UN warns of 'unprecedented' number of foreign jihadists in Iraq, Syria

LONDON: Foreign jihadists from more than 80 countries have flocked to fight in Iraq and Syria on an "unprecedented scale", according to extracts of a UN report published by Britain's Guardian newspaper on Friday.

Around 15,000 people have travelled to fight alongside Islamic State (IS) and other hardcore militant groups from "countries that have not previously faced challenges relating to al-Qaeda," said the report.

The number of foreign jihadists travelling to fight since 2010 exceeds the cumulative total of the 20 preceding years "many times", the Security Council study said.

"There are instances of foreign terrorist fighters from France, the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland operating together," it said, according to the Guardian.

Britain's top police officer, Bernard Hogan-Howe, estimated last week that five people a week were leaving the country to fight with IS. Security officials estimate that there are currently around 500 British nationals fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Dozens have been arrested for preparing to leave to join the IS group or helping others to do so.

France is also moving closer to adopting an "anti-terrorism" law which would slap a travel ban on anyone suspected of planning to wage jihad.

The UN warned that more nations than ever face the problem of dealing with fighters returning from the battle zone.

The US Central Intelligence Agency last month announced figures showing that there were around 20,000 to 31,500 IS fighters active in Iraq and Syria, much higher than previous estimates.

A US security official estimated that there were close to 2,000 westerners among the 15,000 foreign fighters.

Previous figures showed there were 7,000 foreign jihadists fighting in March and 12,000 in July suggesting 1,000 a month were travelling to fight, despite the launch of US air strikes three months ago, although there is a lag of a few weeks in the figures.

The report was produced by a committee that monitors al-Qaeda, and concluded that the once mighty and feared group was now "manoeuvring for relevance" following the rise of the even more militant IS, which was booted out of al-Qaeda by leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Despite the split, the UN concluded that the legal basis for US President Barack Obama's fight against IS was justified by its ideological congruence with al-Qaeda, and considered the two groups as part of a broader movement.

"Al-Qaeda core and Isil (IS) pursue similar strategic goals, albeit with tactical differences regarding sequencing and substantive differences about personal leadership," the UN wrote.

Obama has vowed he will not order a large force into combat in Iraq or Syria, relying instead on air power and local forces.

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Myanmar may amend constitution barring Suu Kyi from presidency

NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar's parliament will consider amending the country's constitution — which currently bars opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president — ahead of elections next year, an official said on Friday.

"They agreed to discuss the issue of amending the constitution in parliament, according to the law," presidential spokesman Ye Htut told reporters after President Thein Sein held unprecedented talks with army top brass and political rivals including Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi is trying to change key sections of Myanmar's constitution ahead of 2015 elections that are widely expected to be won by her National League for Democracy (NLD) — if they are free and fair.

The NLD has focused on altering a provision that currently ensures the military in the former junta-ruled nation has a veto on any amendment to the previous charter.

To alter the constitution there needs to be support from a majority of over 75 per cent of parliament.

As it stands, Suu Kyi is ineligible to become president because of a clause in the 2008 charter blocking anyone whose spouse or children are overseas citizens from leading the country. The Nobel laureate's late husband was British, as are her two sons.

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Italy appoints new foreign minister

ROME: Italy's former communications minister Paolo Gentiloni has been nominated foreign minister, his new deputy said on Friday.

Gentiloni, a member of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's centre-left Democratic Party (PD), will replace Federica Mogherini, who was set to take on her new role as foreign policy chief in Brussels on Saturday.

"Congratulations to Paolo Gentiloni, new foreign minister," deputy foreign minister Lapo Pistelli said on Twitter.

An official confirmation of his appointment was expected later on Friday, with Italian daily La Repubblica saying the swearing-in ceremony in front of President Giorgio Napolitano would take place at 1700 GMT.

Gentiloni, who will be 60-years-old next month, is known as one of Renzi's close allies. A former journalist who studied political science, he held the post of communications minister under Prime Minister Romano Prodi between 2006 and 2008.

He has been a member of the lower house of parliament's foreign and European affairs commission since February 2013.

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Sweden recognises Palestinian state

STOCKHOLM: Sweden on Thursday officially recognized the state of Palestine, Stockholm's foreign minister said, less than a month after the government announced its intention to make the controversial move.

