid congressional consultation and input on this is preposterous,” Schultz said on Monday.

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Serena Shim laid to rest in Lebanon

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People from all walks of life have paid tribute to Press TV’s correspondent, Serena Shim, who was killed in a car accident in Turkey near the Turkish-Syrian border, Press TV reports.

People gathered in front of Shim’s house in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Wednesday to attend a funeral ceremony held for the journalist.

Rounds of bullets were fired into the air as the coffin arrived in Burj el-Barajneh cemetery on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Live images showed Shim’s body being laid to rest as hundreds of people including Lebanese political and religious figures attended the funeral ceremony.

Press TV correspondent at the memorial service quoted Shim’s family members and Burj el-Barajneh camp residents as saying that “she raised our heads high; she was really someone that gave us pride and dignity.”

Shim, an American citizen of Lebanese origin, was among the few journalists who had done stories about Takfiri militants’ infiltration into Syria through the Turkish border. She had also gained access to images showing militants crossing the border in trucks belonging to the World Food Organization and other NGOs.

On Friday, she told Press TV that the Turkish intelligence had accused her of spying probably due to some of the stories she had covered about Turkey’s stance on the ISIL terrorists in Kobani and its surroundings, adding that she feared being arrested.

Two days later on Sunday, her car collided with a heavy vehicle upon return from a report scene in Suruç, a rural district of Şanlıurfa Province of Turkey. The identity and the whereabouts of the truck driver remain unknown.

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Scores of militants killed in Yemen

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Several al-Qaeda-backed militants have been killed during clashes with Houthi movement’s Ansarullah fighters in the strategic Yemeni province of al-Bayda, witnesses say.

Deadly clashes erupted between al-Qaeda-linked militants and Ansarullah fighters in the central city of Rada’a on Tuesday, eyewitnesses reported.

Ansarullah fighters have been trying to drive out the militants in order to secure various areas under their control in the region.

The clashes mark the latest in a series of violent confrontations between Houthi fighters and al-Qaeda-backed militants in the country.

At least 60 people, including women and children, were killed in similar violence days earlier.

The fighting erupted after Houthis restored security in the capital Sana’a and the port city of Hodeidah.

In September, Ansarullah revolutionary fighters gained control over the capital Sana’a following a four-day battle with army forces loyal to General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the half-brother of former dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Ansarullah fighters control the cities of Sana’a, Ibb, Dhamar and the major port city of Hodeidah. They also secured their presence in Tawwal border crossing and Wagha region in Hajjah Province on October 18.

The Ansarullah movement played a major role in the popular uprising that forced Saleh to step down after more than 33 years in power.

Yemen has been facing threats from al-Qaeda-linked militants, as well as a separatist movement in the country’s southern region.

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Rogers: Charge Snowden with murder

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A senior US congressman says intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden is a “traitor” and should be charged with murder.

“The [US] government has pressed charges on Mr. Snowden,” Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, told a gathering of British MPs and foreign policy professionals in the House of Commons in London on Tuesday.

“We are treating him, as I would argue, the traitor that he is,” the Michigan Republican added. “And by the way, and this is important, I would charge him for murder.”

Snowden, a former contractor with US National Security Agency (NSA), has provided explosive material to the media, exposing the troubling scope and nature of US and UK global and domestic spying programs.

Rogers claimed that the intelligence leaks have led to the deaths of American and British soldiers as “the enemy” was now privy to secret information.

Following the revelations, Snowden fled the United States to avoid espionage charges.

Last year, Russia granted him asylum for one year and in August it extended his permission to stay in the country until August 2017.

“Many don’t find it odd he is in the loving arms of an SVR [Russia’s External Intelligence Service] agent right now in Moscow. I do,” Rogers told the British MPs.

Rogers’ committee is charged with oversight of US spy agencies, including the CIA, NSA and FBI.
 
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‘Iraqi Izadis facing attempted genocide’

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A high-ranking United Nations official says people from Iraq’s Izadi religious minority are facing what may amount to an “attempted genocide” at the hands of the ISIL Takfiri terrorists.

“The evidence strongly indicates attempt to commit genocide,” UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday.

Simonovic added that the atrocities perpetrated by ISIL terrorists over the past four months may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

On Monday, an unnamed Iraqi security source said the ISIL militants are laying siege to about 700 Izadi families on Mount Sinjar.

The source added that the militants are deploying more forces to the area, and are about one kilometer (0.6 mile) away from Sinjar.

Tens of thousands of Izadi refugees took up residence at makeshift sites and villages across the Kurdish region of northern Iraq after fleeing to Mount Sinjar in August.

