HIV positive ISIS fighters told to turn suicide bombers: reports

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Syria: The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has ordered 16 of fighters, who were tested positive for HIV, to become suicide bombers upon finding that they contracted the disease from two Moroccan sex slaves, says a report in The Daily Mail.

As per the report, the men, most of whom are of foreign origin, underwent treatment at an ISIS-run facility located in the east-Syrian city of Al-Mayadeen. The 16 men were later sent to a quarantine facility.

The women from whom the ISIS fighters contracted the disease reportedly fled to Turkey as they feared that the ISIS would execute them.

Yemen's president calls for ceasefire after 65 civilians killed

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Doctors Without Borders appeals to the warring factions to halt attacking civilians as Houthi attacks, Saudi airstrikes kill 65 civilians in Taez.

Yemen's president proposed a 15-day cease-fire that would coincide with the withdrawal of rebel militias from all government institutions and military installations and all cities and provinces.

President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi's proposal calls for the Houthi rebels and allied troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to immediately implement a UN Security Council resolution which demands an end to violence and a swift return to UN-led peace talks.

The proposal also calls for UN sanctions on the rebels to be activated.

Meanwhile, a leading international aid group made a dramatic appeal to the warring factions to halt attacks on civilians, a day after heavy fighting in a key southern city killed more than 65 people and wounded at least 23.

Doctors Without Borders also said it was unable to reach the hospitals in Taez, Yemen's third largest city, where fighting intensified on Thursday.

"We call on the warring parties to stop attacking civilian targets, especially hospitals, ambulances and densely populated neighbourhoods and allow medical personnel and humanitarian organisations to provide assistance," the aid group, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF, said in a statement.

Yemeni security officials said the violence in Taez began with the Houthi rebels first shelling residential areas and killing 23 civilians. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to reporters.

The shelling provoked airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition, which has been targeting the Houthis since March, when Yemen's crisis escalated amid the rebel advance and land grab.

The subsequent airstrikes killed at least 35 people and demolished five houses in the eastern neighbourhood of Sala, from where the rebels launched their attacks earlier Thursday, the officials added.

Among those killed, at least 17 were children and 20 were women, according to Doctors Without Borders, which added that more than 65 people were killed in Taez on Thursday.

The survivors, the group reported, were left "searching through the rubble with their bare hands" in the hope of finding victims buried underneath.

"It was a hellish night," said Taez resident Omar Karim, who could not sleep from the sound of the shelling as he and his family cowered in their basement for shelter.

"Patients and MSF staff are unable to reach hospitals due to the heavy fighting and airstrikes," the aid group said in a statement, adding that 923 people have been wounded over the past three days, and that 133 of them died due to their severe injuries.

Only seven of Taez's 21 hospitals are currently open but they are "totally overwhelmed" and have run out of essential medication, MSF said.

Meanwhile, in the port city of Aden, witnesses on the Gold Mohur beach said a masked group of armed men led six men in orange jumpsuits with their hands tied behind their backs onto a boat on Wednesday. The booby-trapped boat, they said, was dragged out to sea by another boat, before it was detonated remotely.

The explosion killed the six captives, whose identities were not known, said the witnesses, speaking on condition of anonymity fearing for their own safety.

No group claimed responsibility for the killings but Daesh-affiliated militants have carried out such slayings in the past.

Agencies

US air strike kills ‘Daesh number two’: White House

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The National Security Council identified the slain militant as Fadhil Ahmad Al Hayali, also known as Haji Mutaz.

The second-in-command of Daesh has been killed in a US air strike in northern Iraq, the White House said Friday.

The National Security Council identified the slain militant as Fadhil Ahmad Al Hayali, also known as Haji Mutaz, and said he was Daesh leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi's senior deputy.

US forces say they were able to kill him, along with a Daesh "media operative" known as Abu Abdullah, on August 18 in a strike on a vehicle near the city of Mosul.

The White House described Al Hayali as a member of Daesh's ruling council, and "a primary coordinator for moving large amounts of weapons, explosives, vehicles and people between Iraq and Syria.

"He supported Daesh operations in both countries and was in charge of Daesh operations in Iraq, where he was instrumental in planning operations over the past two years, including the Daesh offensive in Mosul in June 2014," it said.