"Today the government takes the decision to recognize the state of Palestine," foreign minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement published in the Dagens Nyheter daily.

"It is an important step that confirms the Palestinians' right to self-determination," she said, adding that "we hope that this will show the way for others."

Sweden's new Prime Minister Stefan Loefven announced in his inaugural address to parliament in early October that his country would become the first EU member in western Europe to recognise a Palestinian state.

While the Palestinians cheered the move, Israel summoned Sweden's ambassador to protest and express disappointment.

Israel has long insisted that the Palestinians can only receive their promised state through direct negotiations and not through other diplomatic channels.

Seven EU members in eastern European and the Mediterranean have already recognized a Palestinian state - Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Romania. Non-EU member Iceland is the only other western European nation to have done so.

The United States cautioned Sweden against recognition, calling it "premature" and saying the Palestinian state could only come through a negotiated solution between Israelis and Palestinians.

In today's announcement, Sweden's foreign minister said that "the government considers that international law criteria for recognition of a Palestinian state have been fulfilled."

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Burkina parliament set ablaze in protests over president

OUAGADOUGOU: Angry demonstrators went on the rampage in Burkina Faso on Thursday, setting parliament ablaze in a surge of violence that forced the government to scrap a vote on controversial plans to allow President Blaise Compaore to extend his 27-year rule.

Hundreds of people broke through a heavy security cordon and stormed the National Assembly building in the capital Ouagadougou, ransacking offices and setting fire to cars, before attacking the national television headquarters.

One man was killed in the chaos that erupted in the poor west African nation shortly before lawmakers were due to vote on the controversial legislation, AFP correspondents said.

The government, facing its worst crisis since a wave of mutinies shook the country in 2011, later announced it was calling off the vote but it was not immediately clear if this was a temporary move.

Black smoke billowed out of smashed windows at the parliament building, where several offices were ravaged by flames, including the speaker's office, although the main chamber so far appeared to be unscathed.

Several hundred protesters also broke into the headquarters of the national television station RTB, pillaging equipment and smashing cars, the correspondents said.

The ruling party headquarters in Burkina Faso's second city of Bobo Dioulasso and city hall was also torched by protesters, witnesses said.

"The president must deal with the consequences," said Benewende Sankara, one of the leaders of the opposition which had called for the people to march on parliament over the Compaore law.

The country has been tense for days in the run-up to Thursday's vote over the constitutional changes, which the European Union had warned could jeopardise stability.

Police were out in force around the parliament after mass rallies called by the opposition earlier this week but failed to stop the onslaught despite using tear gas against the protesters.

The European Union has urged the government to scrap the legislation, warning that it could "jeopardise... stability, equitable development and democratic progress", and had called for all sides to refrain from violence.

Several thousand protesters had marched through the capital on Wednesday, the day after street battles erupted during a mass rally by hundreds of thousands of people against what they see as a constitutional coup by supporters of Compaore.

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Iraqi Kurdish forces enter Syria to fight Islamic State

SURUC, Turkey/BEIRUT: A first group of Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters entered the besieged Syrian town of Kobani on Thursday to help push back Islamic State militants who have defied US air strikes and threatened to massacre its Kurdish defenders.

Kobani, on the border with Turkey, has been encircled by the Sunni Muslim insurgents for more than 40 days. Weeks of US-led air strikes have failed to break their stranglehold, and Kurds are hoping the arrival of the peshmerga will turn the tide.

The siege of Kobani - known in Arabic as Ayn al-Arab - has become a test of the US-led coalition's ability to stop Islamic State's advance, and Washington has welcomed the peshmerga's deployment.

A first contingent of about 10 peshmerga fighters crossed into Kobani from Turkey, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Kurdish and Turkish officials said a larger deployment was expected within hours.

"That initial group, I was told, is here to carry out the planning for our strategy going forward," said Meryem Kobane, a commander with the YPG, the main Syrian Kurdish armed group defending the town.

"They need to make preparations so the peshmerga will be positioned according to our needs," she told Reuters.

Around 100 peshmerga fighters arrived by plane in southeastern Turkey on Wednesday, joined later that night by a land convoy of vehicles carrying heavy weapons including a cannon and truck-mounted high-calibre machine guns.

