PHOTOS: JORDANIAN KING PERSONALLY LEADS ISIS BOMBING MISSION TO AVENGE MURDERED PILOT

 One day after one of his hero pilots was burnt alive by ISIS, and broadcast for a horrified world to see, King Abdullah of Jordan took swift and decisive action.
First, he executed the two ISIS prisoners who the group had sought to be released, hanging them by the neck at dawn yesterday.

Then, in an unprecedented act of personal vengeance, the King, a trained pilot, was said to be planning to personally lead a combat mission to bomb ISIS positions in Syria. More pics after the cut...

OMG! CAPTURED JORDANIAN PILOT BURNT ALIVE IN A CAGE BY ISIS

 Oh dear Lord! Why aren't these world powers trying to eliminate ISIS once & for all? The 27 year old Jordanian pilot who was captured by ISIS militants after his warplane crashed while he was conducting airstrikes over Syria in December 2014, has been killed in the most despicable manner.

The terrorists released a video today showing the brutal murder of Lieutenant Moaz al-Kasasbeh. He was burnt alive while locked in a cage. The Jordanian military believe he was killed on Jan. 3rd. More photos after the cut...

YEMEN IN TURMOIL AS PRESIDENT RESIGNS

Yemeni leader Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi offered to resign on Thursday amid a standoff with a powerful Shiite militia in control of the capital, throwing his country deeper into political turmoil.
Presidential adviser Sultan al-Atwani and several other aides confirmed that Hadi had quit, but a senior official said Yemen’s parliament had rejected his resignation.
“Parliament… refused to accept the president’s resignation and decided to call an extraordinary session for Friday morning,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Yemeni Prime Minister Khalid Bahah also resigned, saying he did want to be part of the collapse of the country.
The shock announcements came after the militia, known as Huthis, tightened their grip on Sanaa this week after seizing almost full control of the capital in September.
They had maintained fighters around key buildings on Thursday and continued holding a top presidential aide they kidnapped on Saturday, despite a deal to end what authorities called a coup attempt.
The potential fall of Hadi’s Western-backed government will raise serious concerns of strategically important but impoverished Yemen collapsing into complete chaos.
After heavy fighting between government forces and the Huthis this week that killed at least 35 people, the UN Security Council and Yemen’s Gulf neighbours had all voiced support for Hadi’s continued rule.
The Huthis swept into Sanaa last year from their stronghold in the far north, demanding a greater say in the country’s affairs, and refused to abandon the capital despite a UN-negotiated deal.
The situation escalated on Saturday when the militiamen seized top presidential aide Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak in an apparent bid to extract changes to a draft constitution, which the Huthis oppose because it would divide Yemen into six federal regions.
The militiamen say it would split the country into rich and poor areas.
– ‘Pray to protect Yemen’ –
In the ensuing days pitched battles erupted, with the Huthis eventually seizing Hadi’s offices in the presidential palace, attacking his residence and surrounding the home of the prime minister Bahah.
In his letter of resignation, seen by AFP, Bahah said that from the time of his nomination in November and his confirmation by parliament in December he had tried to serve the country.
“But the situation has evolved in a different manner and we decided to stay away from unconstructive policies that do not respect the rule of law,” Bahah said.
“We do not want to be a party to what is happening and what is about to happen,” he said, adding that the government refused “to take responsibility for the actions of others”.
He also offered his “apologies to the patient people of Yemen” and said: “We pray to Allah to protect Yemen.”
There had been hope the crisis would be resolved after the nine-point deal was struck late on Wednesday.
In return for concessions over the disputed draft constitution, the Huthis agreed to vacate the presidential palace, free Mubarak, withdraw from areas surrounding the residences of Hadi and Bahah, and abandon checkpoints across the capital.
But during the day Thursday, officials said they were not yet honouring the deal.
The UN envoy to Yemen, Moroccan diplomat Jamal Benomar, had arrived in the country on Thursday for talks with the political rivals, but they were swiftly overtaken by the flurry of resignations.
Yemen has been riven by instability since an uprising forced strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh from power in 2012.
Saleh has been accused of backing the Huthis — who are from the same Zaidi sect of Shiite Islam as the ex-leader — as has Shiite-dominated Iran.
The turmoil has raised fears that Yemen, which neighbours oil giant Saudi Arabia and lies on the key shipping route from the Suez Canal to the Gulf, may become a failed state similar to Somalia.
Since overrunning the capital, the Huthis have pushed farther south and east, meeting fierce resistance by Al-Qaeda and Sunni tribal fighters.
Yemen’s branch of the jihadist network, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is considered its most dangerous and claimed responsibility for this month’s deadly attack on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo.
Yemen has allowed the United States to carry out repeated drone attacks on Al-Qaeda militants in its territory.
The Huthis have long complained of marginalisation and fought six wars with the government between 2004 and February 2010.