Like many senior Iraqi militants, before joining the Daesh group, Al Hayali had been a member of Al Qaeda's Iraqi faction.

Black teen killed by St. Louis police shot in back: Autopsy

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ST. LOUIS: A black teenager shot and killed by white St. Louis police officers this week died from a single gunshot that entered his back and struck his heart, a medical examiner said on Friday, which appears to contradict the police account of the shooting. News of the preliminary results of an autopsy escalated tensions that had flared after Wednesday's killing of Mansur Ball-Bey, as protesters and family of the slain 18-year-old questioned police accounts that he pointed a gun at officers. In angry clashes Wednesday night, officers in riot gear fired tear gas and more protests followed on Thursday night. Fresh protests are planned for Friday night in the area of the shooting, according to social media posts by activists. St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said additional officers would be available for the weekend in anticipation of further protests. He said he met with Gov. Jay Nixon and the Missouri Highway Patrol on Friday to arrange for state assistance if needed. Late Friday, St. Louis' elected prosecutor, Circuit Attorney Jennifer M. Joyce, said her office would begin investigating now, rather than waiting until police turn over the results of their own investigation. She assured St. Louisans at a news conference that her investigation would be independent from the one St. Louis police are conducting. "I don't work for the police chief," said Joyce. "I don't work for the mayor. I am elected separately. When police have committed a crime, I hold them accountable." Less than two weeks ago the St. Louis area was flooded with protesters from across the country marking the anniversary of the Aug. 9, 2014, killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer in nearby Ferguson, Missouri. Brown's death was one of a series of police killings of unarmed black men and teens across the United States that sparked a newly energised civil rights movement under the banner "Black Lives Matter". Autopsy results show a bullet struck Ball-Bey in the upper right of his back, hitting his heart and an artery next to it, said St. Louis Chief Medical Examiner Michael Graham. The autopsy findings appear to contradict the version of the shooting given by police, who said two officers shot at Ball-Bey when he pointed a gun at them as he fled a home where police were serving a search warrant. Police said Ball-Bey dropped his weapon and continued running after he was shot. The position and track of the bullet, which did not exit Ball-Bey's body, show that he was not turned toward officers when he was shot, Graham said. The shot would have killed him nearly instantly, making it difficult if not impossible for him to keep running, though if he was running there would have been some forward momentum, Graham said. Graham said it was impossible to tell from the autopsy whether Ball-Bey was slightly turned, or was twisting his torso toward officers when he was shot. "There are so many variables," said Graham. "But he certainly wasn't facing, his chest wasn't facing the officers." The results of the autopsy are preliminary and evidence was still being gathered, Dotson said, but he said one witness had corroborated officer accounts that Ball-Bey had a gun. "The complete truth takes time to put together," he told a press conference. "We must let the physical evidence lead us to our conclusions." Police said they had recovered a gun, which they determined was stolen, though they do not know if Ball-Bey's finger prints were on it, Dotson said. Jermaine Wooten, an attorney representing Ball-Bey's family, told CNN Friday no witnesses had seen the teenager with a gun. Wooten said Ball-Bey did not live in the community and was visiting relatives but not at the house where police were serving the warrant, he said. "He never had a gun. He did not point back toward the officers," Wooten told CNN. He said Ball-Bey could not have run more than a few feet after being shot, which contradicts police statements. A report containing evidence gathered in Ball-Bey's shooting will be turned over to the city attorney and the US Attorney in St. Louis for review, police officials said. Antonio French, a St. Louis Alderman and prominent voice in the black community, called for the circuit attorney of St. Louis to conduct a simultaneous investigation of the shooting. Reuters

