Home » Archive for 2014-08-03

TLS says petition on Katiba not likely

Constituent Assembly chairman Samuel Sitta answers journalists’ questions in Dodoma yesterday.

Dar es Salaam. Intention by the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS) to file a court petition to seek interpretation of the powers vested in the Constituent Assembly (CA) may not materialise as its members seem to be divided in opinion.

Speaking confidently to The Citizen on Saturday, some TLS members said although they embarked on meetings to draw the petition, the work stalled after some of them noted that the move could cost the TLS image in public.

“Some of us think that if this petition succeeds there is danger for TLS to be perceived as an institution with intent to block the ongoing constitution making process,” noted a source from within TLS, who declined to be named.

When asked for comment, TLS president Charles Rwechungura admitted there was such fear among the members, but he quickly dismissed it, saying what they wanted was to pursue a legal course, which would benefit the nation later.

When asked why they were yet to make the move more than a week since they announced it, Mr Rwechungura said they were still holding meetings to fine tune the petition.

“We will hold a press conference early next week to inform members of the public where we have reached and when we intend to file the petition,” he said.

But other sources said it was unlikely that TLS would fulfil its promise to intervene in the politically charged constitution making process for fear of potential repercussions. TLS said last week that it was contemplating a legal path to end the ongoing Katiba impasse, insisting that it wanted a legal interpretation of section 25 of the Constitutional Review Act with regard to the CA powers and responsibilities.

The section states that ‘the CA shall have and exercise powers to make provisions for the new Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania and to make consequential and transitional provisions to the enactment of such Constitution and to make such other provisions as the CA may find necessary’.

It goes on to add that the powers of the CA to make the provisions for the proposed Constitution shall be exercised on the Second Draft Constitution tabled by the chairman of the Constitutional Review Commission and passed by the CA.

This section has drawn heated debate. First, it was between Attorney General Frederick Werema and Judge Joseph Warioba, the chairman of the defunct CRC. While Judge Werema maintained that the section empowers CA to make any changes that it deemed necessary, including inserting a new Chapter in the Second Draft Constitution, Judge Warioba noted that given a system, which Tanzania decided to use in writing the new supreme law, the CA had limited powers, when it comes to the proposed content.

The same issue has become a bone of contention between Ukawa and the CA leadership. Ukawa walked out of the CA claiming, among other things, that CCM had engineered to influence its members in the CA to overturn all the proposals by Constitutional Review Commission, which did not fit the interests of the ruling party. However, some CA members, including its chairman, Mr Samuel Sitta, insist that it is the CA, which has been legally empowered to write a new Constitution for the nation.

They argue that the Second Draft Constitution presented by the CRC forms a basis for opinion expressed by Tanzanians, but it does not mean that it is a cardinal document, which should be adhered to -to the letter.

Scottish independence: Salmond refuses to consider currency Plan B

Alex Salmond said an independent Scotland would take on its share of national debt for a fair share of the Bank of England. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Alex Salmond has refused to be drawn on his back-up plan if an independent Scotland is blocked from sharing the pound and the Bank of England now the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats have all ruled out a currency union.

The first minister is facing increasing political pressure to come up with a Plan B after the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, became the latest senior Westminster politician to say he would veto a deal on sterling if Scotland voted for independence next month.

But in an open letter to voters, published in Saturday's edition of The Sun, Salmond wrote: "Plan B implies settling for what's second best. And neither myself, my colleagues in the SNP, or the wider yes campaign will ever settle for second best for Scotland."

He said an independent Scotland would be "willing and able" to take on its share of national debt, but only if it got a fair share of the Bank of England.

The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour have all rejected the idea of a currency union, which would allow Scotland to use sterling and retain the Bank of England as its lender of last resort.

Miliband told Scottish business leaders in Glasgow on Friday that he would make a veto on a currency union a general election pledge if Scotland voted for independence in next month's referendum.

The Labour leader said he saw no case for recommending a euro-style currency union and accused Salmond of wrecking his own case by threatening to default on Scotland's share of the UK's debt, likely to total £1.6tn by 2016.

Asked if that sterling zone veto would be written into Labour's election manifesto if Scotland voted for independence, he said: "Yes. I'm ruling it out now, yes."

More than two thirds of voters surveyed for a poll in the Daily Mail said they believed the Scottish government should draw up an alternative to a currency union before the referendum, while 18% said it did not have to do so and 13% were undecided.

The poll of 1,010 people taken on 6 and 7 August – two days after a televised debate between Salmond and the Better Together leader, Alistair Darling – found that half believed Scotland should remain in the UK, while 37% intended to vote for independence and 19% were undecided. Some 53% of those polled believed the former chancellor won the debate, with 28% backing Salmond and 19% undecided. The debate was not going to change the way almost two-thirds intended to vote, while 22% were now more likely to vote no and 13% were more likely to vote yes, the poll found.

In February, the chancellor, George Osborne, and the Treasury decided to veto a deal on sterling, arguing that it would require UK taxpayers and the Bank of England to underwrite Scottish banks and Scottish government budgets.

