Exclusive: Ukraine Firefight Caught On Video

Eurozone Agrees To Extend Greek Bailout

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 21 Februari 2015 | 18.46

Eurozone finance ministers have agreed to extend Greece's rescue loans - although not by as long as the government wanted.

The deal, which will enable Athens to continue paying its bills, was reached at talks in Brussels which were delayed for four hours as ministers worked on a draft accord.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the eurozone's top official and the Dutch finance minister, said Athens had asked for a six-month extension but this was rejected.

"Four months is the appropriate delay in terms of financing and future challenges," he said.

The agreement was clinched just a week before Greece's €240bn (£178bn) bailout expires, leaving just enough time for some member country parliaments to endorse it.

As part of the deal Greece must provide a list of economic and other reforms based on the current bailout programme by Monday.

This will be reviewed on Tuesday by the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission.

If the three institutions do not believe the proposals go far enough, the list will be revised with a view to it being agreed by the end of April.

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the deal would mark a new era for Athens and its relations with the European Union.

"Today was a pivotal moment because Greece for five years now has been lonely, isolated in the Eurogroup. Today that isolation has broken," Mr Varoufakis said.

He said Greece had not used any threats or bluff to get the agreement and added it was a small step in a new direction for the country.

Markets reacted positively to the deal, with the Dow and S&P 500 surging to fresh records on Wall Street.

Mr Dijsselbloem said it was a "first step in this process of rebuilding trust" between Greece and its euro partners and allows for a strategy to get the country "back on track."

"Trust leaves quicker than it comes," he said.

Mr Dijsselbloem worked flat out on Friday to secure an agreement as Germany insisted Greece stick with the austerity commitments included in its bailout programme.

The fraught discussions focused on a new package of concessions beyond those contained in the formal request for a loan extension submitted on Thursday.

Greece has ruled out another bailout like the existing one, saying the people who swept the anti-austerity Syriza party to power last month would not tolerate it.

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Gallery: Art War On The Streets Of Athens

Athens has become a Mecca for street artists as anger grows over the impact of Greece's bailout deal with Europe

Wall paintings have sprung up all over the city reflecting the general frustration at rising unemployment and falling living standards

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Ebola Testing Kit Gives Results In 15 Minutes

The World Health Organization has approved a rapid test for the Ebola virus which can deliver a diagnosis in just 15 minutes.

In what could be a breakthrough for bringing the epidemic in West Africa to an end, the test kits will be deployed to countries affected by Ebola within a matter of weeks.

Although less accurate than traditional tests, which can take anywhere between 12 and 24 hours, this kit does not require electricity - making it ideal for examining patients in remote areas.

During rigorous trials conducted by the WHO, the ReEBOV Antigen Rapid Test correctly identified 92% of those infected with Ebola, and 85% who were free of the virus.

The health agency has said this new testing kit should be followed up with a laboratory test wherever possible.

Meanwhile, the UN's Mission for Ebola Emergency Response has praised Liberia's progress in slowing down the spread of the virus - but warned against complacency as the number of new patients continues to fall.

Ebola has killed more than 3,800 people in Liberia since December 2013 - but now, students are returning to their schools after they were closed for six months.

In Sierra Leone, an investigation is under way into how money meant to fight Ebola was used. Out of $5.75m (£3.75m) received in funding, a third was spent without invoices and receipts being saved.

Doctors, government officials and businesspeople now must answer to the Anti-Corruption Commission, which wants an explanation of where the cash went.

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Fire Engulfs Dubai's Torch Tower Skyscraper

A huge fire engulfed part of the Torch Tower in Dubai in the early hours of this morning, forcing hundreds of people to flee the 1,100ft skyscraper.

Witnesses said the blaze appeared to have started at around 2am in the middle of the residential building, rapidly spreading across some 15 floors.

In several videos posted on social media websites, multiple floors of the high-rise were seen ablaze.

Strong winds fanned the flames and burning debris from the fire could be seen falling from building.

One witness said flames shot out from two sides of the building as glass and metal rained down from near the summit of the structure.

Another witness said it looked "like the Titanic going down", according to Gulfnews.com.

One resident, Briton Steve Short, 53, from Liverpool, praised the work of firefighters who arrived quickly.

He said fire alarms alerted people to the blaze and building management sent workers knocking on doors to ensure residents got out.

Residents of at least one neighbouring tower were told to evacuate as a precaution because of high winds, but they were later allowed back inside.

It took firefighters several hours before they extinguished the blaze, according to a witness at the scene.

