Fort Hood Gunman Wants To Become IS Citizen

The US Army psychiatrist convicted for the Fort Hood shooting rampage has reportedly written to the Islamic State leader saying he wants to become a "citizen" of the caliphate.

Major Nidal Hasan was sentenced to death last year for the shooting at the Texas military base that left 13 dead and 30 wounded.

In his letter to IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, Hasan wrote: "I formally and humbly request to be made a citizen of the Islamic State."

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi

"It would be an honor for any believer to be an obedient citizen soldier to a people and its leader who don't compromise the religion of All-Mighty Allah to get along with the disbelievers," he wrote, according to Fox News and other reports.

The letter was released by his lawyer, John Galligan.

Hasan opened fire on troops who were getting final medical check-ups before deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan at Fort Hood in 2009.

He acknowledged during his trial that he pulled the trigger.

He called himself a soldier who had "switched sides" in a war and justified the shooting as necessary to protect insurgents against American aggression in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

IS has declared a caliphate, spanning across parts of Iraq and Syria

US and other Western officials have described the IS, an Islamist extremist group that broke away from al Qaeda, as the biggest threat to security since the September 11 attacks.

At least one American citizen, Douglas McCain, is believed to have died  fighting for the IS in Syria and officials are looking into reports that a second may also have been killed.

According to the New York Times, US intelligence has identified a dozen Americans who have travelled to the region to fight alongside the Sunni militant group.

The newspaper said IS was able to draw increasing number of recruits because it has seized large swathes of territory, where it imposes strict Islamic rule.

IS declared the establishment of a caliphate in June.

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Islamic State's Warning To Kurdish Fighters

Islamic State militants have released a video which appears to show a Kurdish man being beheaded in Iraq.

The six-minute video is titled "A Message in Blood" and shows men wearing orange jumpsuits who are said to be Kurdish fighters captured by IS.

One man is later seen kneeling outside a mosque in the city of Mosul before he is beheaded.

The jihadists have warned that the other fighters will be killed if Kurdish leaders continue to back the US.

One of the captured men said: "Any mistake or recklessness from you will lead to the (loss) of our life."

It comes after President Barack Obama called for a coalition of countries prepared to take military action against IS.

The new video shows captured Kurdish fighters wearing orange jump-suits

Mr Obama said the US was working to get more countries on board in order to strike at the jihadist group.

He said: "We are going to work politically and diplomatically with folks in the region, and we're going to cobble together the kind of coalition that we need for a long-term strategy as soon as we are able to fit together the military, political and economic components of that strategy."

Mr Obama played down the prospect of imminent US military action in Syria, saying "we don't have a strategy yet", but said it was time for Middle Eastern nations to "stop being ambivalent".

France has already ruled itself out. The UK has so far provided humanitarian assistance and Prime Minister David Cameron has said he does not want troops on the ground.

On Thursday, another IS video emerged showing hundreds of "executed" Syrian soldiers.

The soldiers were captured at the weekend when the Sunni militants seized an air base in the province of Raqqa, in northern Syria.

An earlier video showed Syrian men being made to march in their underwear

The Reuters news agency said the video, which was posted on YouTube and shows dozens of bodies, had been confirmed as genuine by an IS fighter.

"Yes we have executed them all," he said.

The video shows the bodies of scores of men wearing nothing but their underwear lying face down. The line of bodies appears to be dozens of metres long.

A caption written underneath says: "The 250 shabeeha taken captive by the Islamic State from Tabqa in Raqqa have been executed."

Shabeeha is the name of armed militia forces loyal to President Bashar al Assad. Tabqa is the location of the Syrian airbase captured by IS in the last few days.

The head of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights later confirmed that Syrian soldiers had been "executed" at three different places, resulting in the deaths of at least 160.

Rami Abdel Rahman said it had happened after jihadists defeated the 1,400-strong garrison at Tabqa, of whom 200 were killed in fighting, 700 escaped and dozens of the remainder were captured as they fled.

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Putin: Ukraine Assault Like Nazis In WW2

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine's assault on its eastern cities is reminiscent of the Nazi siege of Leningrad.

He urged Kiev to begin "substantive" negotiations with the separatists to achieve peace, adding that Russians and Ukrainians are "practically one people".

"It is necessary to force the Ukrainian authorities to substantively begin these talks - not on technical issues… the talks must be substantive," Mr Putin told a youth camp outside Moscow.

He also said Russia needed to strengthen its position in the Arctic, including economically and politically.