On Thursday, Salmond reiterated a threat to renounce Scotland's share of the UK debt if Westminster vetoed a deal to share sterling.

Miliband said the first minister's warnings on debt default would not help the case for independence after Salmond's faltering performance in Tuesday's debate.

"If alarm bells were ringing after Tuesday night [about Salmond's currency proposals] when there were no answers, they should be ringing much, much louder if they're now threatening to renege on their debts," he said.

John Swinney, Scotland's finance secretary, said on Friday that rejecting a sterling union would greatly increase business costs for UK companies operating in Scotland, and leave the Treasury paying off Scotland's share of UK debt.

"They cannot turn round to the electorate in the rest of the UK and say we are going to let the Scots go away debt-free from the United Kingdom, we are going to let them off from an annual cost of £5bn," he told BBC Radio Scotland. "That's why they will agree to a currency union after independence."

Yazidi refugees in Iraq 'facing genocide' receive second US airdrop of aid

Pallets of bottled water are loaded on board a US Air Force plane for an airdrop to Iraqi refugees

Pallets of bottled water are loaded on board a C17 transport plane for an airdrop to Iraqi refugees. Photograph: Sgt Vernon Young/US Air Force/EPA

The US has carried out a second airdrop of food and water to thousands of displaced Iraqis hiding in mountains amid the fear of genocide by Islamist militants, the Pentagon has said.

The operation to aid 40,000 civilians, Kurds mostly of the Yazidi faith, who are besieged on Mount Sinjar, on the western edge of Kurdistan's border with the rest of Iraq, came hours after the US launched fresh air strikes against fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis). The raids have pulled the US back into Iraqi conflict for the first time since Barack Obama withdrew ground troops in 2011.

The chief spokesman for the Pentagon, Rear Admiral John Kirby, said early on Saturday that the air strikes had been followed up by further relief drops. Three planes delivered 72 bundles of supplies for the refugees, including more than 28,000 meals and more than 6,800 litres of water.

Yazidi children who fled the violence in Nineveh are taken to the relative safety of Sulaimaniya province in Kurdistan. Photograph: Reuters

The first aid consignment from Britain has left RAF Brize Norton to be dropped from C130 aircraft over the weekend.

Downing Street has ruled out military action at this stage in favour of delivering humanitarian aid. The UK's £8m emergency package includes drinking water, reusable filtration containers, tents and solar lights that can also recharge mobile phones.

David Cameron said it was the world's duty to help religious minorities "in their hour of desperate need".

It has been reported that children among the stranded population, who face slaughter by the encircling jihadists, were beginning to die of thirst on the bare, parched mountainside. Isis has captured hundreds of women from the Yazidi religious minority, according to an Iraqi official, while thousands of other civilians fled in fear.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said the extremists' "campaign of terror against the innocent, including the Yazidi and Christian minorities, and its grotesque and targeted acts of violence bear all the warning signs and hallmarks of genocide. For anyone who needed a wake-up call, this is it."

The US is putting pressuring on Iraqi leaders to form a unity government capable of dealing with Isis, which has recently captured further territory in northern Iraq and is threatening the Kurdish capital of Irbil.

US warplanes bombed Isis fighters outside Irbil on Friday, launching a second and third round later in the day. The first strikes were limited to the frontlines around the city to relieve intense pressure on US-backed Kurdish fighters, but the White House signalled it could expand its military commitment.

However, the Obama administration stressed that sending US combat troops back into the country was not an option.

The first 225kg laser-guided bombs were dropped in mid-afternoon by two fighter jets flying from an aircraft carrier in the Gulf. They targeted a howitzer that Isis fighters were using to shell Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga.

A second and third wave of bombing resumed in the evening, with attacks on Isis lines outside Irbil, the largest city in the autonomous Kurdistan region, with a population of 1.5 million inflated by thousands of Arab refugees from fighting elsewhere in Iraq. A drone hit an Isis mortar position near the city and a second pass by the drone killed suspected Isis militants when they "returned to the site moments later"

Gaza conflict: talks continue in Cairo as rockets fly in both directions

Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. Photograph: Majdi Fathi/ Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto/Corbis

Talks are continuing in Cairo in a desperate bid to end renewed hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Israel resumed air strikes on Gaza on Friday after Islamist groups refused to extend a ceasefire and fired dozens of rockets into Israel.

At least 40 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza in the hours after the 72-hour ceasefire expired on Friday at 8am local time. Several others had been fired during the night.

Throughout the day there were reports of Israeli air strikes in the north and east of Gaza and several explosions in Gaza City.

Five Palestinians were killed and at least 31 others wounded in Israeli air strikes, said Gaza health officials. Among the dead was a 10-year-old boy.

Sami al-Zohri, the Hamas spokesman in Gaza, told the Guardian that Hamas was "open to all options".

"We want a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The problems are on the Israeli side. They have rejected all our demands," al-Zohri said.

He added that there had been no discussions with the Egyptians over opening the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt, where movement has been tightly restricted in recent years.

