G20 vows to fight coronavirus impact on poor nations

Yahoo - AFP, March 31, 2020

Saudi Arabia's King Salman chaired last week's emergency G20 videoconference which
pledged a 'united front' in the fight against the coronavirus (AFP Photo/Bandar AL-JALOUD)

G20 finance ministers and central bankers pledged Tuesday to address the debt burden of low-income countries and deliver aid to emerging markets as part of a plan to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The announcement followed a second round of virtual talks after G20 leaders pledged a "united front" last week and said they were injecting $5 trillion into the global economy to head off a feared deep recession.

The ministers and bankers from major industrialised and emerging economies also welcomed a $160 billion World Bank relief package to be deployed over the next 15 months to support its member countries, the Saudi hosts said in a statement.

They agreed to press ahead with a plan to address "the risk of debt vulnerabilities in low-income countries" and work to "swiftly deliver... financial assistance to emerging markets and developing countries", the statement said.

The announcement comes a day after the UN called for a $2.5 trillion aid package to help developing countries weather the pandemic, including debt cancellation and a health recovery "Marshall Plan".

A report from the United Nations Conference on Trade, Investment and Development (UNCTAD) said two-thirds of the global population based in developing countries -- excluding China -- face "unprecedented economic damage" from the crisis.

The ministers and bankers tasked G20 working groups to outline details of the plan by the group's next meeting on April 15.

G20 countries will work with the Financial Stability Board -- an international body set up after the 2008 financial crisis -- to coordinate regulatory measures in response to the pandemic, the statement added.

'Decisive actions'

The talks follow criticism that the G20 has been slow to address the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left more than 40,000 people dead worldwide and triggered financial shock waves as some two-fifths of the globe's population is put under lockdown.

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin joined last week's emergency summit chaired by Saudi Arabia's King Salman, who called for coordinated action while facing pressure to end an oil price war between Riyadh and Moscow that has roiled energy markets.

As concerns mount for poorer countries without access to capital markets or adequate health facilities, G20 leaders pledged to work with bodies such as the International Monetary Fund to deploy a robust financial package to support developing nations.

"We welcome the decisive actions many of you have taken to shield people and the economy from COVID-19, that led to a decline in volatility in major financial markets in recent days," IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said at Tuesday's meeting.

"Nonetheless we remain very concerned about the negative outlook for global growth in 2020 and in particular about the strain a downturn would have on emerging markets and low-income countries."

G20 trade and investment ministers also held an extraordinary meeting on Monday, as they assess the impact of the crisis on global trade.

They said they were working to ensure the flow across borders of medical supplies and equipment -- which are in short supply in some hard-hit nations -- as well as critical agricultural products, and other essential goods and services.

"We will guard against profiteering and unjustified price increases," they said in a statement, while also warning against trade barriers and disruption to global supply chains.

Saudi, UAE send relief aid to flood-stricken Iran

Yahoo – AFP, April 18, 2019

Iranians carry sandbags to build barricades against flood water in the city
of Hamidiyeh, Khuzestan province (AFP Photo/ATTA KENARE)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia and the UAE have sent 95 tons of humanitarian aid to their rival Iran as it reels from deadly floods, officials said Thursday, after Tehran complained US sanctions were obstructing relief.

"The Saudi Red Crescent, as part of a joint Saudi-UAE initiative to alleviate the suffering of Iranian citizens, has dispatched a relief plane to Tehran with 95 tons of humanitarian aid to support those affected by floods," the official Saudi Press Agency said.

The aid, which includes food and shelter material, was authorised by Saudi Arabia's king and crown prince, it added.

The Emirates Red Crescent was also involved in the relief operation, the UAE's official WAM news agency said.

At least 76 people have died in Iran after torrential rainfall, which has also caused billions of dollars worth of damage since March 19.

Iran's Red Crescent has repeatedly complained that US banking sanctions re-imposed last year make it impossible to receive donations from outside the country.

US President Donald Trump last year withdrew Washington from a multilateral agreement on Iran's nuclear programme, later re-imposing sanctions focusing on oil exports and financial transactions.

Sunni powerhouse Saudi Arabia and Shiite-dominated Iran have a longstanding rivalry based as much on geostrategic interests as religious differences.

Facing off across the Gulf, the two major oil producers have taken opposing sides for decades in conflicts across the Middle East.