Earlier Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dismissed claims that its troops are fighting in eastern Ukraine as "conjecture".

Mr Lavrov: 'No proof of Russian involvement'

"We're hearing various conjectures, not for the first time, but not once have any facts been presented to us," he said at a news conference.

Mr Lavrov was speaking after the US accused Russia of lying about its involvement in Ukraine and warned of tougher economic sanctions.

Speaking at the White House, President Barack Obama said Russia has been supporting pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine "for months".

He ruled out any direct US military intervention but said Russia would incur "more costs and consequences".

Mr Obama: 'There will be consequences'

"The separatists are backed, trained, armed, financed by Russia. Russia determined that it had to be a little more overt in what it had already been doing, but it's not really a shift," Mr Obama said.

Kiev said on Friday a call by Russian President Vladimir Putin for separatists to open a 'humanitarian corridor' to allow encircled Ukrainian troops to withdraw was further proof they were "led and controlled directly from the Kremlin".

"I'm calling on insurgents to open a humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian troops who were surrounded in order to avoid senseless deaths," Mr Putin said in a statement.

He went on to praise the pro-Russian separatists whom he described as "insurgents" for "undermining Kiev's military operation which threatened lives of the residents of Donbass and has already led to a colossal death toll among civilians."

A satellite image allegedly showing a Russian military incursion in Ukraine

It is thought Mr Putin was referring to Ukrainian troops who have been trapped outside the strategic town of Ilovaysk, east of Donetsk, for nearly a week.

A top insurgent in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk promptly reacted to Mr Putin's appeal but said the Ukrainian troops would have to lay down their arms before they were allowed to go.

"We are ready to open humanitarian corridors to the Ukrainian troops who were surrounded with the condition that they surrender heavy weaponry and ammunition so that this weaponry and ammunition will not be used against us in future," Alexander Zakharchenko said on Russia's state Rossiya 24 television.

Ten Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 30 wounded in fighting with pro-Russian separatists in the past 24 hours, Kiev's security and defence council said on Friday.

Fighting has intensified since the rebels - allegedly helped by Russian soldiers - opened a new front just as Ukraine's army had virtually surrounded their main strongholds of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The casualty figure was released after the UN revealed a total of 2,593 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since the fighting erupted in mid-April.

It said the number included civilians as well as Ukrainian and separatist combatants, but not the 298 victims of the MH17 Malaysian Airlines plane crash.

Nato is due to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis later today, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said an EU summit on Saturday would discuss the prospect of further sanctions.

Fast food chain McDonalds has said 12 of its branches in Russia have been closed temporarily and that more than 100 inspections are under way. 

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Ebola Outbreak Could Infect 20,000 People

More than 20,000 people could become infected with the deadly ebola virus, the World Health Organisation says.

The UN health agency also warned that the actual number of current ebola cases in some hard-hit areas could be quadruple the existing estimate. 

In what amounted to be a bleak assessment of the disease, the WHO said it believed the virus was still being spread in a "substantial number of localities".

It also expressed concern at the unprecedented number of health workers who have been killed while treating patients.

Delivering its recommendations on how to stop the spread of ebola, the WHO added: "Response activities must be adapted in areas of very intense transmission and particular attention must be given to stopping transmission in capital cities and major ports, thereby facilitating the larger response and relief effort."

The outbreak has put immense strain on medical resources in West Africa

Of the 3,069 cases reported since the outbreak began, 40% of them have emerged in the past three weeks, according to the latest figures.

Its update on the outbreak came shortly after GlaxoSmithKline announced it was forming a new consortium to accelerate development of a vaccine to treat ebola.

Developed in partnership with the US National Institute of Health, it is set to be tested on healthy human volunteers within the next couple of weeks to see if it is safe and effective.

William Pooley, a health worker, was the first Briton to contract ebola

As the trials take place, the pharmaceuticals giant is set to manufacture 10,000 extra doses of the vaccine which can be used by the WHO if the clinical trials are successful.

Speaking in Geneva, the agency said it hopes to stop the spread of ebola across West Africa in the next nine to six months, with a particular focus on ensuring the virus doesn't spread internationally.

Assistant director-general Dr Bruce Aylward said plan will cost £300m to implement, with 12,750 health workers needed around the globe to tend to patients.

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Cops Kill TV Crew Member During Robbery

A crew member with the long-running TV show Cops has been shot dead by police while recording officers trying to foil a robbery.