INDIA TO BUILD NUCLEAR REACTORS WITH RUSSIA

India is to build at least ten more nuclear reactors with Russia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said after talks with President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi.
“We have outlined an ambitious vision for nuclear energy of at least 10 more reactors,” Modi said at a press briefing yesterday.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin held talks with India’s new prime minister as sanctions-hit Moscow seeks to strengthen energy, defence and strategic ties in Asia.
Putin on was looking to advance nuclear power, oil and natural gas and even diamond deals with long-standing ally India, on his first visit since Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power in May.
The president is seeking new markets for Russia’s natural resources as its economy reels under US and EU sanctions over its backing of an uprising in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea.

WORLD’S FATTEST MAN DIES, AGED 44

A Londoner who was officially the fattest man in the world has died.
Keith Martin, 44, died from pneumonia following a lengthy battle with his weight.
It happened just eight months after Mr Martin – who weighed 70 stone at his heaviest – had undergone a successful gastric sleeve which removed three-quarters of his stomach.
Now the surgeon who tried to save him with life-changing weight-loss surgery is calling for the government to swiftly impose a fast-food tax as he backed NHS plans to offer more gastric surgeries to high-risk patients.
If he had lived he would have lost hundreds of pounds and regained his ability to walk and live a normal life, according to head surgeon Kesava Mannur who operated on Mr Martin at Homerton Hospital last year.Mr Mannur supports new NHS guidelines which encourage doctors to suggest weight-loss surgery for anyone with a BMI higher than 30 and type 2 diabetes.

EGYPTIAN COURT DISMISSES CHARGES AGAINST MUBARAK

 Agency Report

 An Egyptian court on Saturday in Cairo dismissed charges against former President Hosni Mubarak for his involvement in the deaths of protesters during a 2011 uprising that ended his rule.

The Cairo Criminal Court also acquitted Mubarak’s Interior Minister, Habib al-Adly, and ex-security chiefs of the same charges.

The court cleared Mubarak, his sons, Alaa and Gamal, and a fugitive business tycoon of charges in a separate corruption case.

Presiding judge, Mahmoud al-Rasheedi, referring to Mubarak, said that “only history and God should be called on to issue judgment on someone who served as vice president and then president of Egypt for over 30 years.’’

EIGHT INDIAN WOMEN DIE, DOZENS IN CRITICAL STATE AFTER MASS STERILISATION

EIGHT women have died in India and dozens more are in a critical condition after a state-run sterilisation programme designed to control the country’s billion-plus population went badly wrong, officials said yesterday.
More than 60 women are in hospital after suffering complications from the surgery over the weekend and 24 of them are seriously ill, authorities in the central state of Chhattisgarh said.
“Reports of a drop in pulse, vomiting and other ailments started pouring in on Monday from the women who underwent surgery,” said Sonmani Borah, the commissioner for Bilaspur district where the camp was held.
“Since Monday, eight women have died and 64 are in various hospitals,” he told AFP by telephone.
State governments in India frequently organise mass sterilisation camps under a national programme whereby women are given 1,400 rupees ($23) as an incentive to undergo the procedure.

NIGERIEN LEADER CALLS FOR NEW MILITARY INTERVENTION IN LIBYA

Niamey – The President of Niger, Mahamadou Issoufou, has called for a new international military intervention in Libya, under UN supervision, to neutralise the rampaging militias.
The Nigerien head of state made the call in an interview on Tuesday in Niamey.
He said “there is a need to have French, U.S. and British troops in there to repair the damage they caused.
“It is high time they provided after sales services,’’ Issoufou said.
According to Issoufou, neighbouring countries should be on hand to help, and Niger will play its part.
“There is also the need to reconcile all Libyan parties, including supporters of the late Mouammar Gaddafi, with a view to forming a national unity government.
“Libya is the source of evil, if we do nothing, we will encourage disaster,’’ he added.

NEWLYWEDS FOUND DEAD IN HOTEL ROOM

A British couple holidaying in India has been found dead. Surrounded by sleeping pills, anti-depressants and empty bottles of cough syrup, their bodies were discovered in their hotel room.