In a compound protected by Turkish security forces near the border town of Suruc, the fighters were donning combat fatigues and preparing their weapons, a Reuters correspondent said.

Syria condemned Turkey for allowing foreign fighters and "terrorists" to enter Syria in a violation of its sovereignty. Its foreign ministry described the move as a "disgraceful act".

More troops possible

Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani said his region was prepared to deploy more forces to Kobani if asked.

"Whenever the situation on the ground necessitates and more forces are requested from us and there is passage for them, we will send more forces to protect Kobani and defeat terrorists in Western Kurdistan," he said in a statement.

Islamic State has caused international alarm by capturing large expanses of Iraq and Syria, declaring an Islamic "caliphate" that has erased borders between the two.

Its fighters have slaughtered or driven away Shi'ite Muslims, Christians and other communities who do not share their ultra-radical brand of Sunni Islam.

In Iraq, the bodies of 150 members of a Sunni tribe which fought Islamic State have been found in a mass grave, security officials said on Thursday. Islamic State militants took the men from their villages to the city of Ramadi and killed them on Wednesday night.

The United States and its allies in the coalition have made clear they do not plan to send troops to fight Islamic State in Syria or Iraq, but they need fighters on the ground to capitalise on their air strikes.

Syrian Kurds have called for the international community to provide them with heavier weapons and munitions and they have received an air drop from the United States.

But Turkey accuses Kurdish groups in Kobani of links to the militant PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party), which has fought a three-decade insurgency against the Turkish state and is regarded as a terrorist group by Ankara, Washington and the European Union.

Ankara fears Syria's Kurds will exploit the chaos by following their brethren in Iraq and seeking to carve out an independent state in northern Syria, emboldening PKK militants in Turkey and derailing a fragile peace process.

That has complicated efforts to provide aid and meant the negotiations with Turkey to enable the passage of the peshmerga were delicate and complex.

"If (Islamic State) defeats the Kurds in Kobani it will lead to a reaction amongst the Kurds around the world, including Turkey," said Fuad Hussein, chief of staff to Barzani.

"There is huge interaction: what happens here, what happens in Kobani, what happens in Turkey: it affects each other so we must manage it," he told Reuters.

The peshmerga fighters were given a heroes' welcome as their convoy of jeeps and flatbed trucks snaked its way for around 400 km (250 miles) through Turkey's mostly Kurdish southeast on Wednesday.

A senior Turkish government official said Turkey - which has refused to send its own troops across the border to confront Islamic State - welcomed the peshmerga's arrival and said that the rest of contingent that arrived in Turkey was expected to enter Kobani later on Thursday.

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Suicide bomber kills 27 militiamen in Iraq, all eyes on Kobani

BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber killed at least 27 Shia militiamen on the outskirts of the Iraqi town of Jurf al-Sakhar on Monday after security forces pushed Islamic State militants out of the area over the weekend, army and police sources said.

The attacker, driving a Humvee vehicle packed with explosives and likely stolen from defeated government troops, also wounded 60 Shia militiamen, who had helped government forces retake the town just south of the capital.

Holding Jurf al-Sakhar is critical for Iraqi security forces who finally managed to drive out the Sunni insurgents after months of fighting.

It could allow Iraqi forces to prevent the Sunni insurgents from edging closer to the capital Baghdad, sever connections to their strongholds in western Anbar province, and stop them infiltrating the mainly Shia Muslim south.

The group has threatened to march on Baghdad, home to special forces and thousands of Shia militias expected to put up fierce resistance if the capital comes under threat.

Gains against Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot made up of Arab and foreign fighters, are often fragile even with the support of US airstrikes on militant targets in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

As Iraqi government soldiers and militias savored their victory and were taking photographs of Islamic State corpses on Sunday, mortar rounds fired by Islamic State fighters who had fled to orchards to the west rained down on Jurf al-Sakhar.

The blast hit the militiamen, killing dozens and scattering body parts, according to a Reuters witness.

The next significant fighting near Baghdad is expected to take place just to the west in the Sunni heartland Anbar province.

The town of Amriyat al-Falluja has been surrounded by Islamic State militants on three sides for weeks. Security officials say government forces are gearing up for an operation designed to break the siege.

Gains in the Islamic State stronghold of Anbar could raise the morale of Iraqi troops after they collapsed in the face of a lighting advance by the insurgents in the north in June.

