Kerry Calls For Coalition Against IS Jihadists

US Secretary of State John Kerry has called for a global coalition to combat Islamic State extremists and their "genocidal agenda".

His comments came as Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah warned the West would be the jihadist group's next target unless there was urgent action to halt its advances through Iraq and Syria.

The UK Government has raised Britain's terror threat level from substantial to severe because of the threat from militant groups in the Middle East.

Writing in the New York Times ahead of this week's NATO summit in Wales, Mr Kerry pressed for "a united response led by the United States and the broadest possible coalition of nations".

Mr Kerry said the US would present an action plan to the UN in September

He said he and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel would meet European counterparts on the sidelines of the summit to enlist assistance, and then travel to the Middle East to build support "among the countries that are most directly threatened".

US President Barack Obama has acknowledged Washington has no strategy yet to tackle the Islamic State, which has declared an Islamic "caliphate" in large swathes of territory under its control in Iraq and Syria.

But Mr Kerry said the US would be putting forward an action plan at a summit meeting of the UN Security Council in September, when Washington will hold the group's presidency.

"What's needed to confront its nihilistic vision and genocidal agenda is a global coalition using political, humanitarian, economic, law enforcement and intelligence tools to support military force," Mr Kerry said.

The UK has raised its terror threat level because of the extremist threat

The Islamic State (IS) has sparked growing alarm in the West at its rapid and brutal advance in both Syria and Iraq, killing hundreds of people, including in gruesome beheadings and mass executions.

The US began carrying out airstrikes against the group in Iraq earlier this month, but has yet to decide if it will expand that military action into Syria.

The cost of American military operations have cost about $560m (£337m) since mid-June, according to the Pentagon - an average of £7.5m (£4.5m) a day.

Syrian President Bashar al Assad has said he is willing to co-operate in tackling jihadists, but that any military action on its territory must be co-ordinated.

This causes a dilemma for Washington, which has long backed the rebels seeking President Assad's overthrow, and accuses his regime of rights violations including the use of chemical weapons.

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Hundreds Hurt In Violent Pakistan Clashes

At least 300 people have been wounded in clashes between police and protesters in Pakistani capital Islamabad.

The violence comes amid an ongoing two-week political stand-off over claims Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's 2013 election win was the result of vote rigging,

Starting late on Saturday and continuing into early Sunday, the disorder erupted after around 25,000 people marched from parliament to the PM's house.

An AFP reporter at the scene said those on the march, which was led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and populist cleric Tahir ul Qadri, attempted to remove barricades around the house with cranes.

Smoke from tear gas canisters filled the air

Police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Islamabad police chief Khalid Khattak said officers exercised restraint but that protesters were armed with axes, wire cutters and hammers.

"They had a crane and drove it until the entrance of the presidency," he said.

"We are using only tear gas and firing rubber bullets where needed."               

Railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique said protesters tried to uproot the entry gate to the prime minister's home.                

Those injured included protesters and police officers

The demonstrators had been camped outside parliament house since August 15 demanding Mr Sharif step down.

The crisis took on a new dimension earlier in the week after the government asked the army to mediate, raising fears the military would use the situation to enact a "soft coup" and increase its dominance over civilian authorities.

Speaking as fighting broke out on Saturday, defence minister Khawaja Asif said: "There are 1,600 to 2,000 trained terrorists. They have 200 women who are trained in the use of firearms and they have come with the intention of occupying state buildings.

"These are buildings that are symbols of the state. Their attempts are being resisted. And we will resist these with full force."

Protesters were carrying batons, iron rods and sling-shots. The injured were taken to Islamabad's two main hospitals, with the number of casualties expected to rise as clashes continue.

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Child Killed As Paris Building Collapses In Blast

A four-storey building has collapsed in an explosion in Paris, killing at least one child and leaving a dozen people unaccounted for.

Emergency services at the scene

A further 11 people were injured in the blast which rocked the residential complex in Rosny-sous-Bois, an eastern suburb of the French capital, on Sunday morning.

Images of the blast showed it had ripped through virtually half of an adjacent apartment block, leaving what was left of the destroyed flats exposed.

Emergency services were called to the scene and French rescuers and firefighters are searching through the rubble for survivors and other possible victims.

A fire service spokesman said seven adults and five children were still missing.

"The search is ongoing for other possible victims in the rubble, and an alert for the mobilisation of significant medical resources has been made," he said.

The cause of the explosion is not yet known.

More follows...

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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 cities in the east of the country is reminiscent of the Nazi siege of Leningrad.

"Small villages and large cities surrounded by the Ukrainian army which is directly hitting residential areas... It sadly reminds me the events of the Second World War, when German fascist... occupants surrounded our cities," he told a youth camp outside Moscow.

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

Mr Lavrov: 'No proof of Russian involvement'

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

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

Nato has accused Russia of violating its international obligations and has released satellite photos of what it says are Russian troops in Ukraine.

Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: "It is now clear that Russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border into eastern and southeastern Ukraine.

Russian arms seized in eastern Ukraine

"This is not an isolated action but part of a dangerous pattern over many months to destabilise Ukraine as a sovereign nation."

Kiev said on Friday a call by Mr 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".