In Israel, a soldier and a civilian were injured. At least one rocket appeared to have fallen short, landing in Gaza itself.

Negotiations continued despite the violence. Azzam al-Ahmed, the head of the Palestinian negotiating team in Cairo, which contains members of all the major Palestinian factions, said the team wanted to continue the talks.

"We will continue through our Egyptian brothers to negotiate, to reach a final agreement that would return the rights [of the Palestinians]," al-Ahmed said.

"We've notified the Egyptians that we're here, whether it's a religious holiday for us or not [Friday is a day of prayer in the Muslim world] because our religion does not prevent us from working to stop the bloodshed. This is our priority," he told the Guardian, speaking at a hotel on the edge of Cairo where the delegation has stayed for the past week.

Al-Ahmed, a member of Fatah, Hamas's long-term rival, blamed the breakdown of negotiations on Israel, whose delegation he said had never given "specific and clear answers" to their demands, and who only communicated with the Palestinians through mediators in Egyptian intelligence.

However the Egyptian foreign ministry later released a statement saying that "there was agreement on the majority of points but there remain a few very limited issues without a final decision".

The Palestinian delegation in Cairo have demanded an Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza must be lifted and about 100 prisoners held by Israel freed to secure a further truce. Israel insists that Hamas must disarm, which officials from the Palestinian group said was "inconceivable".

Earlier in the morning, Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, ordered Israel's military "to retaliate forcefully to the Hamas breach of the ceasefire," an official said in a statement.

However the Israeli strikes were significantly less intense than in the days before the ceasefire.

The army confirmed it had "targeted terror sites across the Gaza Strip," but that no Israeli soldiers had entered the Palestinian territory.

In the occupied West Bank, 12 protesters were reported to have been injured in demonstrations.

It is unclear whether it was Hamas or other smaller factions in Gaza, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad, that fired the rockets at Israel during the day.

In Gaza, tens of thousands of people who had returned to their homes during the 72-hour ceasefire rushed back to the United Nations-run shelters where many have been staying since the war began more than four weeks ago.

Up to 30% of Gaza's 1.8-million population has been displaced by the recent fighting and an estimated 65,000 people are now homeless.

At one school in Gaza City, one of 90 which have been designated shelters during the conflict, 800 people who had left in recent days returned this morning as news of the renewed fighting broke.

One was Nidal Sultan, 21, who had driven with six members of his family from the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

"We were in the school on the first day of the ceasefire and came back this morning. There were strikes and shelling in the last hour or so. It's not safe, so we have to come to the school however bad it is. We will stay now until the war stops," Sultan said, as he unpacked blankets, a stove and clothes from a car.

The school is now holding more displaced people than before the ceasefire and was turning families away, United Nations worker Amal Zaqqout said.

"We are very, very crowded. We have people living in corridors. Thank God we have not had any transmissable diseases but that is definitely a concern now," Zaqqout said.

On Friday night, the UN said more than 220,000 people were staying in their shelters. In one, a school in Beit Lahiya, around a thousand people were sleeping outside as the 40 classrooms were already full.

In Israel, the army banned all gatherings larger than 500 people within 25 miles (40km) of Gaza and said kindergarten and summer camps could only operate if there was a bomb shelter in the immediate vicinity.

"This is very frustrating, we thought it would be over," said Dov Hartuv, who has lived for decades in Nahal Oz kibbutz just east of the border with Gaza.

"This might just be for 12 or 24 hours before they return to the negotiating table. Meanwhile it ruined all our plans and frustrated all of us, especially the families with young children," he told AFP.

Most people in Gaza blamed Israel for the renewal of hostilities and said they supported the demands made by the Palestinian delegation in Cairo during difficult indirect negotiations brokered by the Egyptians in recent days. Chief among those has been the lifting of the eight-year blockade of Gaza by Israel and Egypt.

"The people's demands are humanitarian. Even if the resistance agreed to drop the demands, the people would not agree. We are at the point where life or death is the same thing for us," said Mohamed Eid, 40, who has been living in the grounds of the main hospital in Gaza since his house was destroyed in fierce fighting in the east of the city 15 days ago.

However Faiza Abu Khalil, 37, said she was "very worried and very scared" and still hoped for peace.

Abu Khalil had returned to Gaza from her home near Beit Lahiya when it appeared the ceasefire would not hold.

At the al'Huda mosque on al'Rasheed Street in Gaza City, the congregation gathered for Friday prayers were told by a cleric that "Gaza is a blessed place. Our martyrs have been chosen by God because they are the closest to him. Their blood will not be wasted. The people of Gaza are steadfast in their support of the resistance,."

A 38-year-old teacher, who gave his name as Abu Abdullah, said that he supported the decision of Palestinian leaders to resume hostilities.

"We are suffering but we have made up our minds. Without satisfying our demands, there can be no peace," he said.

"Ceasefire, ceasefire, it doesn't make any difference. You cannot trust Israel. We are waiting for our team in Cairo to get us some positive improvement but if there is nothing we can continue the fight," said Nihad Khamis, a 40-year-old businessman.