No letup to the violence

Islamic State kept up the pressure on security forces on Monday, attacking soldiers, policemen and Shia militiamen in the town of al-Mansuriyah, northeast of Baghdad. Six members of the Iraqi security forces were killed, police said.

Kurdish peshmerga fighters also made advances over the weekend against Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in the heart of the Middle East and is determined to redraw the map of the oil-producing region.

Much attention is focused on the planned deployment of peshmerga to the besieged Syrian border town of Kobani, where fellow Kurds have been fending off an attack by Islamic State for 40 days.

Iraqi Kurdish officials and a member of the Kurdish administration in Syria said the peshmerga had been due to head to Kobani via Turkey on Sunday but their departure had been postponed.

"Until now they have not gone," said Sinam Mohammed, the Syrian Kurdish administration's representative in Europe. "They were supposed to go yesterday. They (KRG) says we are ready to send them but I don't know what happened. I think the problem is Turkey."

Iraqi Kurdish forces will not engage in ground fighting in the Syrian town of Kobani but provide artillery support for fellow Kurds there, a Kurdish spokesman has said.

Islamic State fighters have been trying to capture Kobani for over a month, pressing on despite U.S.-led air strikes on their positions and the deaths of hundreds of their fighters.

The Kurdish region's parliament voted last week to deploy some of its peshmerga forces, which have been fighting their own battle against Islamic State in the north.

There were heavy clashes and sporadic exchanges of mortar fire in Kobani on Monday, with several plumes of grey smoke rising over the east of the town, where fighting has been intense in recent days.

Islamic State militants tried to seize a border post just to the east of Kobani over the weekend but were repulsed by Kurdish fighters.

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Will another Bush run for the White House in 2016?

WASHINGTON: Republican Jeb Bush's flirtation with a possible run for the White House in 2016 has been so low key that some in his party aren't convinced he's prepared to take on the challenge.

The former Florida governor with the famous family name is among the leaders in polls charting potential Republican contenders in 2016 and says he will decide late this year or early next year.

But unlike some would-be competitors like New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who are making forward-leaning statements, Bush is publicly expressing his uncertainty.

Questions are weighing heavily on Bush, 61, about the impact on his wife and family and whether he can offer an agenda that would unite Americans.

Whether he will run is a question that comes up almost daily for Bush as he travels the country campaigning for Republican candidates ahead of November 4 congressional elections. On Thursday, he was in Greenville, South Carolina, campaigning with governor Nikki Haley, who is seeking re-election.

"It's a big decision," he told reporters in Greenville. "It relates to family."

"I think the next presidential race has to be about the future and it has to be about fixing some big problems," he said.

"I think it's more than likely that he's giving this a serious thought and moving forward," Bush's son, George P Bush, said on ABC's "This Week" program on Sunday. "The family will be behind him 100 percent if he decides to do it."

Bush's decision-making seems far less advanced than the past Bush presidents were at similar points in their own career, leading some Republicans to raise questions. His father, former President George H W Bush, began preparing for a 1988 run in 1985. His brother, former President George W Bush, was actively planning his 2000 run at this point in 1998.

"There's a scent of activity that goes on in preparation for a serious candidacy that involves a lot of contacts with donors and strategists," said Florida Republican strategist Rick Wilson. "People aren't seeing that from Jeb. I will say he's been more active, been talking to folks, but not to a degree that Chris Christie has been doing."

Friends say Jeb Bush's cautiousness is due to his deliberate manner and his experience watching his father and brother go through what can be a meat-grinding process. They also say he is not expecting to be drafted, recruited or convinced to run. That is not his style.

"This is not a guy who spends sleepless nights staring at the ceiling wondering if he should or should not run for president," said Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist and a friend of Bush.

"He's a disciplined guy and will make this decision like he does most other big decisions, through a serious deliberative process weighing the pros and cons and looking deep into himself. This is a decision that will be made by Jeb, his wife and kids," she said.

If he runs, Bush would be injecting himself into the presidential race in a Republican Party that has moved to the right since he left the governor's office in 2006.

Bush, whose wife of 40 years, Columba, was born in Mexico, has a more welcoming view on immigration than many party conservatives, who criticize his support for comprehensive reform that would allow a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants.