Riyadh broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2016 in protest at the torching of its diplomatic missions by Iranian protesters angry over its execution of a leading Shiite cleric.

Did she listen to Rihanna? Dutch aid minister donates €100m to education

DutchNews, September 26, 2018

Dutch aid minister Sigrid Kaag has told the United Nations meeting in New York that the Netherlands is to donate €20m a year up to 2023 to the Global Partnership for Education – slightly more than pop star Rihanna called on the Netherlands to donate last month.

‘Education is one of my policy priorities,’ Kaag said. ‘It offers women and young people better opportunities for work and a decent income.’ 

A spokesman for the minister told broadcaster NOS later than she had not been influenced by Rihanna’s plea. ‘It was the minister’s own decision,’ the spokesman said. 

Hi @SigridKaag @markrutte @MinPres! I know that the Netherlands wanted to pledge to support global education back in February, so I'd love if you joined me now! Will you provide $100M to @GPforEducation on Sept 29 at the @GlblCtzn Fest? Dank je! @claralionelfdn 🇳🇱📚

— Rihanna (@rihanna) August 20, 2018

Kaag had said in a reply to Rihanna that ‘all will be revealed in New York’. 

Another €15m is going to aid group Education Cannot Wait which boosts the access of children in crisis regions to education and almost €60m to the Global Financing Facility which helps countries set up healthcare programmes for women.

Jordan's Palestinian refugees fearful after US slashes aid

Yahoo – AFP, Kamal Taha, September 2, 2018

Young Palestinian refugees wait outside an UNRWA school in Jordan's Baqaa
camp, north of Amman, on 2 september 2018 (AFP Photo/AHMAD ABDO)

Baqaa refugee camp (Jordan) (AFP) - US President Donald Trump's cut to funds for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has sparked fears in Jordan's largest refugee camp, where tens of thousands depend on its aid for survival.

"Our country is gone and now they're coming after our livelihoods," said Zeinab al-Ardaba, a resident of Jordan's Baqaa camp.

She is one of the nearly 119,000 Palestinian refugees living in the sprawling camp just north of the capital Amman, where snaking narrow alleyways are strewn with rubbish and wastewater.

Her face lined with age and wrapped in a blue headscarf, the 78-year-old grandmother of five has lived in the camp since it was built after the Six Day War in 1967.

"How will Trump face God on judgement day?" she asked.

"Where should we go? They're even coming after our livelihoods in our camps... How are we supposed to pay for schools if we can't even make ends meet?"

Washington, which until last year was by far the biggest contributor to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), said Friday it would no longer fund the "irredeemably flawed operation".

The US has backed Israel in accusing UNRWA of perpetuating the Middle East conflict by maintaining the idea that millions of Palestinians are refugees with a right to return to homes in what is now Israel.

For Palestinians, the right of return for the hundreds of thousands displaced in 1948 and 1967 -- and their descendants -- is central to their cause.

While most of the Baqaa's residents were displaced in 1967, when Israel took over the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, some are refugees twice over, having first lost their homes in the violence surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.

"Only God knows the difficult conditions we face in this camp... how we eat and live," said Zeinab.

"It's hard to find work and many people are unemployed and have no money... live is difficult, very difficult."

'We will remain'

Palestinians and their supporters say UNRWA provides crucial services for the poor and that it must continue operating until a just solution is reached for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Created in 1949, the agency supplies aid to more than three million of the five million registered Palestinian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian territories.

Jordan hosts nearly 2.2 million Palestinian refugees, according to the UN, who make up nearly half of the kingdom's total population.

Washington's "unfair and irresponsible decision will have a huge affect on the lives of Palestinians," said 80-year-old Hussein Abu Shanaan, who lives in the camp with his four children and nearly 20 grandchildren.

"But whatever they do to us, we Palestinians will remain," he added, his voice frail.

Set up as a temporary shelter with 5,000 tents after the 1967 war, Baqaa now looks more like a city, with 16 schools and two health centres.

"If the Americans don't want to help us, they can return our country, land and property," said 70-year-old widow Najiya Faraj.

"Our families once owned large houses, farms and animals -- today, we're begging for aid."

Faraj and her 13 children live on just $150 (130 euros) a month.

"More than half a century after they displaced us from our homes, they're coming for our lives and our livelihoods. What do they want from us?"