The United Nations confirms that more than 5,000 Izadi Kurds were gunned down in a series of massacres by the ISIL Takfiri terrorists. Some 4,800 women and children are thought to be held captive, and that the number is expected to rise above 7,000.

Earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said in a report that abducted Izadi women are subjected to sexual assault and are being bought and sold by ISIL militants.

The ISIL terrorists currently control large swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq. They have committed terrible atrocities in both countries, including mass executions and beheading of local residents as well as foreign nationals.

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‘No further talks may be held in HK’

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Leaders of Hong Kong’s anti-election law student protests say they may not take part in further talks with the government, a day after negotiations were held between the two sides.

On Wednesday, representatives of student protesters said demonstrations would continue until their demands were met and they were allowed to determine who could run for future elections.

“About whether there will be talks in the future, this is something that isn’t decided,” Secretary General of Hong Kong Federation of Students Alex Chow said.

The students also slammed talks held on October 21, accusing the authorities of failing to make any meaningful offers to end the ongoing impasse.

“Hong Kong’s young people have already made lots of sacrifices, including their time, and risking arrest and their futures,” the group’s deputy secretary general, Lester Shum, said.

Over the past weeks, Hong Kong has been the scene of protests with protesters blocking key parts of the city for more than 3 weeks.

The anti-election law protesters are opposed to an election law introduced by China. Under the law, the people of Hong Kong will have to elect their next leader from a list of Beijing-vetted candidates in 2017.

Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China. The financial hub has enjoyed substantial political autonomy since 1997, when its leadership returned to China after about a century of British colonial rule.

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Photo: Kurdish Female Fighter Rehana ‘Kills 100 Isis Jihadis’ Single-handedly

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A Kurdish female fighter has been hailed on social media for allegedly killing over 100 Isis (Islamic State) militants single-handed in the battle for Kobani.

The fighter, known only as Rehana, was named in a tweet which has already been shared thousands of times since it was initially sent on 13 October.

However some sources are reporting that Rehana has been killed by Isis, with one graphic picture purportedly showing her beheading.

Neither the news of Rehana’s death, nor the number of people she has killed, can be independently verified.

Several Kurdish women have been lionised for the bravery and determination they have shown in attacking Isis.

The women belong to the Yekineyen Parastina Jin, or Women Protection Units (YPJ). The female contingent earned international renowned after one of its fighters blew herself up in Kobani killing several Islamic State (also known as Isis) militants.

Dilar Gencxemis, known by her nom de guerre Arin Mirkan, was a 20-year-old mother of two who detonated herself as she ran towards Isis fighters, killing as many as 23 of them.

Kurdish resistance is increasingly relying on its female fighters to save the town on what appears as a desperate fight for survival. According to various estimates, female fighters make up between 7,000 and 10,000 of the Kurdish forces fighting in Syria.

The YPJ is an all-female, independent militia which at the frontline embrace arms along with their male “comrades” of the People’s Protection Units.

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“Supplication” by Allameh Hilli to Be Published in Sindhi

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PAKISTAN – A Sindhi translation of a book titled “Du’a” (supplication) written by Allameh Hilli, 13th century Shia scholar, will be published in Pakistan.

Ghorban Ali, eminent Pakistani figure and scholar from Khairpur City in Sindh Province, has translated the book into the Sindhi language.

In a meeting with Mahdi Khatib, who is in charge of Iranian Cultural Center in Karachi, Ghorban Ali said that he has selected the book for translation into his mother tongue to meet the needs of the society to religious sources.

The book is a valuable Islamic work which also includes important religious teachings, he said.
The Iranian official appreciated the Pakistani translator’s efforts and noted that the cultural center will cooperate in publication of the translation.

Khatib also suggested that he translate a research work on Ashura rituals in Sindh Province and Ghorban Ali welcomed the suggestion.

The Iranian official gifted him a copy of Imam Khomeini’s (RA) “Forty Hadiths” and one of the works of the Supreme Leader of teh islamic Revolution titled “Muslims in India’s Freedom Movement”.

Allameh Hilli was one of the well known Shia scholars of his time. His full name is Jamal al-Din Abu Mansur Hasan ibn Yusuf ibn Mutahhar al-Hilli. There are more than one hundred books written by him, some of which are still in the form of manuscripts.

Sindhi is the official language of the Pakistani province of Sindh. In India, Sindhi is one of the scheduled languages officially recognized by the federal government. It has influences from Balochi spoken in the adjacent province of Balochistan.

Most Sindhi speakers are concentrated in Pakistan in the Sindh province, and in India in the Kutch region of the state of Gujarat and in Ulhasnagar region of the state of Maharashtra.

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