If Bush were to win the Republican primary and become the party's presidential nominee, he would have to convince a majority of Americans that it would be worthwhile to have a third president named Bush in the Oval Office.

Should he run, donors say Bush could get up to speed quickly by tapping a ready network of financial supporters built from his own alliances and from those who supported previous Bush presidential bids.

His father and brother have publicly urged him to run. People who know them say they are unsure of Jeb Bush's plans.

"Jeb is keeping very close counsel on what his future plans are," said Jim McGrath, spokesman for the elder Bush. "I don't think he's ready to make a decision. I think he's being very sincere when he says he will wait until after the election to decide."

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Prosecutors to appeal Pistorius ruling

PRETORIA: South African state prosecutors said on Monday they would appeal a culpable homicide verdict and five-year jail term handed down to fallen track star Oscar Pistorius.

"NPA (National Prosecuting Authority) will be appealing both the conviction and sentence," spokesman Nathi Mncube said.

Pistorius began a five-year prison stretch on October 21 after being found guilty of culpable homicide, but not guilty of a more serious charge of murder.

The state had sought to prove that Pistorius deliberately shot his girlfriend, 29-year-old Reeva Steenkamp, dead on Valentine's Day last year.

But trial judge Thokozile Masipa found there was not enough evidence to convict the 27-year-old of premeditated murder.

Details of the appeal have not yet released, but South African criminal lawyers have expressed shock that Masipa found Pistorius could not have foreseen that someone would die when he fired the shots.

Legal experts complained that it could open the door to systematic abuse of the legal system, or to people believing it would be okay to shoot in an irresponsible manner.

Steenkamp was shot four times through a locked toilet door at Pistorius's upmarket Pretoria home in the early hours of Valentine's Day.

The Paralympic and Olympic athlete alternatively said he believed there was an intruder and that he did not consciously fire his pistol.

South Africans had also criticized Masipa's five-year sentence as too lenient after it emerged Pistorius may be eligible for parole in less than a year.

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Indonesia's new president unveils his cabinet

JAKARTA: New Indonesian President Joko Widodo unveiled his cabinet on Sunday, which included the country's first female foreign minister, after a lengthy delay caused by anti-corruption authorities' concerns about several candidates.

Key figures include Retno Marsudi as foreign minister, Bambang Brodjonegoro as finance minister and Sofyan Djalil as chief economics minister. It included eight women, a higher number than in the previous cabinet.

The 34-member cabinet is broadly split between professionals and party politicians, as Widodo seeks to balance a pledge to pick the best people in their fields with pressure to reward parties who backed him at July's election.

The team of ministers will be key in helping Widodo, known as Jokowi, push through much-needed reforms to boost Southeast Asia's top economy and help the country's poorest, as he faces stiff opposition in parliament from a coalition that backed his election rival.

The daughter of Megawati Sukarnoputri, the head of Widodo's party, and other figures close to her were named as ministers, which will add to concerns the former president may seek to influence policy from outside government.

The announcement was expected as early as Tuesday, a day after Widodo was inaugurated as leader of the world's third-biggest democracy. But he took the unprecedented step of asking the powerful Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to vet the candidates.

He was seeking to avoid the mistakes of his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, whose government was hit by a string of corruption scandals that dented its popularity.

"We wanted the chosen people to be clean so we consulted the KPK," Widodo said, as he announced the cabinet.

The agency raised concerns about eight prospective ministers, forcing Widodo — Indonesia's first leader from outside the political and military elites — to scramble to find replacements.

Since the downfall of dictator Suharto in 1998 after three decades in power, it has been common practice in Indonesian politics for prospective leaders to promise cabinet posts to allies in exchange for support.

Widodo, a 53-year-old former furniture exporter, pledged to eschew backroom deal-making in a bid to usher in a clean new form of government after beating controversial ex-general Prabowo Subianto in the election.

But growing pressure in recent weeks prompted him to make a concession, and he agreed to give out around half the jobs to allies.

Most prominently, Puan Maharani, the daughter of Megawati, was named head of one of four powerful "coordinating ministries", which oversee several other ministries. She is heading the ministry for culture and human development.

A close Megawati confidant, Rini Soemarno, was named state-owned enterprises minister, while another figure close to her, former army chief of staff Ryamizard Ryacudu, was selected as defence minister.

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