An official from one minor group in Gaza, the Mujahideen Faction, told the Guardian that further "sacrifices" from the Palestinian people would lead to the end of the blockade.

"The people of Gaza are not willing to live under siege," Ziad Abu Oda said.

More than 1,800 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 10,000 injured, the majority civilians, in the latest of three wars fought between Hamas and Israel since 2008.

Three civilians have been killed by rocket fire from Gaza into Israel and 64 soldiers during the phase of the ongoing Operation Protective Edge which saw Israeli troops push up to two miles into Gaza. All troops have now withdrawn, Israeli officials said.

"We will continue to strike Hamas, its infrastructure, its operatives and restore security for the State of Israel," said Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner.

More than 3,000 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel in recent weeks. Most of those headed for inhabited areas were shot down. A surge in rockets fired from Gaza prompted Israel to launch air strikes almost a month ago.

Woman who tried to trick strangers into raping former colleague jailed

Joanne Berry arrives at Maidstone crown court where she was jailed for six years after she used sex chatrooms to try to trick strangers into raping a former work colleague. Photograph: PA

A woman who used sex chatrooms to try to trick strangers into raping a former work colleague has been jailed for six years.

Joanne Berry, 30, posed as the woman online and invited men to act out violent rape fantasies and role play with her.

A judge said Berry may have held the victim responsible for losing her temporary job after Berry displayed "increasingly erratic behaviour" at work.

After Berry disclosed her ex-colleague's address online, one unwitting man tried to barge his way in to the woman's home to act out the rape. When the man suddenly realised they had both been set up by someone, he aborted the plan, Maidstone crown court in Kent heard.

Judge David Griffith-Jones QC said Berry had developed an "irrational vendetta" against the victim who had only shown kindness towards her.

Berry, of Grove Park, south-east London, was convicted in May of putting a person in fear of violence in 2012.

She was also convicted of committing an assault with the intention of committing a sexual offence, common assault and attempting to cause a person to engage in sexual activity without consent.

The court heard that the victim initially bore Berry's "increasingly frenetic and bizarre" behaviour with "a degree of fortitude".

But the judge told Berry: "Things got to a point where (the victim) felt the need to keep you at arm's length, moreover because of your increasingly erratic behaviour.

"Your temporary work placement was terminated. It's now quite clear that, irrationally, you took exception to being rebuffed by (the victim).

"It may be that you held her responsible for the loss of your temporary employment."

Aggrieved, Berry resolved to exact some form of "revenge or retribution".

The judge went on: "Thus, it was, you embarked on a bizarre series of events. You carried out some internet research and discovered a web-based chatline facility on which you would make contact with individuals with particular sexual and other interests.

"Through that facility, you made contact with a particular individual – 'DH' – who gave evidence during the trial."

Berry contacted him over a period of time and pretended that she enjoyed sex and engaging in role play. And eventually she persuaded him to come to "her" home, knock on the door and effectively rape her.

The judge said: "During this you didn't reveal your true identity and the address that you provided as your own was in fact (the victim's) home address."

He added: "He burst in intent on putting the plan between you and him into operation. Fortunately, he swiftly realised that something was amiss, so, after his initial aggressive entry, he aborted the plan."

WHO declares Ebola outbreak an international public health emergency

The World Health Organisation has declared the Ebola outbreak an international public health emergency, but it is not recommending general bans on travel or trade.

The global body said the Ebola outbreak – the largest and longest in history – was happening in countries without the resources to manage the infections, some with devastated healthcare systems still recovering from war, and called on the international community to help.

"Countries affected to date simply do not have the capacity to manage an outbreak of this size and complexity on their own," said Margaret Chan, the WHO's director general. "I urge the international community to provide this support on the most urgent basis possible."

The current outbreak began in Guinea in March and has spread toSierra Leone and Liberia, with some cases in Nigeria. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for Ebola and the death rate has been about 50%.

The virus has an incubation period of up to 21 days, meaning symptoms do not necessarily show before then.

The WHO emergency committee unanimously agreed, after two days of meetings in Geneva and teleconferences with representatives in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, that the outbreak was "an extraordinary event", meeting all the conditions for a public health emergency, Chan said.

With 1,711 confirmed and suspected cases, and 932 deaths, the WHO said the outbreak was a public health risk to other states – particularly in view of "fragile health care systems" in the affected countries.

Although the WHO said that "there should be no general ban on international travel or trade," it issued a long list of recommendations on travel and contacts, including urging that all travellers leaving the countries affected by the outbreak should be screened for fever, and that no corpses should be transported across borders.

It said other states should provide information to people travelling to affected and at risk areas, be prepared to detect, investigate and manage Ebola cases, and be prepared for the evacuation and repatriation of nationals, including health workers.

States should also ensure access to specialist diagnostic laboratories, and prepare to manage travellers who arrive at international airports or border crossings with "unexplained febrile illness".

"The possible consequences of further international spread are particularly serious in view of the virulence of the virus, the intensive community and health facility transmission patterns, and the weak health systems in the currently affected and most at-risk countries," a statement said. "A coordinated international response is deemed essential to stop and reverse the international spread of Ebola."