Leaving a shop after buying bread for his family, 33-year-old father of two Hani al-Jebarat looked distressed.

"God help these people. They can barely find bread to feed their children... what will happen to these children?" he asked, shaking his head as he walked away.

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"THE BRIDGE OF SWORDS"– Sep  29, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“… What have we told you about the bridge? Actually, not much except that in crossing the bridge, the old energy ones were not going to like it. Old energy does not want you to escape! Old energy doesn't want you to cross the bridge because it can't cross. Did you know that? It can't cross. The old paradigms of Human nature that you've known all of these millenniums have to stay on the old side of the bridge. It cannot cross, for the bridge rejects all that is not in love, compassion and light. Those things that are dark, including Human nature of the past, will not be able to go. But the ones I speak to right now are already on the bridge. That was your design, old soul, and those are the words that are ringing in your ears to this day and the ones given at the wind of birth, that this might happen in your lifetime. So what's going to happen next?

Swords

Let us talk about the swords: When you hear the word sword, the first thing that occurs to you is battle. The Bridge of Swords is a battle and we told you that as well. Swords are metaphoric and they mean many things, so let us describe the things we mean them to say to you.

Number one: They are indeed a weapon in a battle. There is a battle coming. "Kryon, does that mean there's going to be a war?" Potentially, yes. Right now we will tell you that the Middle East cooks itself. You've noticed, haven't you? What do you know about the Middle East, dear one? Let's start examining things for a moment. What energy did you grow up in? What was the energy of the Middle East? In the '40s, what was the energy? With the establishment of the state of Israel, you built a wall of hate, both sides. The wall was so thick that the children of both sides were taught to hate one another as soon as they were able to understand the language. They were told who their enemies were. Now, where were you then?

Some of you weren't here yet. By the time you arrived, in your youth, were you aware of the Middle East? Not particularly. "What's the hatred about?" you might ask. What if I told you it's about a family feud? Two sons of a Jewish master are involved. One founded the Arabs and one remained a Jew. They don't want to hear this, but they are all Jews. (Don't tell them this.)

If you look at the lineage, it's pretty obvious and yet it's a complete and total set-up for either solution or war. The set-up would have this world ending in a conflagration that would have been brought about by this hatred. That's in the prophecy of Nostradamus and your scripture, but it is no longer the prophecy of the planet. Yet the hatred still exists. The hatred is as great today as it was then, but where was all the terrorism 40 years ago? It was isolated.

Those in Israel and Palestine and surrounding areas took the brunt of it, but now it's seemingly everywhere - and you're worried. Why would this be? The answer is that the old energy was happy to have this hatred contained, for it would keep it going and never involve outsiders. Outsiders tend to bring unwanted light to the party. Suddenly, the whole earth is involved and can see the entire scenario before them. The old guard wants war, just like all the eons before them. The ones on the bridge are holding the light and showing the earth how to cross. Even many younger ones in Israel and Palestine and Iran are holding light! It's all around the old guard and they are furious, for they are losing the "battle of hatred." …”

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“.   New Tolerance

Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.

Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."

Archbishop Tutu quits Oxfam role over charity's sex scandal

Digital Journal – AFP, 15 February 2018

Retired archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu announced Thursday that he had quit his role as an ambassador for Oxfam after the British charity was hit by sexual misconduct allegations.

"The Archbishop is deeply disappointed by allegations of immorality and possible criminality involving humanitarian workers linked to the charity," said a statement from his office in South Africa.

"He is also saddened by the impact of the allegations on the many thousands of good people who have supported Oxfam's righteous work."

The statement said that Tutu, 86, was retiring as an Oxfam global ambassador as he withdraws from many of his public commitments.

Senegalese singer Baaba Maal and British actress Minnie Driver have also quit as Oxfam ambassadors after the scandal erupted early this month.

The charity has admitted to a lack of transparency over an internal investigation about the use of prostitutes by staff in Haiti, who were there to assist the country's recovery after a 2010 earthquake.

The investigation led to the dismissal of four employees and three others being allowed to resign.

Tutu became a globally-celebrated moral leader during his role in opposing white-minority apartheid rule in South Africa. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984.

Related Article:

MSF reveals sex abuse cases as Oxfam scandal widens

Israel PM offers quake aid to arch foe Iran

Yahoo – AFP, November 2017

Apartment blocks in the Iranian town of Sarpol-e Zahab are left devastated by 

the November 12, 2017 earthquake that killed hundreds of people and left tens of

thousands homeless

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered aid to victims of the deadly earthquake in Iran, insisting enmity between the two governments does not prevent humanitarian sympathy.