The cause of the fire was not immediately clear. Officials said there were no reports of casualties.

Opened in 2011, the Torch Tower has 79 floors and is one of the world's tallest residential buildings.

It is located in the Marina district of the city which is home to dozens of towering apartment blocks and hotels, many of them built over the past decade.

The apartments are popular with Dubai's large number of expatriate professionals.

Dubai, known for its skyline of hugely varied skyscrapers, has seen fires at towers in the past.

In 2012, a huge blaze gutted the 34-Tamweel tower in the nearby Jumeirah Lake Towers district. It was later revealed to have been caused by a cigarette butt thrown into a bin.

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Tough Talks On Greek Debt As D-Day Looms

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 20 Februari 2015 | 18.46

These could well prove the most important few days in the euro's existence.

In the corridors and meeting rooms of the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, Greece and its euro counterparts have been charged with discussing how to keep the struggling nation in the single currency.

Their chances of success seem to be flagging.

Quite how we got here is a complicated story - it involves political and economic mistakes, financial jiggery-pokery, many decades of historical animosity and some big personality clashes.

Let's leave that aside for a moment and recall where we stand today.

Briefly: Greece is in dire need of money. The state has a series of debts to repay in March, some to the International Monetary Fund, some to the European Central Bank.

It can't easily raise cash in the open markets (would you really want to lend to Athens right now?) so it will have to find that money elsewhere.

That means borrowing it from its eurozone colleagues. Greece is of course still receiving bailout support from the so-called Troika lenders (the European Commission, ECB and IMF), so the most straightforward thing would be to extend the existing bailout and withdraw some extra cash from it (there's about €7bn of it left, which would be very helpful right now).

However, extending the bailout would also mean extending the conditions attached to it - austerity, privatisations, labour market and pension reforms.

Syriza, the party which leads the new Greek government, adamantly set itself against that in its election campaign. It also said it would refuse to co-operate with the Troika in future.

That leaves it in a sticky place. Its finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, has spent most of the past few weeks attempting to persuade his European counterparts to lend Greece some cash, but to do it as a "bridging loan" rather than as an extension of the "current programme".

That might seem like a mere terminological distinction - and in one sense it is. But underlying the terminology are real differences.

Signing up to the "current programme" again would mean obeying those hated conditions. A "bridging loan" of some sort, on the other hand, could have some discrete conditions of its own. Though some of these might be uncomfortable, they would at least be of Greece's new government's own making.

The problem is that Greece's creditors are reluctant to let the country off all those conditions they set when lending them money.

For one thing, Greece has already been forgiven a chunk of its debts in 2012; the interest rates and maturities of its debts have been stretched out way into the future, making them cheaper to service.

For another, those conditions were not merely there as punishment - they were there to make the economy more healthy in the future.

Raising retirement ages, removing archaic protections on employees, privatising nationalised industries - those are precisely the kinds of Thatcherite reforms many other countries had to go through long ago, and are reaping the rewards of today.

Then there's the politics: German voters are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the idea of funding a poor creditor elsewhere whose own people seem to hate them.

The Spanish government is desperate that Syriza doesn't succeed, for fear of encouraging its people to vote for their own upstart leftist anti-austerity rival party, Podemos. The Irish would be furious if a country was given special treatment they were denied.

These countervailing forces mean getting an agreement, either today or this weekend or in the coming months, will be very difficult. And, as if things couldn't already be more difficult, the process has also been waylaid by some personal histrionics.

The Greek negotiators have been unpredictable in the extreme - openly leaking bundles of documents, flagrantly disregarding the long-established rules of negotiations and publicly criticising their counterparts.

"These people are crazy," said one eurocrat when the talks broke down the last time, on Monday night. "They're totally crazy."

One can only assume yet more craziness to come in the next hours and days. The latest developments, on Thursday, included a letter from the Greek authorities which seemed to offer massive compromises on its position - including an extension of the bailout in some guise, and Troika supervision.

That was then dismissed abruptly by the Germans, who derided it as a "Trojan horse" gambit.

All of which threatens to make today's negotiations particularly awkward.

Meanwhile, hanging over all of this is the question of whether Greece will have money to pay its bills next month, whether it defaults, and, ultimately, whether it can stay in the euro.

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UK Warning As Germany Rejects Greek Loan Plan

The continuing stand-off between the eurozone and Greece over its debt could lead to a "full blown crisis", George Osborne has warned.

The Chancellor made his comments as eurozone finance ministers prepare for crunch talks later on whether to extend the EU loan programme to Greece.