The charity Save the Children, which said it was scaling up its operations in the region, warned that medical services in the affected countries were already overwhelmed. Rob MacGillivray, its regional humanitarian director, said that even before the outbreak there was less than one doctor for every 33,000 people in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

"Parents are understandably frightened and stay away from medical centres through fear of coming into contact with the infection. Pregnant mothers are giving birth at home rather than seeking skilled help and orphaned children are at risk of being ostracised from their communities at the most vulnerable time in their lives.

"Challenges remain in reaching families in rural communities who were struggling to access healthcare even before the outbreak."

The WHO said health advice at airports and ports or border crossings should warn travellers that though the disease is rare, careful hygiene should be practised, and all contact with blood and body fluids of infected people or animals, or with any items that have come in contact with such blood or body fluids, must be avoided.

It also says that sexual intercourse with a sick person or one recovering from Ebola should be avoided "for at least seven weeks".

The WHO advises that the risk to travellers from sharing a flight with somebody who is showing symptoms of Ebola is "very low" – but does recommend contacting fellow travellers if a sufferer reports their condition and seeks medical help on arrival.

For those travelling to affected areas, the WHO describes the risk of business travellers or tourists returning with the virus as "extremely low" – even, it says, "if the visit included travel to the local areas from which primary cases have been reported".

"Transmission requires direct contact with blood, secretions, organs or other body fluids of infected living or dead persons or animals, all unlikely exposures for the average traveller. Tourists are in any event advised to avoid all such contacts."

It said the risk to travellers visiting friends and relatives in affected countries was similarly low "unless the traveller has direct physical contact with a sick or dead person or animal infected with Ebola virus".

The long list of advice to affected states includes screening all travellers leaving for fever, banning the remains of those who have died of Ebola from being transported across borders, and ensuring "funerals and burials are conducted by well-trained personnel".

Countries with land borders with the affected states are urged "urgently to establish surveillance for clusters of unexplained fever or deaths due to febrile illness", and to act within 24 hours of any suspected cases.

The United States is sending teams of experts to Liberia, including 12 specialists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, after the Liberian president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, declared a 90-day state of emergency and said the disease had overwhelmed her country's healthcare system.

US begins air strikes against Isis targets in Iraq, Pentagon says

Kurdish Peshmerga — Kurdish peshmerga troops participate in an intensive security deployment against Islamic State militants in Makhmur, on the outskirts of the province of Nineveh August 7, 2014 Photograph: Reuters

American warplanes began bombing Islamic militant targets outside the Kurdish city of Irbil on Friday, in the first offensive action by the US in Iraq since it withdrew ground troops in 2011.

Following authority granted by Barack Obama on Thursday, the Pentagon said two FA-18 jets dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs on fighters with the Islamic State, also known as Isis or Isil.

The US claimed the militants were using artillery to shell peshmerga forces defending Irbil and threatening US personnel in the city.

“As the president made clear, the United States military will continue to take direct action against Isil when they threaten our personnel and facilities,” said Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby

MPs ask Foreign Office to detail UK arms exports used by Israel in Gaza

A Palestinian man carries his brother's children over the

Palestinians in a ruined house after an Israeli strike in Gaza. Since 2010, 131 UK arms firms have been licensed to export to Israel. Photo: Pacific Press/LightRocket/Getty

The chair of the parliamentary select committees that oversee British arms exports has written to the foreign secretary requesting details of any military exports that may have been used by the Israeli army during its invasion of Gaza.

In the letter Sir John Stanley also asks Philip Hammond for more details of the government's review of arm export licences, which was announced this week.

The intervention will increase pressure on the government to halt arms sales to Israel and follows the resignation of the Foreign Office minister Sayeeda Warsi, who left the coalition over its failure to condemn the actions of Israel in Gaza and a call by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, for an embargo.

Stanley, who chairs the Commons committees on arms export controls, wants Hammond to release information about any "controlled goods, including components, technologies and software, that have received British government approval for export to Israel which the government has reason to believe may have been used by the Israelis in the course of Operation Protective Edge either from within Israel or in Gaza itself."

Since 2010, UK arms export licences to Israel worth £42m have been granted to 131 British defence industry manufacturers. According to government documents, the equipment ranges from components for drones to military radars, targeting systems and electronic warfare equipment.

The total value of dual-use export licences to Israel – which can be used for both commercial and military use – was worth about £8bn last year. The government says the vast bulk of this – about £7.75bn – is for commercial equipment, mostly cryptographic software to supply Israel's mobile phone networks.

But Stanley now wants the government to spell out if any of this equipment may have been used in Israel's Operation Protective Edge.

the former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell became the most senior former government minister to call for tougher action, warning that the level of misery and carnage in Gaza was likely to poison the remaining goodwill in the region for generations.

Earlier this week campaigners staged a rooftop protest at a factory in Lichfield, which they claim supplies engines for drones being used in Gaza. Twelve anti-arms campaigners scaled the factory of UAV Engines on Tuesday, forcing it to close.