Sound operator Bryce Dion, 38, died from a gunshot wound when police opened fire, hitting him by mistake.

The robbery suspect, 32-year-old Cortez Washington, was also shot dead by police.

The incident began when a police officer responded to a request for back up at a Wendy's store in Omaha, Nebraska.

Two Cops crew members were with the officer, and accompanied police as they entered the restaurant.

As police confronted the suspect, Mr Dion, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest, became separated from his cameraman.

Officers then fired upon Washington as he fled the restaurant. He collapsed and died of his injuries.

Police later discovered that Washington was armed with a pellet gun, which officers thought was a real handgun.

The robbery suspect, Cortez Washington, was also shot dead by police

Police Chief Todd Schmaderer told a press conference that during the gunfight, a single bullet also struck Mr Dion's arm, "slipped into a gap in the vest" and went into his chest.

Mr Schmaderer defended the actions of police, saying his officers reacted properly.

"My concern with my officers is that they are taking this very hard. Bryce was their friend," he said.

Cops is a Fox reality TV programme which shows law enforcement officers in action. It has been filmed in at least 140 US cities.

The executive producer of Langley Productions, which carries out work for the show, said the crew only had one week of filming left when the shooting occurred.

"Bryce has been with us for seven years. This is very hard for us," said Morgan Langley.

In 2010, a TV crew for the reality show The First 48 filmed a Detroit police raid in which a seven-year-old girl was accidentally killed by police.

The incident highlighted concerns about whether TV cameras influence the behaviour of police by encouraging showboating.

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Ukraine: Russia Has 'Entered' The Country

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says Russian troops have entered the country.

He has cancelled a working trip to Turkey and called an emergency meeting of Ukraine's security and defence council.

Mr Poroshenko said it followed "the rapidly deteriorating situation in Donetsk region, in particular in Amvrosiyivka and Starobesheve, as Russian troops have actually been brought into Ukraine".

Earlier the security and defence council said the border town of Novoazovsk and other parts of Ukraine's south-east had fallen under the control of Russian forces who were staging a counter-offensive with rebels.

A worried-looking Petro Poroshenko

"A counter-offensive by Russian troops and separatist units is continuing in south-east Ukraine," the council said in a post on Twitter.

It said Ukrainian government forces had withdrawn from Novoazovsk "to save their lives" and were now reinforcing troops in the port city of Mariupol.

It added that Russian forces and separatists were combining to launch attacks on Ilovaysk and Shakhtarsk, east of Donetsk.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having "deliberately unleashed a war in Europe" and called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting, a called echoed by Lithuania.

Ukrainian troops on their way to Novoazovsk on Tuesday

The US ambassador to Ukraine has said Russian troops have been directly involved in the fighting.

"An increasing number of Russian troops are intervening directly in fighting on Ukrainian territory," Geoffrey Pyatt wrote on Twitter.

"Russia has also sent its newest air defence systems including the SA-22 into eastern Ukraine and is now directly involved in the fighting."

On Wednesday a top rebel leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, admitted Russian troops were fighting alongside his insurgents, but said they were on "holiday" after volunteering to join the battle.

Mr Putin and Mr Poroshenko at 'peace' talks in Minsk on Tuesday

There has been increasing concern in Kiev and the West of Russia's direct involvement in the conflict -- a charge Moscow has repeatedly denied.

The spiralling tensions come two days after Mr Poroshenko and Mr Putin held their first talks in three months but made little progress despite talk of a peace roadmap.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded an explanation from Mr Putin over the reports about Russian troops, while French President Francois Hollande has warned their involvement would be "intolerable and unacceptable".

The European security body OSCE had begun a special meeting to discuss "Russia violations in Ukraine" just hours before the latest developments. 

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Ukraine: The Story On The Russian Soldiers

Russian Paratroopers 'Captured' In Ukraine

Updated: 4:49pm UK, Tuesday 26 August 2014

Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko and Russian leader Vladimir Putin have sat down for talks - hours after video footage of captured Russian soldiers risked inflaming tensions between the two countries.

The two leaders met alongside senior EU officials in Belarus, where Mr Putin said the conflict in eastern Ukraine would not be solved by a military escalation in the region. 

Mr Poroshenko said the talks would decide "the fate of Europe and the world".

The Russian president's conciliatory words came after Ukraine presented fresh evidence suggesting Russian military activity within Ukraine.

Ukraine's security service (UBS) released video footage purportedly showing 10 Russian paratroopers who were captured by the army in the war-torn east of the country.