The offer was made in a video conference with the Jewish Federations of North America.

It comes as many of the tens of thousands left homeless by the quake have vented anger at the Islamic regime for what they say has been the slow response of the charitable foundations set up after the revolution of 1979.

"I saw these heartbreaking images of men and women and children buried under the rubble," Netanyahu told the meeting in Los Angeles.

"A few hours ago, I directed that we offer the Red Cross medical assistance for the Iraqi and Iranian victims of this disaster.

"I've said many times that we have no quarrel with the people of Iran. Our quarrel is only with the tyrannical regime that holds them hostage and threatens our destruction. But our humanity is greater than their hatred."

Iran does not recognise the Jewish state.

The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed Netanyahu's offer, but said neither Iran nor Iraq had as yet requested any external aid.

"The offer was not rejected," ICRC spokeswoman in Jerusalem Alyona Synenko told AFP, after Israeli media said Iran had turned down the offer through the Red Cross.

"It is important to stress that humanitarian assistance must always be based on needs and stay away from politics," she added.

More than 400 people were killed and tens of thousands left homeless by the quake that struck on the Iran-Iraq border late on Sunday.

Israel regards Iran and its close ally, Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, as its most dangerous foes.

Iran has been a staunch supporter of Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Tens of thousands of Jews of Iranian ancestry have played a prominent role in the state of Israel, counting among their number a former president, a former army chief and several former government ministers.

#UPDATE Military chief of staff's comments were the latest sign that behind-the-scenes links between Israel and Gulf countries may be occurring due to Iran https://t.co/9JJNMmyC79

— AFP news agency (@AFP) November 16, 2017

American Red Cross squandered aid after Haiti earthquake, report alleges

Despite raising nearly half a billion dollars and allocating $170m to ‘shelter relief’, the aid organization built only six permanent homes, an investigation has found

The Guardian, Alan Yuhus, 4 June 2015

An undated American Red Cross handout photo of the aftermath of the earthquake
shows the devastation to homes in Haiti. Photograph: Matt Marek/American
Red Cross/PA

Despite collecting nearly half a billion dollars for Haiti earthquake relief, the American Red Cross has built only six permanent homes and seemingly squandered millions in the country, according to a new report.

A joint investigation by ProPublica and NPR uncovered rampant mismanagement, high overhead costs and deeply rooted acrimony from Haitians toward the aid organization. Among the investigation’s findings was that although the Red Cross apportioned about $170m to the category of “shelter” relief, and although it at first planned to build some 700 houses, it only constructed six permanent homes.

The report charges the Red Cross with consistent misrepresentation of its projects, especially in housing. The authors cite promotional materials that say the Red Cross provided more than 130,000 people with homes, and then note that that total includes people in “transitional shelters”, recipients of short-term rent assistance, and people who had been “trained in proper construction techniques”.

The Red Cross disputes the report and asserts it has “helped build and operate eight hospitals and clinics” and “move more than 100,000 people out of make-shift tents into safe and improved housing”. In a statement, the organization said it is “disappointed” by the “lack of balance, context and accuracy” on the part of ProPublica and NPR.

A major problem for the organization was leadership and staffing, according to the report. Integral positions, including experts for health and shelter, were left vacant for months and sometimes years. The positions that were staffed were predominantly held by expats or by people flown in from the United States, many of whom could not speak French or Creole.

In one 2011 document, Red Cross official Judith St Ford notes that there are “serious program delays caused by internal issues that go unaddressed”, including for cholera relief.

“There is a clear lack of foresight and planning,” she wrote, and “the lack of leadership ability has contributed to poor morale in the field.”

She also urged her superiors to hire more Haitians: “the implication that talented, smart, competent Haitians cannot be found in Haiti has to be dispelled.”

In its statement the Red Cross says 90% of its current staff are Haitians; the organization did not break down the hierarchy or positions of its staff.

“If they were an organization that had a real history in Haiti I think this would’ve gone a lot better,” said Justin Elliott, one of the journalists who co-wrote the report. “The entire Haiti reconstruction effort has been really problematic, but the outside groups that have done better have roots there, have Haitian people working at high levels, have people who speak the language.”