Arms-control campaigners say that two UK companies – including UAV Engines – were given permission to supply components for the Hermes drones, which military experts say have been used in the war in Gaza.

According to its website, UAV Engines, a subsidiary of the Israeli defence contractor Elbit, manufactures engines for "various size tactical UAV's [unmanned aerial vehicles], target drones and single-mission platforms

Western food imports off the menu as Russia hits back over Ukraine sanctions

A Russian woman buys tomatoes at a Moscow supermarket. Photograph: EPA

Russians will no longer be able to buy fruit, vegetables, meat, fish or dairy products from the EU and the US, as the full scope of Moscow's food import ban became apparent on Thursday.

President Vladimir Putin told officials on Wednesday to come up with a list of western agricultural products and raw materials to be banned, in reaction to western sanctions over Russia's policies in Ukraine.

Russia's prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, said the ban was effective immediately and would last for a year. It covers most foodstuffs from the US, the 28 EU countries, Canada, Australia and Norway.

"Until the last moment, we hoped that our foreign colleagues would realise that sanctions lead to a blind alley, and that no one benefits from them. But they didn't realise this, and now we have been forced to respond," Medvedev said.

The EU and US have sanctioned a number of Russians, including billionaires believed to be close to Putin and those actively involved in the annexing Crimea and the unrest in eastern Ukraine. After the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which pro-Russia rebels are believed to have shot down , a number of key Russian banks were also sanctioned, cutting them off from European capital markets.

The key question is whether the import ban would hurt European producers more than Russian consumers. The Kremlin's English-language channel, Russia Today, said the food ban could spark a "crisis in Europe" and would cost billions of pounds in lost revenues.

There was less musing on the cost to ordinary Russians, who have become used to readily available imported foods.

"I am sure that our market will be filled with fresh quality Russian products, which anyway many Russians prefer to the imported ones," said Medvedev.

The agriculture minister, Nikolai Fyodorov, said more Brazilian meat and New Zealand cheese would be imported to offset the newly prohibited items. He also said Moscow was in talks with Belarus and Kazakhstan to prevent the banned western foodstuffs being exported to Russia from the two countries.

Medvedev said Russia was prepared to introduce further measures in aviation, shipbuilding and automobile sectors, but said it would do so carefully. Moscow has already floated the idea of banning European airlines from flying over Russian airspace, which could add several hours to some flights between Europe and Asia.

Russia is Europe's second-largest market for food and drink. Exports of food and raw materials to Russia were worth €12.2bn (£9.7bn) in 2013, following several years of double-digit growth.

The UK is less likely to lose out. In 2013, its biggest food and drink export was £17m of frozen fish, followed by £5.7m of cheese and £5.3m of coffee.

The president of the European Central bank, Mario Draghi, said on Thursday that the Ukraine crisis was contributing to heightened geopolitical risks that are threatening the eurozone's faltering recovery. "Some of them, like the situation in Ukraine and Russia will have a greater impact on the euro area than they … have on other parts of the world," he said.

The world's second-largest bottler of Coca-Cola drinks has become the latest company to be hit by the escalating standoff between Russia and the west, along with the sportswear maker Adidas.

Coca-Cola HBC, which bottles and distributes the US company's drinks in 28 countries, said volumes would fall for the rest of the year, citing a sudden deterioration in Russia, its biggest market.

Financial markets were quick to react to Putin's tit-for-tat move. Moscow's main two share indices extended Wednesday's sharp declines, with retail and banking shares among the biggest fallers. The RTS index lost 1.9%, and the rouble-denominated Micex fell 1.5%. European indices were also weaker.

Food has already been caught up in political tensions between Russia and the west. Moscow's food safety authorities have recently banned the import of Polish fruit and vegetables, and a regional branch of the consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor is investigating McDonald's cheeseburgers and milkshakes.

European pork was banned at the start of the year as the Ukraine crisis escalated, cutting off 25% of all EU pig meat exports in a move that the European commission said exposed farmers to significant losses.

The EU and US stepped up punitive action against Russia last week in response to Moscow's support for eastern separatists in Ukraine, which has been unwavering despite the downing of MH17.

A Dutch rescue team had to abandon its work at the crash site on Thursday, judging that the frontline of fighting between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels was too close.

Ukrainian forces have made gains in the east in recent weeks, but at the expense of civilian casualties. The rebels are now mainly holed up in the regional centres of Donetsk and Luhansk, leaving Kiev with a dilemma of how to win back the strongholds without enormous civilian loss of life.

Russia is carrying out military exercises near the border with Ukraine this week, and there are fears that the option of a ground invasion is still on the table. Nato said earlier this week that Moscow had amassed around 20,000 troops near the border and could be planning an invasion under the guise of a humanitarian intervention.

In Kiev, there were clashes on Thursday morning as authorities attempted to clear Independence Square, known as the Maidan, of tents and protesters. The square was the centre of the protests against President Viktor Yanukovych's rule, and a small hardcore of protesters have refused to move on and have remained living in the square since Yanukovych was deposed in February.