Yemen's president Hadi proposes 15-day cease-fire

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UNITED NATIONS: Yemen's president is proposing a 15-day cease-fire that would coincide with the withdrawal of Shiite rebel militias from all government institutions and military installations and all cities and provinces — even the province they call home. President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's proposal, obtained on Friday by the media, was given to the UN envoy for Yemen in Saudi Arabia's capital on Thursday, and Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed was heading to Oman on Friday to meet with Houthi representatives to discuss it, according to a UN diplomat. Yemen's government has expressed support for a cease-fire in the past, but this might be its first formal proposal for one. The proposal, dated on Thursday, calls for the Houthi rebels and allied troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to immediately implement a UN Security Council resolution which demands an end to violence and a swift return to UN-led peace talks. Hadi's proposal comes after pro-government troops, backed by a coalition-led carrying out airstrikes, regained strategic ground from the rebels, including the southern port of Aden. They now push north toward the capital, Sanaa. Yemen's government has repeatedly demanded that the Houthis withdraw. With government forces retaking territory and the Houthis on the defensive, it remains to be seen if the two sides will be more amenable to talking. An attempt at UN-brokered talks in Geneva in June failed. More than 4,000 people have been killed in the Arab world's poorest country since March, when the US-backed coalition began launching airstrikes against the rebels who have seized control of the capital Sanaa and other cities. Hadi, who was forced to flee, is now in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Associated Press

Macedonia lets in vulnerable refugees

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BELGRADE: Macedonia said on Friday it would allow a limited number of “vulnerable” migrants to enter the country, after it sealed its border with Greece to them, leaving thousands of refugees stuck in no-man’s land. “A limited number of illegal migrants in vulnerable categories are allowed to enter Macedonia and they may be provided aid in accordance with the state’s capacities,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. It did not say what the vulnerable categories were. The decision came after hundreds streamed across the border. Police issued temporary transit documents to 181 migrants, mostly from Syria, Bangladesh and Pakistan, wanting to cross the small Balkan country on their way to northern Europe in the last 24 hours, the statement said. Before Macedonia declared a state of emergency on its southern border on Thursday it was issuing an average of 1,300 such documents a day, it added. Earlier in the day Macedonia deployed its army and police used stun grenades to stop thousands of migrants from entering the country via Greece, its Interior Ministry said, a day after declaring a state of emergency over Europe’s immigration crisis. A crowd of at least 3,000 migrants gathered at the border where Macedonian police, with refugees laying on rails to stop train traffic, the MIA news service reported. Police fired stun grenades to drive the crowd back in the no-man’s land, Interior Ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said. A team from aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres tweeted that 10 people were injured and it was treating those hit by “shrapnel” from the blasts. “We have the right to protect our borders,” Kotevski said by phone from the capital Skopje. “We want to respect international conventions and human rights, but our capacities are limited, and no one is helping us.” Two Syrian refugees injured in clashes were hospitalised in Greece and are in stable condition, the state-run Athens News Agency reported. Macedonia has appealed to Frontex, the European Union border management agency, for help, Kotevski said. More than 40,000 migrants have arrived in the country of 2 million people, in the past two months, with most wanting to continue to richer EU countries. Kotevski said Greek authorities had lowered controls and transported migrants to the frontier. Greece has struggled to deal with refugees for months traversing the narrow straits from Turkey to the Greek islands of Lesvos, Kos and Chios. Almost eight in 10 come from Syria or Afghanistan, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In neighboring Bulgaria, the government said it may deploy its army to its borders, while Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek and his Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz urged the EU to strengthen its external frontier and pay more attention to the Balkan route, they told reporters in Linz, Austria. “These narrow-minded games won’t work,” Gerald Knaus, founder of the Berlin-based European Stability Initiative, said by phone. “We need a European-wide policy. All the countries should get together and bear their part of the burden.” “The problem will get bigger and bigger,” Dimitar Bechev, the chairman of the European Policy Institute in Sofia, said by phone. “I won’t be surprised if at some point this results in xenophobic outbursts and be used by xenophobic parties.” Agencies

India advises Pakistan against Aziz meeting separatists

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New Delhi: India today made it clear to Pakistan that it should not go ahead with the meeting of its NSA Sartaz Aziz with Hurriyat representatives here when he comes to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval, saying it will not be 'appropriate'.

In a clear message to the Pakistan High Commission, which has invited hardline Kashmir separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah
Geelani and others separatists, India said such a meeting would not be in keeping with the spirit and intent of the
understanding reached at UFA, Russia to jointly work to combat terrorism.

'India has advised Pakistan yesterday that it would not be appropriate for Sartaz Aziz to meet with Hurriyat representatives in India,' spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry Vikas Swarup said in a tweet.

He tweeted that India has sought confirmation of its proposed agenda for the NSA-level talks that was conveyed to
the Pakistani side on August 18.