In one 2013 email published by ProPublica, CEO Gail McGovern admitted a project had failed and that she did not know what to do with a $20m remainder. “Now that the Northern project is going bust and we are still holding $20 million of contingency, any ideas on how to spend the rest of this?” she asked, before mentioning a mysterious “wonderful helicopter idea”.

Without Haitians in leadership positions, the Red Cross was particularly ill-prepared to deal with Haiti’s land tenure rules, a system so tangled and unforgiving that it has intimidated USAid and Vatican relief efforts.

Residents of the Jean-Marie Vincent camp for people displaced by the 2010
earthquake, wait for customers outside their tent where they have set up a
stand to sell rice, oil and canned goods in Port-au-Prince on 9 January 2013.
Photograph: Dieu Nalio Chery/AP

“Land tenure is probably the biggest stumbling block,” said Jonathan M Katz, a freelance journalist and author of a book about the earthquake, The Big Truck That Went By. The system has stymied aid organizations for years, and Katz said that for years aid organizations have “thrown up their collective hands and said ‘we don’t really want to deal with this.’”

The Red Cross entangled itself in a web of other organizations, often paying them to do relief work, themselves struggling in Haiti. This outsourcing is commonplace in the international aid industry, Katz said, and leads to inevitable but not necessarily unreasonable overhead costs. But eager to better solicit donations, organizations often try to downplay these costs.

The report notes that overhead charges by the Red Cross and its contractors undermine McGovern’s claim that “minus the nine cents overhead, 91 cents on the dollar will be going to Haiti.”

In one case, Elliott and his co-author, NPR’S Laura Sullivan, found that the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) exacted $1.56m in overhead from the American Red Cross’s payment of $6m, all to help give Haitians rental subsidies so they could leave tent camps. The IFRC said the costs were related to “administration, finance, human resources”.

In another case, the Red Cross commissioned Swiss and Spanish Red Cross societies to upgrade shelters, but still took 24% of the money for the project in additional overhead costs, according to the report.

Where exactly the $488m of the American Red Cross’s Haiti budget has gone is unclear, Elliott said, since “the whole international aid sector is pretty opaque in general. And the spending of the American Red Cross is incredible opaque. You can tell hardly anything from their disclosures.”

He said that the issue of money was particularly sensitive to Haitians who had coordinated with the Red Cross.

“They were furious basically over broken promises,” Elliott said. “About three years ago, the Red Cross told people they were going to build hundreds of new homes in this very hard-hit area, and this thing was just stalled. Over the next two years they had meetings with the community, handed out juice boxes and so on, and nothing happened for a long time.”

The Red Cross is now helping build a road and install solar lights in the area.

Katz said that the problems of the American Red Cross are “typical of the aid industry in general. The Red Cross is sort of the biggest kid on the block. Because they make way more money than anybody else, what they do is magnified.”

The interconnected NGOs and aid organizations of the world, ranging from the many satellites of the Red Cross to Doctors Without Borders to the Clinton Foundation, Katz said, should deserve more skepticism from the public. Reports have traced the 2011 cholera epidemic to United Nations relief efforts, he noted, adding that many organizations operate more like businesses than anything else.

“Even when an aid group is pulling off a project well,” he said, “if it isn’t going to be there forever, if it isn’t going to be accountable for successes and failures, if it isn’t leaving something behind that’s permanent, then it’s still capable of doing damage.”

Last year the Red Cross similarly took issue with another ProPublica report that said the organization had disastrously mismanaged aid relief after hurricane Sandy.

Elton John lends star power to US war on AIDS

Yahoo – AFP, 24 Oct 2014

US Secretary of State John Kerry (R) meets with Sir Elton John to discuss
 PEPFAR and the work of the Elton John AIDS Foundation October 24, 2014
at the State Department in Washington, DC (AFP Photo/Paul J. Richards)

Washington (AFP) - Rock star Elton John teamed up with the Obama administration Friday to launch a new $7 million fund to provide access to HIV services in South Africa.

The fund will be established for men who have sex with men and transgender people in the nation, the only African country where same-sex marriage is legal.

The British pop music icon lent star power to the State Department when he met with US Secretary of State John Kerry in his private offices to discuss the roll out of the project, part of efforts to create a world free of AIDS.