The UBS said it had opened a criminal probe after soldiers from the 98th airborne division based in central Russia were detained near the village of Dzerkalne, around 30 miles (50km) from rebel-held Donetsk.

A Ukrainian military spokesman said the men were on a "special mission".

But Russian military sources quoted by state news agencies have claimed the soldiers crossed the border by mistake.

In footage posted on the official Facebook page of the Ukrainian government's "anti-terrorist operation", the men were shown dressed in camouflage fatigues.

One of them, who identified himself as Ivan Melchyakov, listed his personal details, including the name of the paratroop regiment he said is based in the Russian town of Kostroma.

"I did not see where we crossed the border. They just told us we were going on a 70-kilometre march over three days," he said.

"Everything is different here, not like they show it on television. We've come as cannon fodder," he said in the video.

Ukraine's Defence Minister Valeriy Geletey said the soldiers were captured on Monday.

"Officially they are at exercises in various corners of Russia.

"In reality, they are participating in military aggression against Ukraine and their families know nothing about their true fate.

"I am addressing the relatives of Russian servicemen: find out immediately where your loved ones are. Take them out of Ukraine, where they are being forced to die."

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice slammed Russia over the incident, branding the latest apparent incursion "dangerous and inflammatory" on Twitter.

At the talks in Minsk, Mr Poroshenko said the only way to end the bloodshed in eastern Ukraine was through effective border controls with Russia, halting arms supplies to rebels and releasing prisoners of war.

Mr Putin said Moscow would retaliate if a trade pact between Ukraine and the EU gave European goods a back door to Russian markets - a move he said that would cost his economy 100bn roubles (£1.6bn)

Even as the Ukrainian president landed outside Minsk earlier on Tuesday, his country's military said an attack by Russian separatists on the town of Novoazovsk was ongoing.

A spokesman said a hospital was on fire and 12 Ukrainian service personnel had been killed in the last 24 hours - while government forces had destroyed 12 armoured infantry carriers in the area using artillery and aircraft.

Kiev has accused its neighbour of stoking the separatist insurgency but this is the first time authorities have claimed to have captured Russian soldiers.

Moscow continues to deny any involvement in the rebellion.

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Ukraine-Russia Talks Yield No Breakthrough

Talks between the leaders of Ukraine and Russia have ended without a major breakthrough towards ending fighting between government forces and pro-Moscow separatists.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin sat down for one-on-one talks in Belarus, hours after Kiev said it had captured 10 Russian paratroopers on its territory.

Mr Poroshenko said there were "some results" but there seemed to be no significant compromises to help end four months of fighting in east Ukraine that has left more than 2,000 dead and forced more than 400,000 people from their homes.

Russia has long been accused by Kiev of backing the separatists, charges Moscow has repeatedly denied.

Mr Putin has faced criticism from Ukraine and the West over the crisis

Mr Putin said he would "do everything" to help a future peace process but did little to ease tensions when he shrugged off the claims about the paratroopers.

"I have not yet received a report from the defence ministry. But from what I have heard, they were patrolling the border and could have ended up on Ukrainian territory," Mr Putin said, adding that Ukrainian troops had previously crossed into Russia.

Mr Poroshenko (right) demanded action, not words, to end the fighting

"I am hoping that there won't be any problems with the Ukrainian side over this case."

Military sources in Moscow said they crossed over the border "by accident".

Ukraine's military released footage purporting to show the captured paratroopers, who were detained around 30 miles (50km) southeast of the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.

The two leaders also discussed aid to the east and the gas dispute

At the talks all sides "without exception" agreed to a Kiev peace plan, Mr Poroshenko said, but he demanded "decisive actions", not words, afterwards.

But Mr Putin said only Kiev can agree a ceasefire with the separatists, insisting: "This is not our business. This is Ukraine's business."

Moscow could only "create an atmosphere of trust for this important and necessary process", he claimed.

One of the Russian paratroopers Kiev claims to have captured

Russia's decision to send an aid convoy to east Ukraine last week also raised tensions, but Mr Putin claimed to have "reached certain" agreements at the talks on sending aid there.

Moscow announced on Monday it was planning to send a second convoy to the area this week.

Mr Putin also said the two countries agreed to restart gas talks after Moscow turned off the taps to Kiev over a pricing dispute.

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UN Says Syria May Have Used Chemical Weapons

A United Nations report has accused Syria of using chemical weapons eight times in April - and highlights mass atrocities by Islamic State militants.