Athens wants more cash for an extra six months but without strict austerity conditions attached.

Mr Osborne said: "What you see now in this stand-off between the eurozone and Greece is the risk of a full blown crisis which would do real damage to the European economy - and is a risk to Britain.

"We need the eurozone to find a common solution and here at home we need to go on working through our economic plan which has kept us safe".

Greece says the EU has "just two choices" when it comes to Athens' request - accept it or reject it.

But Germany has already rejected it, saying it was "no substantial proposal for a solution" and "does not meet the criteria".

A separate German representative was quoted as saying the Greek offer "rather represents a Trojan horse, intending to get bridge financing and in substance putting an end to the current programme".

Portugal, which like Greece took a bailout from its eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund, was the latest nation to back the German position early on Friday ahead of the emergency meeting in Brussels.

The country's new anti-austerity government is seeking a compromise to break the deadlock with European creditors, especially the euro's paymaster, Germany, as it runs the risk of running out of cash and defaulting on its debts without agreement.

It has ruled out the prospect of any deal under the terms of its previous rescue because of its mandate from the Greek people who swept the anti-austerity Syriza party to power last month.

The details of the Greek request were not made public but the letter pledged to honour all Greek debts and not take unilateral action that would undermine agreed fiscal targets.

The government of Alexis Tsipras blames the conditions attached to its bailout of hampering the country's recovery and leading to a deterioration of living standards.

Unemployment remains at more than 25%.

On Monday, the government rejected a plan to extend its current €240bn (£178bn) bailout deal, describing it as absurd.

Eurozone finance ministers had given Greece until Friday to request an extension of its current austerity and reform programme.

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Moment Armed Police Arrested Venezuelan Mayor

The mayor of Venezuela's capital has been arrested in an armed raid on his office over an alleged coup plot.

Antonio Ledezma, 59, tweeted that his building was being surrounded shortly before intelligence agents broke down the doors and fired shots into the air.

Opposition legislator Ismael Garcia wrote on Twitter: "I just saw how they took Ledezma out of his office as if he were a dog."

In recent days President Nicolas Maduro's government said dissident air force officers had been planning to topple his government in league with opposition leaders - including Ledezma - and the United States.

Later, President Maduro took to television and radio to say that Ledezma would be punished for trying to sow unrest.

It comes amid heightened tensions one year after opposition protests called for the resignation of the president, sparking violence that left 43 people dead.

The country is struggling with severe economic problems and the head of the opposition alliance - Jesus Torrealba - said the arrest shows that dissenting voices are being "outlawed".

The arrest sparked protests in the city, with people banging pots from their windows and honking car horns.

Scores of people, including his wife Mitzi Capriles de Ledezma, gathered outside the headquarters of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service where Ledezma was reportedly being held.

Ledezma had previously denied trying to cause unrest, saying the government's corruption was the real destabilising force.

Tumbling oil prices have left the OPEC nation struggling to meet its budget needs amid large foreign debt payments.

The government launched a currency devaluation of almost 70% last week.

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Islamic State Leader Used To Work As Secretary

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 19 Februari 2015 | 18.46

By David Bowden, Senior News Correspondent

The man who heads the most brutal organisation in the world started his working life as a secretary, according to newly released US military files.

De-classified documents reveal details about the life led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before he became leader of Islamic State, the terrorist organisation that has sadistically murdered thousands of people in Syria, Iraq and Libya, including beheading western hostages.

Al-Baghdadi was captured by American soldiers in 2004 during the invasion of Iraq and spent almost a year in a military prison in the south of the country, according to documents seen by Business Insider.

His real name is Ibrahim Awad Ibrahim Al Badry and while his date of birth was redacted from the files, he is thought to be 43.

He was captured, according to Business Insider, by US military intelligence in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, on 4 February 2004 and held until 8 December the same year.

Al-Baghdadi's status was listed as "civilian detainee" and he was therefore not officially thought to be an insurgent.

His occupation was written as "ADMINISTRATIVE WORK (SECRETARY)".

It is thought he was detained in a raid aimed at arresting his friend.

He was listed as married, with an uncle being his next of kin, although all relatives' names have been redacted from the de-classified documents.

There is also a prison photo of him wearing glasses.

What a difference a decade makes. The former secretary from Fallujah is now the most reviled terrorist on the planet, heading a band of murdering thugs, bent on the establishment of an Islamist caliphate carved across the Middle East.

US officials must be ruing the fact that the man they now have top of their most wanted list was in their custody for almost a year.