A top insurgent in the rebel stronghold of Donetsk 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.

A satellite image allegedly showing a Russian military incursion in Ukraine

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 Donetsk and another separatist stronghold, 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.

The rebels control the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk

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

The tensions also led Poland to prevent a plane carrying Russia's defence minister from travelling through its airspace on Friday, leading to a complaint from Moscow.

Meanwhile, the US fast-food giant McDonald's has revealed a total of 12 branches in Russia had been temporarily closed by the state food safety watchdog over alleged sanitary law breaches.

A Ukrainian soldier exchanges fire with separatists

The company, which has 440 restaurants in the country, also said more than 100 further inspections were being carried out at its outlets.

"We are studying the essence of claims in order to determine the necessary actions for the swift re-opening of restaurants for visitors," the firm said in a statement.

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Ebola Drug ZMapp 100% Effective In Monkey Trial

Experimental ebola drug ZMapp has cured all of the infected monkeys it was tested on, lifting hopes it could be used to fight West Africa's deadliest ever outbreak.

Scientists reported the drug healed all 18 monkeys who were given a lethal dose of the virus.

According to the study, published by the journal Nature, the monkeys were treated with ZMapp three to five days after they were infected and when most were showing symptoms. 

Even those suffering advanced symptoms like rashes, liver dysfunction and haemorrhaging and were just hours from death survived.

No other experimental ebola drug has ever shown success in primates so long after infection, with five days equal to between nine and 11 days after infection in humans. 

Three monkeys who were not offered the treatment, produced by San Diago-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical, died by day eight.

Kent Brantly, the US doctor who survived ebola, was treated with ZMapp

"The level of improvement was utterly beyond my honest expectation," said one study leader, Gary Kobinger of the Public Health Agency of Canada in Winnipeg.

In a commentary published by Nature, virologist Thomas Geisbert of the University of Texas Medical Branch, described the results as a "monumental success."

It was the first time the drug was tested on primates.

Although it is not known whether the success will be replicated on people, who can take up to 21 days to show symptoms, Mapp has already begun producing more of the drug ready for scientific human testing.

The company has no more doses of ZMapp, which is grown in tobacco plants and takes several months to produce.

Ebola spread to a fifth African country on Friday

The final doses were given to seven people infected with the virus in recent weeks.

Two American aid workers were among five people who survived after being given the drug.

Their physicians do not know whether it was instrumental in their recovery as roughly half of those infected during West Africa's recent outbreak have recovered naturally.

A Liberian doctor infected with the virus died this week despite being given the drug, as did a Spanish priest.

It comes after researchers revealed the outbreak may have started at a funeral in Sierra Leone.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 1,552 people of 3,069 confirmed ebola cases have died. 

WHO says there could be as many as 20,000 cases before the virus is brought under control. 

There is no approved vaccine or treatment beyond keeping patients hydrated and nourished. 

The virus spread to a fifth African country on Friday, with Senegal reporting that a university student who had travelled from Guinea was being treated.

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UN Accuses Syria Over 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 also highlighted mock crucifixions, public executions, amputations and the beheading of children by Islamic State militants in parts of Syria.

The accusations 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 rebels - including the al Qaeda affiliated al Nusra Front - and the army.

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

Islamic State fighters in northern Raqqa province

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. 

"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.

President Assad was sworn in for another seven years in July

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

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 also outlines atrocities being carried out by IS militants in Syria, including public executions, amputations, lashings and mock crucifixions.

The document describes beheadings of boys as young as 15 and men flogged for smoking or accompanying an "improperly dressed" female relative.

Women have been publicly lashed for not following the group's strict dress code, the report says.

IS 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.

The four-member commission was created three years ago by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate abuses committed in the war.

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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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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Russia 'Directing Offensive In Ukraine's East'

The United States has claimed that Russia is directing a counter offensive in support of pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Separatists have seized control of territory in the east after government forces retreated from the advancing rebel troops.

Ukraine says Russian soldiers in armoured vehicles have crossed the border near where a group of paratroopers were detained earlier this week.

Kiev has also accused Russia of pushing columns of tanks and weaponry towards towns in south-eastern Ukraine.

State Department spokesman Jen Psaki said a Russian-directed counter offensive "is likely under way in Donetsk and Luhansk".

"Clearly that is of deep concern to us," she said.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk also said Nato and Polish intelligence have evidence of regular Russian army units operating in Ukraine.

Russia denies any direct link to the rebels, but refuses to call on them to cease fire or disarm.

The rebels' advance comes after weeks of government offensives saw Ukrainian troops push deep into rebel-held territory.

But the separatists' resurgence has now prompted Kiev to call on Nato for help.

Ukraine's Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said it was time for Nato to act when the alliance holds a summit in Wales next week.

Russia denies any direct link to the pro-Moscow rebels

"We expect our Western partners and the alliance to provide practical help and take crucial decisions at the summit in September," he said.

The fresh claims of Russian military involvement in Ukraine come after talks in Belarus ended without a major breakthrough this week.

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

Mr Poroshenko said there were "some results" from the talks, but there seemed to be no significant compromises to help end four months of fighting in Ukraine.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the conflict, with a further 400,000 people forced out of their homes.

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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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