The square was cleared by armed members of volunteer battalions which had returned from fighting the pro-Russia separatists in the east, themselves made up of former Maidan activists. The violent clashes suggest tough times ahead for Ukraine, where President Petro Poroshenko will have to deal with the presence of many armed volunteer groups when the crisis in the east is over.

US considers air strikes and air drops to help Iraqis trapped on mountain by Isis

Displaced Iraqis from Sinjar flee from Isis troops towards the autonomous Kurdistan region. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The Obama administration is considering aerial strikes and humanitarian air drops to help besieged religious minorities chased up a mountain by militants in Iraq.

The move comes as Iraq's largest Christian city was all but abandoned as the jihadist group Islamic State (Isis) advances through minority communities in the country's north-west and towards the Kurdish stronghold of Irbil.

The US military is already helping the Iraqi government coordinate air drops of vital supplies to at least 40,000 Iraqis, mostly from the Yazidi minority, trapped on top of Mount Sinjar in the north after death threats from the Islamists who have overrun much of Sunni and northern Iraq.

Internally, the Obama administration was said to be studying what additional steps it could take directly, to include direct US air drops to those Iraqis stranded on the mountain.

"We have been working urgently and directly with officials in Baghdad and Irbil to coordinate Iraqi airdrops to people in need," a US defense official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said the US was in constant coordination with the Iraqi government on "how we can help coordinate additional relief, enhance their efforts, and provide direct assistance wherever possible."

If the US opts to intervene directly, it would represent the first aerial mission over Iraq since 2011 for a purpose beyond conducting surveillance on Isis, providing long-scheduled military sales, or transporting the extra hundreds of US special-operations "advisers" that Barack Obama ordered into Iraq to help Baghdad confront the threat from Isis.

UN officials say an estimated 200,000 new refugees are seeking sanctuary in the Kurdish north from Islamic extremists who have pursued them since the weekend. The city of Qaraqosh, south-east of Mosul, home to around 50,000 Christians was the latest to fall, with most residents fleeing before dawn on Thursday as convoys of extremists drew near.

Other Christian towns near Mosul, including Tel Askof, Tel Keif and Qaramless have also largely been emptied. Those who remained behind have reportedly been given the same stark choice given to other minorities, including Yazidis: flee, convert to Islam, or be killed.

Christians, Yazidis and Turkmen have been at the frontlines of Iraq's war with Isis ever since the jihadist group stormed into Mosul and Tikrit and mid-June. The Iraqi army capitulated within hours, with at least 60,000 officers and soldiers fleeing on the first day of the assault alone.

Ever since, the jihadists have continued to make advances, while Iraqi troops have concentrated on defending Baghdad and the Shia south, leaving the defence of minorities in the north to the Kurdish peshmurga.

However, even the much vaunted Kurdish forces were no match for the heavy weapons wielded by the jihadists as they advanced in recent days. Peshmurga officers ordered troops to withdraw to areas administered by the Kurdish regional government – a clear sign of priorities and of where the battle lines are being drawn.

Without any protection, Yazidis, Christians and Turkmen are being uprooted from communities they have lived in for millennia and the geo-social fabric of Iraq is being rapidly shredded.

While those who have managed to flee the Christian areas have so far had a relatively safe passage to Irbil, the tens of thousands of Yazidis remain besieged near Sinjar, with little food or water.

The UN said it was able to get some supplies overland to the stranded hordes – avoiding Isis fighters who have surrounded most of Mount Sinjar. Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that Turkish helicopters had dropped food and water on the mountain top. Iraqi helicopters have also made food drops, but stranded Yazidis say they do not have enough to survive.

The Chaldean archbishop of Kirkuk, Joseph Thomas, described the situation in northern Iraq as "catastrophic, a crisis beyond imagination". He demanded urgent intervention to save what remained of the area's Christian heritage.

Kurdish officials on Thursday demanded more help in catering for refugees. The Kurdish administered areas have seen staggering numbers cross their notional border since the original Isis onslaught two months ago. In the first week alone, some 500,000 people are thought to have fled towards Irbil.

The capital of the Kurdish north is already home to a new Chaldean Christian community, which fled Baghdad in the wake of an Isis-led massacre inside a cathedral in October 2010. Many fleeing Christians have headed for the Ainkawa neighbourhood, which is home to Baghdad's Christian exiles.

The past 11 years of war and insurrection since the US invasion have led to most of Iraq's Christians fleeing. Numbers have plummeted starkly from an estimated one million before 2003 to around 150,000 now. A large number of those who remain are now displaced.

Miriam Dagher, 53, from Qaraqosh, said churches in the city had already been torched and religious insignia smashed. "We stayed as long as we could," she said. "But nothing could save us. This is the end of our community."

Isis has threatened to redraw the unitary borders that were carved out of the ruins of the Ottoman empire. The group's rampant insurgency and the inability of state actors to stop it has rendered the frontier between Iraq and Syria evermore irrelevant.