"We all work together to ensure that in this day and age, nobody gets left behind no matter what their sexuality, their color, or whatever. It's important," John told reporters.

"If people get left behind, the disease will get left behind, and we will face an enormous uphill battle."

The singer and his partner David Furnish were in the US capital ahead of being guests of honor at the Human Rights Campaign annual gala on Saturday.

The Elton John AIDS Foundation is teaming up with the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to expand HIV-related services as part of a new South African program called Health4Men.

Kerry said the project would "help bring additional assistance to people and help us meet this goal of an AIDS-free generation."

"We're going to continue to work together to bring this help to all those folks, particularly in the LGBT community, who need this particular assistance," Kerry added, using an acronym for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

John's foundation has raised more than $300 million to support AIDS programs in more than 50 countries.

"We should be living in an AIDS-free world, and people, no matter who they love, who they are, should have a right to be AIDS-free," John added.

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Transgender troops seek end to US military taboo

Obama to announce troop deployment to fight Ebola

US President Obama is to announce that the US will send troops to West Africa in an effort to fight the Ebola outbreak, according to administration officials. The troops are to build clinics and train healthcare workers.

Deutsche Welle, 16 Sep 2014

Ahead of a planned trip to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta on Tuesday, administration officials speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity have said President Barack Obama is to announce the deployment of around 3,000 troops to the nations most affected by Ebola, with a particular emphasis on Liberia.

Seventeen clinics housing 100 beds each would be constructed to help care for patients suffering from Ebola, the officials said. In addition, around 500 healthcare workers are expected to receive training on how to respond to Ebola. The training is expected to last around six months.

The troop deployment will likely be coordinated from headquarters established in Monrovia, Liberia. This will serve as a regional command center to coordinate the American troops and international aid efforts.

The anonymous officials have also said the US will work with the United Nation's Children's Fund to send 400,000 Ebola prevention kits, which will include information and disinfectant.

The current outbreak of the virus has claimed over 2,400 lives in West Africa. The disease is spread through contact with bodily fluids from an infected person.

mz/cd (AP, AFP, dpa)

Obama speaks on Ebola. ‘Right now everybody has the best intentions, 

but people are not putting in the resources that are necessary.

Photograph: Behar Anthony/EPA

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Alarm mounts over refugee 'nightmare' in northwestern Iraq

Thousands of northern Iraqis who are trying to flee jihadist terror have escaped into Kurdish territory, but tens of thousands more remain trapped. France, Britain and Iraq have joined US drops of food and water.

Deutsche Welle, 10 Aug 2014

Germany allocated another 1.5 million euros for humanitarian aid on Sunday as alarm grew worldwide over the fate of Yazidis, Christians and other minorities trying to flee Islamist militants in northern Iraq.

Pope Francis said the violent persecution depicted in "dismaying" reports "offends humanity."

The US, which began airstrikes on Thursday, said its drone aircraft and jets had on Sunday again targeted "Islamic State" (IS) militants near Irbil, the Kurdish regional capital in northern Iraq, as well as IS militants who had fired on Yazidis sheltering in a barren mountain range near the town of Sinjar.

France and Britain on Sunday said they had followed US and Iraq cargo planes in dropping food and water by air over Mount Sinjar, where British officials estimate up to 150,000 people could be trapped.

Some escape into Kurdish region

A spokeswoman for Iraq's Yazidi minority, lawmaker Vian Dakhil, said 20,000 of the displaced had managed to flee the IS siege with the help of Kurdish troops, by looping through a Syrian border area into northern Iraq's Kurdish-run region.

She told the news agency AFP the escape passage "isn't 100 percent safe. There is still a risk."

A Kurdish regional government official said those escaping had arrived via the Fishkhabur crossing -- between Syria and Iraq -- during the joint rescue bid by Kurdish forces from Iraq, Syria and Turkey.

France's Fabius denounces 'caliphate'

Visiting Irbil on Sunday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius denounced what he called the "Caliphate of Hate," in reference to terminology used by the "Islamic State" - formerly known as the "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) - since its seizure of parts of Syria and Iraq starting in June, including Iraq's northwestern city of Mosul.

Kurdish regional president Masoud Barzani urged the international community to send arms to help Kurdish forces to hold off the militants.

"We are not fighting a terrorist organization, we are fighting a terrorist state," Barzani said.