Police say James and Alex Gaskell – both teachers with first-class degrees – died of an overdose in their locked room near the Taj Mahal. A guide book, travel bag, mobile phone and other holiday paraphernalia was found on their bed.

The shocking scene is a stark contrast to the happy image that Mrs. Gaskell, 24, had posted a few days earlier of the couple smiling in front of a temple in Delhi. Her 27-year-old husband had posted a series of messages on Twitter outlining his casual attitude to drugs. His final tweet, on Sunday, two days before their bodies were found, said how easy they were to obtain in India.

India is a popular destination for drugs tourists keen to acquire powerful prescription medicines from chemists, with few questions asked. It is unclear whether the couple died from an overdose of prescription drugs or from another substance.

TEACHER SENT AWAY BY EMPLOYERS FOR COVERING BODY IN TATTOOS

A teaching assistant was sent away from her first day of her new job at a Catholic school because her arms and neck are covered in tattoos.
Mother-of-two, Charlotte Tumilty had been offered the role at St. John Vianney’s Primary School in Hartlepool as part of her teacher training course. But within an hour of turning up for her first day, she claims she was sent home because of her body art and she insists she cannot cover up the tattoos in order to return to the school.
The 26-year-old says that she was told the tattoos on her feet, hands and neck were unacceptable because the school is ‘strict Catholic’ and that they were ‘inappropriate’.
However, the school insists that Tumilty was only told to consider ‘covering’ up her tattoos so she could return to her placement later. But she says she is unable to cover them all up and there are no other placements available at other schools.
She said: “It ticks me off. They said I could maybe start later but I don’t think it’s going to get anywhere because you can still see bits of my tattoos. They prejudiced me because they could see a few tattoos.”

ZIMBABWE’S FIRST LADY DECLARES INTENTION TO SUCCEED HUSBAND AS PRESIDENT, CALLS FOR VP’S RESIGNATION

There is a little political war going on in Zimbabwe as first lady intends to succeed husband as president.
The first lady Grace Mugabe yesterday announced her candidacy to succeed her husband, 90-year-old presidentRobert Mugabe, when he leaves office.

“People say I want to be president, why not? Am I not a Zimbabwean?” the 49-year-old said when addressing veterans of the country’s liberation struggle in Mazowe.
According to ioL News, Mugabe called on Vice President Joice Mujuru, regarded as one of the top contenders tosucceed the president, to resign.

EBOLA: MALI CONFIRMS FIRST INFECTION CASE

The Malian government has confirmed the first case of Ebola in the country.
According to the BBC, a two-year-old girl had tested positive for the haemorrhagic virus.
Reports said she recently returned from the neighbouring Guinea.
More than 4,800 people have died of Ebola - mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone - since March.
Meanwhile, an international team of scientists has been set up to determine the effectiveness of using the blood of Ebola survivors as a treatment.

BRITAIN BANS HOSPITALS FROM TREATING FOREIGN PATIENTS TO CURTAIL EBOLA

IN a dramatic attempt at preventing the entry and spread of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the United Kingdom (UK), the British Health Care Authorities (HCA) have issued an administrative order to all NHIS affiliated hospitals across the United Kingdom banning them from treating medical tourists, routine or emergency patients, particularly from Africa and any country where Ebola outbreak has been reported, especially if such patients have spent less than 21 days in the United Kingdom prior to the treatment date.
A spokesperson of the Royal Wellington Hospital in central London confirmed this statement saying that for a non-British resident to be treated in any public hospital, such a person must have spent 21 days in the UK.
The permutation is that a patient is declared free from the Ebola Virus Disease if 21 days after arrival from an Ebola endemic region, such a person remains healthy. However, British citizens and other legal residents who remain in the UK will continue to receive medical treatment as often as they require it.

GORBACHEV DISCHARGED FROM HOSPITAL

FORMER Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was on Friday discharged from a Moscow clinic where he had been admitted for medical tests.
"I am feeling better today than I was yesterday. That is why doctors agreed that it was possible to allow me to leave the clinic," Gorbachev, 83, told the Interfax news agency.
"I have been discharged from the hospital and I am now heading to my office," he said.
A spokeswoman for Gorbachev's foundation confirmed to AFP that the last leader of the USSR had arrived at their headquarters and that "everything was back to normal."
Gorbachev -- who has been suffering from ailing health -- had earlier said he was "alive and well" after undergoing unspecified tests at the clinic for high-ranking officials.
His spokesman told AFP that Gorbachev had been treated on "an outpatient basis."
The Nobel Peace laureate has in recent years appeared tired during public appearances and is believed to be diabetic.

