Half Of Islamic State's Leadership Now Dead, Kerry Claims

London (Alliance News) - Islamic State's momentum in Iraq and Syria has been halted and half its leadership killed along with thousands of its fighters, US Secretary John Kerry said Thursday.

"Ground forces supported by nearly 2,000 airstrikes now have reclaimed more than 700 square kilometres," he said at talks in London convened for ministers from more than 20 countries to thrash out strategies to thwart the jihadi insurgents.

The US ambassador to Iraq told broadcaster Al Arabiya Thursday the airstrikes had killed 6,000 militants, but US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel, speaking at a news conference at the Pentagon, did not verify that figure.

Islamic State, an al-Qaeda splinter group, still controls large swathes of territory in the Sunni heartland in western and northern Iraq as well as neighbouring Syria.

Kerry said training camps were being opened in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for Syria's anti-Islamic State fighters.

Kerry, who co-chaired the meeting with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, was flanked by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi at a press conference closing the one-day gathering.

His warning that the campaign would be "neither short nor easy" was echoed by Hammond, who admitted that the Iraqi armed forces were in "disarray" despite massive funding during and after the US-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein.

Tokyo Pray for Release of 2 Japanese Hostages- Islamic followers

Hundreds of Muslims gathered at one of the largest mosques in Japan on Jan. 23 to pray for the safety of two Japanese held captive by the extremist Islamic State group, with the deadline for a ransom payment fast approaching.

An estimated 600 Muslims visited the Tokyo Camii mosque a little after noon on Jan. 23.

Muslims pray for the release of two Japanese hostages at one of Japan's largest mosques, Tokyo Camii, on Jan. 23. (Satoru Sekiguchi)

To the followers, a sheik sent from the Turkish government delivered a sermon themed on “the dignity of life.”

“Islamic principles do not tolerate persecution and violence,” the sheik said. “Killing a person with no good reason is equal to killing all humans.”

Tokyo Camii, located in the capital’s Shibuya Ward, said Muslims belonging to the mosque are praying for the release of freelance journalist Kenji Goto and private military contractor Haruna Yukawa, whom the Islamic State threatened to kill unless the Japanese government pays a ransom of $200 million (23.6 billion yen). The deadline for the payment is believed to fall on the afternoon of Jan. 23.

“The incident is really regrettable as I am also a Muslim,” said Shigeru Shimoyama, 65, a public relations official of the mosque. “It could promote a biased view that the religion of Islam is associated with terrorism and violence.”

(This article was written by Yukari Takahashi and Yusuke Saito.)

Pope blesses woman who was sentenced to death over faith

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis meets Meriam Ibrahim, from Sudan, with her daughter Maya in her arms, in his Santa Marta residence, at the Vatican. AP

Meriam Ibrahim, the Christian woman sentenced to death for refusing to denounce her faith in Sudan, met Pope Francis at the Vatican yesterday.

 

She arrived in Italy to jubilant scenes following intense international efforts to free her.

Ms Ibrahim and her husband, Daniel Wani, personally thanked the pontiff for his support.

The Pope, in turn, thanked her for her courage and staying true to her Christian faith throughout her almost year-long ordeal.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, described the half-hour meeting as "calm and affectionate" and said that the Pope wanted it to be a "gesture of support to all those who suffer for their faith, and living in difficult or restrictive situations".

Celebration

Pope Francis met the couple at his residence after Ms Ibrahim (27), her husband and their two young children made a surprise arrival at Rome's Ciampino airport early yesterday on an official Italian government aircraft.

She was accompanied by Italy's deputy minister for foreign affairs, Lapo Pistelli, who flew to Sudan to collect her late on Wednesday.

"Today we are happy, this is a day of celebration," Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, said as he greeted Ms Ibrahim.

Mr Pistelli first met Ms Ibrahim two weeks ago at the American embassy in Khartoum.

She and her family had sought refuge there after a failed attempt to travel to the US following her release from prison, where she had given birth to a daughter, Maya, while shackled two months ago.

The authorities claimed she was travelling on fake documents, an allegation she denied.

Mr Pistelli said her passport was only returned on Wednesday afternoon and she was informed she could leave.

Elshareef Ali Mohammed, a lawyer for the family, said: "They were so very happy when they knew they would finally be leaving Sudan. It has been incredibly difficult for them all."

He said that news of their departure was kept secret from almost everyone in case it impeded their departure.

"Nobody from the government knew until the plane had taken off, except the minister of foreign affairs. And I expect he told the president," said Mr Elshareef.

Believe

"We didn't dare believe it was actually going to happen until the plane took off."

Ms Ibrahim disembarked from the plane carrying Maya in her arms accompanied by her son Martin, 18 months, and her husband, who has US citizenship. They are expected to travel to his home in New Hampshire in the coming days.

She was sentenced to hang for refusing to renounce Christianity after her Muslim father claimed she had abandoned Islam and committed adultery with her Christian husband. Mixed-faith marriages are not recognised in Sudanese courts.

Ms Ibrahim insisted that she was raised a Christian by her Ethiopian Orthodox mother after her father left them when she was a young child.

The case drew international outrage and the death sentence was overturned last month.

Sudan's ambassador to Rome, Amira Daoud Hassan Gornass, said Khartoum had agreed to Ms Ibrahim's departure with her Sudanese passport "after all the accusations against her were withdrawn".

Pope Apologises for Church’s Sexual Abuse

Pope Francis told victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clerics the church should “weep and make reparation” for crimes he said had had taken on the dimensions of a sacrilegious cult.

“For some time now I have felt in my heart deep pain and suffering,” he said in his strongest comments yet on the crimes, delivered at a Mass with adult victims. “So much time hidden, camouflaged with a complicity that cannot be explained until someone realised that Jesus was looking.”  Francis delivered his homily to six victims of abuse, two each from Ireland, Britain and Germany, before meeting each one individually in a gathering that lasted nearly four hours, spending about 30 minutes with each one. “I ask for the grace to weep, the grace for the Church to weep and make reparation for her sons and daughters who betrayed their mission,” he said.

“Before God and his people I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you. And I humbly ask forgiveness,” he said.

Why did Pope Francis pray at the wall?

(CNN) -- "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," wrote Robert Frost. This something is someone now: Pope Francis.

In a strong, apparently unscripted move on his recent visit to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, on Sunday the pontiff suddenly waved to the driver of his Popemobile, asking to get out. Surrounded by guards and by children waving Palestinian flags, he got out, walked over to the wall that separates Israel from its Palestinian neighbors, and he did something remarkably simple but with astonishing power: He prayed.

 Pope Francis touches the wall that divides Israel from the West Bank, on his way to celebrate a mass in Manger Square next to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

This symbolic gesture occurred at a well-known portion of the wall, a segment covered with graffiti. Somebody had spray-painted a message in black: "Pope we need some 1 to speak about justice Bethlehem look like Warsaw ghetto."

In bold red letters the Pope could read: "Free Palestine." While Israeli guards looked anxiously down from a nearby tower, wondering what on Earth was going on, Francis touched the wall with his right hand, bent his head, and prayed for several minutes. Afterward, he kissed the wall, then walked slowly back to his vehicle.