As fighting continues in east Ukraine, U.S. releases images said to implicate Russia

KIEV, Ukraine — Rebels and government troops fired on each other’s positions Sunday in a strategically important city in eastern Ukraine, sending residents into bomb shelters, as Washington released images that it said prove Russia is shooting across the border into Ukraine to support separatists. At least 13 civilians were reported killed in the fighting around Horlivka, an industrial city of almost 300,000 people about 30 miles from the rebel bastion of Donetsk. According to a resident reached by telephone, parts of the city are without water or electricity, grocery stores are empty, and rebels and residents are fleeing. The Ukrainian military denied targeting civilians and said the pro-Russian rebels were to blame for the damage and casualties. The military accused the rebels of firing into residential neighborhoods. Continue Story...

Australia to send 100 extra police, troops to Ukraine: PM Abbott

(Reuters) - Australia will send 100 additional police and some defense force personnel to Europe to join a planned Dutch-led international security force to secure the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 crash site, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Friday. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers, some of whom will be armed, will join a contingent of 90 AFP officers already in London waiting for a deal with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to be approved by Ukraine's parliament. "This is a humanitarian mission, with a clear and simple objective," Abbott told reporters. "I expect the operation on the ground in Ukraine, should the deployment go ahead, to last no longer than a few weeks." Abbott announced on Thursday that 50 police officers had been deployed to London ahead of the mission, but a police spokeswoman said on Friday that the number was 90. It was unclear why the discrepancy had occurred. Continue Story...

U.S. embassy in Libya evacuated

WASHINGTON — The U.S. embassy in strife-torn Libya was evacuated early Saturday, under cover of American warplanes and spy aircraft, according to the State Department and Pentagon. Personnel from the embassy were evacuated as security deteriorated in the capital of Tripoli. "Due to the ongoing violence resulting from clashes between Libyan militias in the immediate vicinity of the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, we have temporarily relocated all of our personnel out of Libya," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement. Embassy personnel were taken to temporary offices in neighboring Tunisia with security provided by U.S. forces. Harf said the embassy is not closed but operations were temporarily suspended. Continue Story...

Reports: 12-hour cease-fire in Gaza

GAZA CITY - Israel has agreed to a unilateral 12-hour cease-fire in Gaza starting on Saturday morning, according to several news reports. Reuters, CNN and Yahoo! News reported that the cease-fire comes after Israel's Security Cabinet unanimously rejected a cease-fire proposal Friday that called for a week-long truce in the deadly conflict. "Israel has agreed to a 12-hour ceasefire from 07:00 am Saturday," said a U.S. official travelling with Secretary of State John Kerry, according to Yahoo! News. Kerry was leaving Cairo without securing a longer cease-fire deal between Israel and Palestinian movement Hamas. The cease-fire suggests progress is being made toward a longer end to recent conflict in Gaza. Continue Story...

Syria conflict: Isis 'overruns' Raqqa military base

Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) say they have overrun a large Syrian military base on the outskirts of the city of Raqqa. The Islamist fighters have released images of captured soldiers being beheaded after the battle for the base. The Syrian army did not confirm that the base had fallen, but said it was organising a counter-attack. Isis already controls much of Raqqa province, and recently seized a swathe of territory in neighbouring Iraq. The group, which has changed its name to Islamic State, describes the territory under its control in Iraq and Syria as a caliphate. The Raqqa base, manned by Division 17 of the Syrian army, is said to have been captured overnight after coming under siege from Isis fighters. Continue Story...

ISIS destroys ‘Jonah’s tomb’ in Mosul

The radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group has destroyed shrines belonging to two prophets, highly revered by both Christians and Muslims, in the northern city of Mosul, al-Sumaria News reported Thursday. “ISIS militants have destroyed the Prophet Younis (Jonah) shrine east of Mosul city after they seized control of the mosque completely,” a security source, who kept his identity anonymous, told the Iraq-based al-Sumaria News. “The militants closed all of the mosque doors and prevented worshipers from entering to pray,” the source said. A witness who did not wish to give his name said that ISIS militants “first stopped people from praying in it, they fixed explosive charges around and inside it and then blew it up in front of a large gathering of people,” according to Agence France-Presse. Continue Story...

Israel Braces for 'Day of Rage' After Deadly Overnight Protests

EAST JERUSALEM, Israel - Thousands of Israeli security forces were deployed around Jerusalem’s Old City on Friday as Palestinian leaders called for a “day of rage” after the biggest protests in years shook the West Bank overnight. Confrontations between Palestinians and police erupted in East Jerusalem's Wadi al-Joz neighborhood after Friday prayers during a protest to show solidarity with people in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli strikes have killed more than 800 since July 8. Reuters reported that three Palestinians were shot dead in the occupied West Bank in separate incidents involving both the Israeli army and a civilian who appeared to be a Jewish settler, medics and witnesses said. The deaths could not immediately be verified by NBC News. It was the first time in almost a decade that the Palestinian Authority gave permission for such a march, making a dramatic shift in relations between President Mahmoud Abbas's government and Israel. Continue Story...