Archive for category: News

Sexual exploitation of children has become a “social norm” in the Greater Manchester County in northwest England, a damning report has found.

The independent inquiry, led by Ann Coffey, the Labour MP for Stockport, revealed that sexual abuse of children has become “normal” on some streets and estates in Greater Manchester.

“This is a real and ongoing problem. I have been concerned about the number of people who have told me that in some neighborhoods child sexual exploitation had become the new social norm,” Coffey said.

The 148-page report also revealed that more than 600 children, reported missing in the county in 2014, were at risk of sexual exploitation or serious harm.

Coffey said tackling the sexual exploitation of children is an absolute priority for the British government. The Labour politician also recommended spot checks on children’s homes and care provision for 16- and 17-year-olds to be registered and inspected by Britain’s school watchdog, Ofsted.

Britain’s Home Secretary Theresa May described the findings of the report about the scale of child abuse as “alarming.”

“This is yet another disturbing report which highlights unacceptable failings by authorities at a local level to ensure the protection of children,” she added.

The UK has witnessed a surge in child molestation and sexual abuse cases.

In August, a report by Professor Alexis Jay revealed that at least 1,400 children had been sexually exploited in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013.

In some cases, children as young as 11 were “raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities in the north of England, abducted, beaten and intimidated,” the report added.

MOS/HMV/SS

Baghdad – The Iraqi Ministry of Defense assured the entrance of the Russian helicopter (Night Hunter) to the service to support terrorism fighting and Iraqi infantry forces.

A statement by the MoD cited “Minister of Defense Khalid al-Obaidi accompanied by several military commanders observed on Wednesday the final stage of preparing and arming the first group of the Russian modern fighting helicopters (MI-28) in a step towards sending them to specified air bases.”

“These helicopters which are known as the Night Hunter will increase the efficiency of the Iraqi Army Air Force in its war against terrorism,” the statement added.

“This is the first group of helicopters included by the contract concluded with the Republic of Russia to provide Iraqi Army with modern fighting helicopters,” the statement concluded.

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 A group of Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces arrived in Turkey on their way to reinforce fighters defending the town of Ain Arab “Kobanî”, which is blockaded by the so-called Islamic state in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on the Syrian side of the Turkish border.

On Wednesday, Anatolia Agency reported that “the Peshmerga forces arrived to Şanlıurfa Airport in the south of Turkey in the early dawn, coming from Erbil airport in northern Iraq.”

According to the agency, the elements of the Peshmerga move by buses to the Turkish border town of Suruj, while the Turkish security forces have secured the progress of the convoy route and prevented journalists from following it.

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Jihadists from the Islamic State terrorist group executed Wednesday more than 55 members of the Albu Nimir tribe that fought against them in Iraq’s Anbar province, sources said.

The men from the Albu Nimr tribe were killed in the Heet area, northwest of Baghdad, which was overrun by the militants earlier this month, a local leader and a doctor said.

A police colonel and a leader from the anti-jihadist Sahwa forces confirmed the killings.

Sources differed on the exact number of dead, with some saying as many as 55 were killed.

IS has overrun large areas of Anbar, and the killings are likely aimed at discouraging resistance from powerful local tribes, who will be key to any successful bid to retake the province.

Pro-government forces have suffered a string of setbacks in Anbar in recent weeks. That has prompted warnings that the province, which stretches from the borders with Jordan and Saudi Arabia to the western approach to Baghdad, could fall entirely.

Images said to show the aftermath of the public execution circulated on Twitter, but their authenticity could not be independently confirmed.

One picture shows a line of more than 30 men in civilian clothes lying in the middle of a street with streams of blood running over the dusty ground, as young men and children look on.

The victims are barefoot and many are blindfolded, their hands bound behind their backs.

IS did not immediately claim responsibility for the killings, but has executed hundreds of people in areas of Iraq and Syria that it controls.

Human Rights Watch says there is evidence the group executed between 560 and 770 men — mostly captured soldiers — earlier in the year.

And IS executed hundreds of members of a Syrian tribe that fought against them, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

IS spearheaded an offensive that has overrun much of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland since June, sweeping security forces aside.

Iraqi security forces, Shiite militias and some Sunni tribesmen are fighting to push IS back.

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DIYALI, IRAQ – On Wednesday, Mendeli Council in Diyali province announced that it reopened a border crossing between Iraq and Iran that was closed since more than a 30 years.

The border will aim at supporting the lives of the people in Diyali and provide many jobs by increasing the trade activity between the two countries.

The head of Mendeli Council Azad Hamid Shafi informed that, “An official government delegation from both sides have opened the Sumar-Mendeli border crossing that was closed since more than about 30 years.”

Shafi has also noted that the trade activity between the two sides will be after fulfilling some procedures by the specialized authorities in both governments.

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