Fabius, who had earlier visited Baghdad, reiterated his call for the "rapid establishment of a unity government" to fight the jihadists.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and his Shiite-led government have long resisted Western pressure to share power with Iraqi's Sunni minority, which dominated Iraq before the US-led invasion of 2003.

'Buried alive,' alleges Iraqi minister

The Iraqi government's human rights minister Mohammed Shia al Sudani alleged in a telephone interview with Reuters on Sunday that IS militants had killed at least 500 members of the Yazidi minority after seizing Sinjar.

Some of the victims had been "buried alive in scattered mass graves" by IS militants, he claimed.

Sudani said the news had come from people who escaped the town, which is the ancient home of Kurdish-speaking followers of a religion influenced by Zoroastrianism. The IS had demanded that Yazidi convert to Islam or die as heretics, he cited the people as saying.

Sudani said the IS had also taken at least 300 Yazidi women as slaves.

Papal envoy due Monday

At the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis said Iraq needed an "effective political solution" and said his special envoy Cardinal Fernando Filoni was due in Iraq on Monday.

"The news reports coming from Iraq leave us in dismay and disbelief: thousands of people, including many Christians, driven from their homes in a brutal manner; children dying of thirst and hunger in their flight; women taken and carried off; violence of every kind," he said.

'Nightmare scenario,' says Germany

Announcing the extra 1.5 million euros in German humanitarian aid for refugees in northern Iraq, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said those displaced "must" be helped. The US aerial intervention was "important," he added.

The campaign by the IS militants "exceeds every nightmare scenario we have heard from the region," Steinmeier said. The militants were destroying "everything and all persons who did not fit their world view," he added.

Broad plea for assistance in Germany

Steinmeier's statement followed a call for immediate humanitarian aid for Iraq's persecuted Christians, Yazidis and other religious minorities from a broad coalition in Germany, comprising political parties, religious communities, rights advocates and artists.

The chairman of the Central Council of Yazidis in Germany, Telim Tolan, said the refugee camps in Turkey and Iraq's Kurdish region urgently needed assistance.

ipj/tj (AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP)

Iraqi Yazidis in a building where they found refuge in the

 Kurdish city of Dohuk. Photograph: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/

AFP/Getty Images

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Obama Vows to Continue Iraq Air Strikes ‘If Necessary’

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Aug 09, 2014

US President Barack Obama. (AFP Photo/Evan Vucci).

US President Barack Obama on Saturday vowed to continue air strikes against Iraqi jihadists if needed to protect US diplomats and military advisors.

Speaking in his weekly address, Obama said that he had authorized the strikes in Iraq to protect US personnel serving in the northern city of Arbil. “And, if necessary, that’s what we will continue to do,” he said.

Obama said he had also authorized a “humanitarian effort” to help displaced civilians trapped by jihadists on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq.

Thousands of Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking minority, fled their homes when militants attacked the town of Sinjar and many have since been stranded in the nearby mountain range with no food and water.

“The thousands — perhaps tens of thousands — of Iraqi men, women and children who fled to that mountain were starving and dying of thirst. The food and water we airdropped will help them survive,” Obama said.

“I’ve also approved targeted American airstrikes to help Iraqi forces break the siege and rescue these families.”

Obama emphasized that the United States “cannot and should not intervene every time there’s a crisis in the world.

“But when there’s a situation like the one on this mountain — when countless innocent people are facing a massacre, and when we have the ability to help prevent it — the United States can’t just look away. That’s not who we are. We’re Americans. We act. We lead. And that’s what we’re going to do on that mountain.”

As head of the US military, “I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq. American combat troops will not be returning to fight in Iraq, because there’s no American military solution to the larger crisis there.

“What we will do is continue our broader strategy in Iraq. We will protect our citizens. We will work with the international community to address this humanitarian crisis. We’ll help prevent these terrorists from having a permanent safe haven from which to attack America.”

The United States will also “continue to urge Iraqi communities to reconcile, come together and fight back against these terrorists so the people of Iraq have the opportunity for a better future–the opportunity for which so many Americans gave their lives in Iraq in a long and hard war,” Obama said.

The first US bombings struck IS positions and at least one convoy of vehicles carrying militants west of Arbil.

The Pentagon also said late Friday that cargo planes escorted by combat jets made a second air drop of food and water to “thousands of Iraqi citizens” threatened by the jihadists on Mount Sinjar.

Agence France-Presse

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