PUTIN IS AS DANGEROUS AS STALIN AND MORE OF A THREAT TO THE WEST THAN ISIS, WARNS BRITAIN FORMER DEFENCE SECRETARY

• MP Bob Ainsworth said Russia's president more powerful than ISIS jihadists
• He said Stalin caused the Cold War but Putin could be just as dangerous
Vladimir Putin is as dangerous as Joseph Stalin and much more of a threat to world peace than ISIS, a former defence secretary has claimed.
A senior Labour MP in Britain, Bob Ainsworth said Mr Putin was more powerful than the jihadists in the Middle East because he had a strong state and military to achieve his ambitions.
The MP called for the Government to launch an urgent review of its military cuts and take a much stronger line against Russian expansionism.
Mr Ainsworth’s remarks come after Prince Charles likened Mr Putin to Hitler during a trip to Canada.

UKRAINE : ANGRY PROTESTERS THROW AN MP INTO A WASTE BIN OUTSIDE UKRAINE'S PARLIAMENT BUILDING

 • In January he authored a bill clamping down on anti-government protesters
A controversial Ukrainian Member of Parliament was unceremoniously thrown into a wheelie bin and pelted with rubbish after being targeted by an angry mob.
Vitaly Zhuravsky, once a member of former President Viktor Yanukovich's ruling party, was seized as he walked past crowds outside the parliament building in Kiev this morning.
Zhuravsky, now a member of the Economic Development Party, authored a controversial bill in January severely tightening restrictions on anti-government protesters.
In the past, he authored a bill criminalising libel. More pics after the cut

MAYOR FINED €3,000 FOR SAYING HITLER ‘DIDN’T KILL ENOUGH’ ROMA

An appeals court has ordered a French mayor to pay €3,000 in fines after he told a local journalist that “Hitler didn’t kill enough” Roma.
The court in Angers, in western France, convicted Gilles Bourdouleix – a French MP and the mayor of the small city of Cholet, near Nantes – of condoning a crime against humanity with the remark.
Bourdouleix caused an uproar last summer when he reportedly told a journalist from the local newspaper, Le Courrier de l’Ouest, that “perhaps Hitler didn’t kill enough” Roma. At the time, Cholet’s city hall was fighting an illegal Roma camp that had been set up on nearby farmland.

N’KOREA THREATENS WAR ON US OVER MOVIE

North Korea has promised “merciless” retaliation if a forthcoming Hollywood movie about killing Kim Jong-un is released, BBC reports.
A North Korean foreign ministry spokesman said in state media that the movie’s release would be an “act of war”.
He did not mention the title, but a Hollywood movie called, The Interview, with a similar plot is due in October.
Hollywood actors James Franco and Seth Rogen star in the action-comedy film.
They play a talkshow host and his producer who are invited to interview Kim Jong-un, and are subsequently recruited by the US Central Intelligence Agency to assassinate the leader.
The film’s teaser trailer, posted on Youtube, shows a lookalike actor playing Kim Jong-un, as well as fight scenes involving what appear to be North Korean tanks and helicopters, and a nuclear missile launch.

AUSTRALIA OFFERS ASYLUM-SEEKERS $10K TO RETURN HOME

Australia is offering asylum-seekers in its Pacific immigration camps up to $10,000 (US$9,400) if they voluntarily return to their home country, a report said Saturday, prompting outrage from refugee campaigners.
Fairfax Media reported that those returning to Lebanon from detention centres on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island and the tiny Pacific state of Nauru were offered the highest amount of $10,000.
Iranians and Sudanese were given $7,000 if they dropped bids for refugee status, Afghans $4,000 and those from Pakistan, Nepal and Myanmar $3,300, the report in The Sydney Morning Herald said.
The Herald said under the previous Labor administration — in office until last September — the payments were much lower, ranging from $1,500 to $2,000.

38 MEN GANG-RAPE MALAYSIAN TEENAGE GIRL

KUALA LUMPUR Malaysian police have detained 13 men and are still looking for other suspects following allegations that a 15-year-old girl was raped by 38 men in an abandoned hut, a report said on Friday.
The media reported that the assault took place in the Northern state of Kelantan on May 20 when the girl met a girlfriend and was lured to an empty hut reported to be a local drug haunt.
It said that the men took turns to rape her for hours.
Police said they were also investigating whether her 17-year-old friend was also raped.
Report says the alleged attack, which is one of several brutal cases this week underscoring the violence to which women are being subjected across Asia, sparked outrage among women.