The report by the independent Commission of Inquiry said it believed chlorine, dispatched in barrel bombs, was the agent used on multiple occasions.

It came amid reports that Syrian rebels had seized control of the Syrian crossing with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there had been heavy fighting between the rebels, including the al Qaeda affiliated al Nusra Front, and army forces.

An Israeli army officer stationed in the Golan Heights has been injured after errant fire, sources said.   

The UN's 45-page report accused the Syrian regime of dropping barrel bombs on residential areas and highlighted atrocities meted out by Islamic State members. 

Islamic State fighters in northern Raqqa province

"Reasonable grounds exist to believe that chemical agents, likely chlorine, were used on (northern Syrian villages) Kafr Zeita, al Tamana and Tal Minnis in eight incidents within a 10-day period in April," it said.

"Witnesses saw helicopters drop barrel bombs and smelled a scent akin to domestic chlorine immediately following impact," it pointed out.

Victims suffered "symptoms compatible with exposure to chemical agents, namely vomiting, eye and skin irritation, choking and other respiratory problems".

President Assad was sworn in for another seven years in July

It marks the first time the UN has assigned blame for the use of the chemical agent. 

Bashar al Assad and the opposition have accused each other of using chemical agents, including chlorine, in the bloody uprising, that began in March 2011.

The report on the human rights situation also found that public executions, as well as amputations, lashing and mock crucifixions regularly take place on Fridays in parts of Syria controlled by Islamic State (IS).

In the document, the panel described beheadings of boys as young as 15, men flogged for things like smoking or accompanying an "improperly dressed" female relative, and women publicly lashed for not following the group's strict dress code.

IS, which declared a "caliphate" in an area stretching across northern Iraq and eastern Syria, is also recruiting and training children as young as 10, with teens being used in active combat and suicide-bombing missions, the report said.

"This is a continuation - and a geographic expansion - of the widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population," according to the report of the four-member commission that is chaired by Brazilian diplomat and scholar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.

The commission was created three years ago by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate abuses committed in the war, which is estimated to have killed nearly 200,000 people.

It will present to the council next month its latest report covering a litany of war crimes and crimes against humanity it says were carried out by the Syrian government, IS and opposition groups.

Syria has said it is ready to cooperate with the international community in the fight against the militants who have taken over areas straddling both Iraq and Syria.

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Gaza High-Rise Blocks Wrecked By Airstrikes

Israeli airstrikes have destroyed much of one of Gaza's tallest apartment blocks.

Palestinian officials said 70 families lived in the block, known as the Italian Complex, which also housed offices and a shopping centre.

Gaza's health ministry said 25 people were injured.

Hundreds of people living nearby have been evacuated because of fears that the remaining part of the structure could collapse.

Another of Gaza's tallest blocks - the Basha Tower - was completely destroyed.

The buildings were evacuated before they were hit because warnings were issued by Israel, which said it had only targeted sites linked to militants.

Rockets fired from Gaza at Israel badly damaged a house

The Gaza government said at least nine people were killed in Israeli airstrikes elsewhere in the territory.

Israel said eight rockets had been fired at its territory from Gaza overnight. More rockets were also fired at it from across the Lebanese border, it said.

One of the rockets from Gaza injured up to a dozen people in Ashkelon and badly damaged a house.

It followed a day in which 130 rockets were fired from Gaza.

Israel said on Tuesday it had carried out 15 airstrikes in Gaza overnight. It also released a video showing targets where it said militants had been operating from.

The rocket strike on Ashkelon left more than a dozen injured

The latest strikes came as Egypt urged Israel and Hamas to restart indirect talks on establishing a permanent ceasefire.

Negotiators have been using the Egyptians as go-betweens to discuss the future of the blockade on Gaza, which Israel says is necessary to limit what it describes as terrorist attacks from the territory.

The Egyptians have suggested a gradual easing of restrictions on trade and movement in and out of Gaza and in exchange for giving Hamas' Palestinian rival, President Mahmoud Abbas, a foothold in the territory.

Hamas seized Gaza from Mr Abbas in 2007, triggering the blockade. Hamas and Israel blamed each other for delaying agreement.

At least 2,133 Palestinians have been killed in the latest conflict and more than 11,000 wounded, according to Palestinian health officials.

The UN estimates that more than 17,000 homes have been destroyed, leaving 100,000 people homeless.

A cat among the ruins of the Basha Tower

Israel says 68 of its citizens have been killed, all but four of them soldiers.

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