How would the modern fight against terror look if Al Baghdadi, the one time secretary, was still in an American jail?

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Exclusive: Ukraine Firefight Caught On Video

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Sky News has obtained exclusive video of a prolonged gun battle between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian government troops close to the besieged eastern town of Debaltseve.

It was shot by a television crew who were with rebel forces and interviewing a prisoner of war when the sound of heavy gunfire erupts nearby.

The rebels are then filmed using assault rifles to shoot through windows before some open fire outside.

At least one fighter attacks the pro-Kiev forces with rocket propelled grenades.

The footage emerged as hundreds of Ukrainian troops pulled out from Debaltseve following battles with pro-Russian forces.

Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has said his soldiers had left in a "planned and organised withdrawal" from the strategically important area.

A Russian TV station showed separatists hoisting their flag over a building as they seized the railway hub in defiance of a ceasefire brokered by France and Germany.

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Gallery: Ukraine Troops Leave Debaltseve

Pro-Russian separatists take position near the eastern Ukrainian city of Uglegorsk, 6 kms southwest of Debaltseve

Pro-Russian rebels stationed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Gorlivka, Donetsk region, launch missiles from Grad launch vehicles

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Pro-Russian separatists patrol a street in the eastern Ukrainian city of Makeyevka

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Ukrainian troops pulled out of the besieged flashpoint eastern town Debaltseve after it was stormed by pro-Russian rebels in what the EU said was a "clear violation" of an internationally-backed truce

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President Petro Poroshenko said 80% of units had left the town, in order to comply with the current ceasefire

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Some 2,000 pro-government forces have been fighting there but Mr Poroshenko denied claims the troops were encircled, and said they were leaving with weapons and ammunition.

However, some troops were believed to be trapped in the town, which links the two rebel-controlled regions in the east of Ukraine, Donetsk and Luhansk.

Sky's Stuart Ramsay spoke to a Ukrainian commander who said there were still pro-Kiev troops inside but they had put down their weapons.

At least 22 Ukrainian troops have been killed and over 150 were wounded in the fighting in recent days.

A rebel military spokesman, Eduard Basurin, reportedly told Russian television that more than 300 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered.

Kiev has admitted that soldiers have been taken prisoner, but has not said how many.

Journalists reported seeing dozens of tanks and vehicles carrying haggard soldiers leaving for the nearby town of Artemivsk.

One soldier spoke of heavy government losses, while another said they had not been able to get food or water because of the intense rebel shelling.

President Poroshenko went to the front line at Artemivsk to meet soldiers after he ordered the Debaltseve withdrawal.

Praising Ukrainian forces for "really socking it" to the separatists, he said he was going there "for the great honour of shaking hands with our heroes".

The 10-month conflict has left more than 5,000 people dead, and Ukraine accuses Russia of supporting and arming the rebels, a claim Moscow denies.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on Ukraine to admit defeat in Debaltseve, saying "the only choice" of the troops was to "leave behind weaponry, lay down arms and surrender."

Separatists have reportedly started to withdraw heavy weapons from areas they control in eastern Ukraine where the ceasefire was holding.

The rebels say the agreement negotiated by Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France last week does not apply to Debaltseve.

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Written By Unknown on Rabu, 18 Februari 2015 | 18.46

Syria Agrees 'To Halt' Airstrikes In Aleppo

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The Syrian regime will end airstrikes on targets in Aleppo to test if a ceasefire in the city can be developed, a UN official has said.

The United Nations envoy to the country said he had been given a commitment there would be a suspension of bombing for six weeks.

Staffan de Mistura said no timeframe had yet been set but he would soon be returning to Syria to discuss the plan further.

He said the development provided a glimmer of hope for the devastated city.

He told reporters: "The government of Syria has indicated to me its willingness to halt all aerial bombing."

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Gallery: Jan 2015: The Battle For Aleppo

Aleppo has been one of the cities at the centre of Syria's civil war since it began in early 2011. Here a man carries a wounded girl after an airstrike by forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad

A bus blocks a road amid damage on the Salah Al-Din neighbourhood frontline

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People walk amid the rubble of collapsed buildings at a site hit during a barrel bomb attack by Assad forces in the Al-Fardous neighbourhood

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Members of the Civil Defence rescue children after an airstrike in the al-Shaar neighbourhood

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A fighter from the Tawhid Brigade, which operates under the Free Syrian Army, fires an anti-tank missile at Assad forces

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"Assurances will not be enough," he added. "Facts on the ground will prove if the freeze holds and can be replicated elsewhere."