The two NSAs are scheduled to meet in New Delhi for talks on terrorism-related issues for the first time on August 23,
as decided in a meeting between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif last month in Ufa in Russia.
The invitation by the Pakistan High Commission to Geelani and other separatist leaders including Umar Farooq on
Sunday to meet Aziz has upset New Delhi but Pakistan has stuck to the line that such meetings were 'routine'.

Pakistan Foreign office had said in Islamabad that consultations with Hurriyat leaders were a 'routine matter' and a 'long standing practice'.

The Pakistani invitation, which is seen as yet another 'provocation' by Indian side, comes after persistent ceasefire
violations as well as two terror attacks in recent weeks in Gurdaspur and Udhampur which many observers see as Pakistan
army's opposition to any discussions with India.

Last year, India had unilaterally called off Foreign Secretary-level talks after the Pakistan High Commissioner
here had held 'consultations' with the Kashmiri separatist leaders on the eve of the FS-level meeting in Islamabad.

Significantly, Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit had last week said his country will not 'abandon' the Kashmiris'
'legitimate struggle for freedom', stressing that to have normal and cooperative relationship with India it was
necessary to settle the decades-old dispute. PTI

8,000 Indians given identity papers in Malaysia

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 Kuala Lumpur: At least 8,000 Indian-origin people have been issued identity documents in Malaysia through a government programme launched more than four years ago, Malaysia's Health Minister S. Subramaniam said on Thursday.

The 8,000 Indians to have obtained their identity documents, including that of births, marriage and citizenship through 'MyDaftar' programme, were part of 10,000 applications processed, The Malaysian Insider reported citing Subramaniam.

Subramaniam is also chairman of the Special Implementation Task Force (SITF) of the Cabinet Committee on Indian Community.

'This (MyDaftar) programme is an ongoing effort to help Indians who do not have identity (documents) despite residing in the country for so long,' the minister said after presenting citizenship certificates to 40 applicants in Putrajaya.

MyDaftar programme, a collaboration between SITF, the home ministry and the national registration department, helps Indians who do not possess any document to prove their Malaysian citizenship.

IANS

Bid to derail trains in Kottayam

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Kottayam: An attempt was made to derail trains at Madampattu lying between Kottayam and Chingavanam on Thursday midnight by parking a bike on the rail tracks. A Poovanthuruthu native was taken into custody in connection with the incident and police have begun a probe. The Malabar Express, Amrita Express and the Dibrougarh Express were reportedly targeted by miscreants.

According to eyewitnesses, a man was seen riding along the tracks in great speed. The car of the probe team of railway officials who had reached the spot to investigate about the incident was also attacked by unidentified men.

Student, hit by jeep inside college premises, put on ventilator

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Kazhakootam: An engineering college student who sustained severe injuries when a speeding jeep hit her during the Onam celebrations at the campus is reported to be in a critical state. The jeep involved in the accident has been seized by the traffic police. Relatives of the victim allege that the driver of the jeep was in an inebriated state when he knocked down the girl.

The victim Thansi Basheer hailing from Nilambur from Mallapuram was a third year civil engineering student of Sreeekariyam College of Engineering. She had sustained mild head injuries at the time of the accident and now is on ventilator support.
The girl was returning to the hostel when the incident occurred last evening, officials said.

The incident happened on Wednesday afternoon at about 3.30 pm but was reported to the police by the college authorities at night. The jeep was an open jeep being driven by the students of the college. The jeep was found hidden on the backyard of the college premises. Police had earlier seized jeeps from the college which were modified illegally. But no action has been taken by the police so far.

The principal of the college stated that the incident was not reported to the victim's family immediately as the injuries were only mild. But when a scan was undertaken, the injuries looked serious and hence the college decided to inform the police in the night. The relatives of the victim allege there were 25 students in the jeep and many were drunk.

The Sreekariyam police informed that the jeep, with number KBF 7268, was an open jeep and had been seized by the Medical College police three months back in a different case. The jeep is registered at the Moovatupuzha RTO in the name of Sreerag G Kumar. It is learnt that the jeep is used by students of the college during several occasions.

Meanwhile, college authorities said that strict action would be initiated against the culprits and celebrations were
held without permission.

Police have registered a case under provisions of traffic rules.