Mr de Mistura said the UN would try to engage with the opposition, with a view to them also de-escalating the fighting.

He said: "Let's be frank, I have no illusions, because based on past experiences this will be a difficult issue to be achieved.

"But we will engage ... the opposition, hopefully to see them ... respond to a similar request from the UN to halt mortar and rockets."

He said he had a "dim" hope the plan would work and civilian lives could be saved while political negotiations continue over an end to the country's civil war.

Aleppo is divided into a rebel-held western area and government-controlled east.

Mr de Mistura wants to set up a UN-monitored "freeze zone" that would stop violence around the front line to allow humanitarian aid to enter and act as the first step towards a wider solution.

But Aleppo-based opposition groups have expressed fears the government will try to exploit a truce to move its forces elsewhere to fight, and have questioned how a ceasefire could work with Islamic State fighters in the area.

Mr de Mistura is the third in a series of UN envoys tasked with trying to find an end to the conflict.

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Written By Unknown on Selasa, 17 Februari 2015 | 18.46

Five Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 14 wounded in clashes with Russian-backed rebels near the eastern town of Debaltseve.

The fighting is the latest apparent breach of a fragile ceasefire under which both sides were supposed to pull heavy artillery back from the front line today.

Fighting has erupted on the streets inside the town, which until now had been the scene of artillery exchanges between government troops inside and heavily-armed rebels encircling it.

But government and rebel leaders indicated they would withdraw only after the other side does so.

"As soon as the militants cease fire, the Ukrainian side will begin to withdraw heavy weaponry from the frontline," said government military spokesman Anatoliy Stelmakh, who claimed his troops were pounded by the rebels overnight.

Rebel leader Andrei Purgin said the separatists were prepared to discuss withdrawing with the international group monitoring the ceasefire, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Reporting from Ukraine, Sky's Stuart Ramsay said: "Usually these ceasefires completely fall apart within three or four days because the sides are near one another and small arms are involved.

"The OSCE monitors have been trying to get into Debaltseve but so far they've been refused entry by the pro-Russia separatists.

"The rebel leadership have been talking about what they see as a moral responsibility to continue fighting to get to Debaltseve because they say it's inside their territory and not part of the ceasefire plan.

"They want that town because they've been focusing on it and believe they'll be able to get it soon."

The leaders of Ukraine, Russia and Germany discussed the cease-fire in a phone call late last night.

During the call German chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to use his influence on the separatists to ensure that they stop fighting.

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Is Greece Edging Closer To Euro Exit?

No-one expected the Eurogroup summit to end all the differences between Greece and the eurozone countries behind its bailout.

But, equally, no-one really expected it to end in the kind of acrimony we saw earlier in Brussels.

In the event, what we have witnessed is yet another demonstration of what happens when the euro collides with democratic politics.

It all comes back down to the key issue Syriza campaigned on in the Greek elections last month: ending the current €240bn bailout programme and replacing it with something more humane.

Most of Greece's euro counterparts have insisted that to do so is simply impossible - that if Greece wants to borrow more cash and continue to enjoy financial support from the European Central Bank, it must sign up to an extension of the existing programme, due to expire at the end of the month.

However, doing so represents what Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, has described as a red line.

Instead, he would rather agree to a separate "bridging loan" without the full conditions attached to the existing bailout (but with, he insists, "some conditionality, to build trust").

He claims that he was privately given such a promise by the European Commissioner in charge of the economy, Pierre Moscovici, last week.

But, in Mr Varoufakis' rendering, at the Eurogroup meeting on Monday afternoon, Mr Moscovici's draft proposal was replaced by Eurogroup head, Jeroen Djisselbloem, with something else entirely - an alternative communique that pledged that Greece should continue with the existing programme.

A copy of this document, with Mr Varoufakis' disapproving penmarks scrawled all over it, was leaked to the press.

In chaotic scenes, the meeting broke down within minutes.

Given it was billed as the make-or-break moment for the euro, the collapse of talks looks, on the surface of it, to be deeply worrying.

However, the reality is that Monday's deadline was always a self-imposed one.

The talks will continue in the coming days, and there is likely to be another Eurogroup meeting to confirm things as soon as something can be hatched behind the scenes.

But with every setback, worries grow that Greece could be edging slowly towards a possible default - or indeed a chaotic exit from the single currency.

There are still many more levers to be pulled by both sides between now and then. But the fact that a key meeting could break down so easily is a reminder that things will hardly be plain sailing in the coming weeks.

In other words, things are likely to get even worse before they get any better.

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