In the absence of central government authority, Shia militias are taking dominant roles, amplifying sectarian enmity between Islam's two most dominant sects.

Iraq's beleaguered prime minister, Nour al-Maliki, no longer has the authority to unite the country's disparate sects. Maliki, a Shia Muslim, had disenfranchised much of the country's Sunni community over the past three years, some of whom have turned to Isis as a means of reasserting themselves.

After digging in for the past two months, Maliki now faces a desperate battle to form a government, with his key backer Iran understood to have told him that it no longer supports his bid to lead the country for a third term.

Kurdish leader, Massoud Barazani, has said he is moving towards holding a referendum that could pave the way for an independence bid, a move that could spell the end of Iraq, and unsettle surrounding countries, including Syria, Turkey and Iran

Remembrance and reflection as first world war sacrifices are recalled

Visitors attend a candlelit vigil to mark the centenary of the first world war in Stafford, England. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Remembrance, reflection, and the power of reconciliation underlined the day of commemorations to mark the 100-year anniversary of Britain entering the first world war.
Former adversaries, now allies, united at services in the UK and Belgium to honour the sacrifice and courage of the fallen, and acknowledge the stark horror that was to engulf Europe.
Heads of state, royalty, and relatives of the dead or wounded, gathered at international ceremonies at Liège and Mons in Belgium, and in Glasgow. Across the UK there were countless commemorations: candlelit vigils, church services, wreath-layings, gun-salutes, military march-pasts and silences punctured only by the strains of the Last Post.
The day was to culminate in a nationwide "blackout" with homes, office, and public buildings urged to turn off lights between 10pm and 11pm, leaving just one light or a candle burning, to mark the exact moment the country declared war on Germany, and evoke the famous eve-of-war observation by the then foreign secretary Sir Edward Grey: "The lamps are going out all over Europe."
At the Allies' War Memorial of Cointe, overlooking the city of Liège, 12 cannons were fired as King Philippe of Belgium paid tribute to the "courage and dignity" of those fighting, but spoke also of the "cruelty and barbarism" of the war, and the challenge of keeping peace.
"Peaceful Europe, unified Europe, democratic Europe. Peace is what our grandparents longed for," he said.
It was Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium that lit the touchpaper plunging Europe into four years of darkness and destruction. It was an invasion that was "unjustifiable", said the German president Joachim Gauck, who was warmly greeted by the Belgium monarch, French president François Hollande, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, representing the Queen. "We are grateful to have been able to live together with peace for so long in Europe", Gauck added.
Liège had offered "solid resistance," said Hollande, with "deadly days" to follow when British and French soldiers joined the conflict. Prince William, too, paid tribute to the Belgians "whose resistance was as gallant as their suffering was great". Speaking of the power of reconciliation among the countries gathered, he added: "We were enemies more than once in the last century, and today we are friends and allies. We salute those who died to give us our freedom. We will remember them".
A single white balloon, signifying peace, was released, to be followed by thousands of others in the colours of the flags of countries represented at the commemoration. There was no escape from the atrocious statistics of a war in which more than 16 million civilians and soldiers perished. At Glasgow cathedral, in front of the Prince of Wales, David Cameron, Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond, and a congregation of 1,100, the broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald reeled off the British toll: 6,146,000 men serving, 761,000 killed, 1,600,000 wounded – as well as 206,000 Irishmen serving of whom 30,000 died.
A procession of children carried candles down the cathedral's aisle to symbolise the "candle of peace and hope" passing to the new generation. Afterwards, at the Cenotaph in St George's Square, poppy wreaths were laid.
Later Cameron unambiguously supported the decision to enter the Great War, saying in an evening speech in Mons that it had been fought to "prevent the domination of a continent, and in defence of British values".
In a speech at the St Symphorien military cemetery, Cameron said it was wrong to dismiss the war as "pointless, or fought by people who didn't know why they were fighting". He added: "These men signed up to prevent the domination of a continent and to preserve the principles of freedom and sovereignty that we cherish today."
Earlier, in a television interview, Cameron had drawn parallels between the events of a century ago and more recent conflicts. He said: "We have the RAF patrolling over the Baltic to deter Russian aggression, we had the Royal Navy in action just this morning to evacuate British nationals from Libya, there are threats to Britain and British interests the world over.
"What I find so moving about today is that reminder that young men and women do come forward to serve their country and to protect us."
However, in a later interview Cameron acknowledged the doubts of many about the value of war, stressing he had tried to keep British soldiers from conflict.
Asked if he would have sent British soldiers into conflict in August 1914, the PM said: "It's a very difficult question because you weren't there, but I do believe the people who volunteered, they believed they were going to fight in a just cause."
Cameron's emphasis on the belief that soldiers themselves felt they were fighting a necessary war has been No 10's way of avoiding direct comment on the wisdom of Britain's political leadership in 1914, or the value of the human sacrifice the political and military elite demanded of their troops over the next four years.
In Folkestone, Kent, Prince Harry unveiled a memorial arch on the Road of Remembrance, the path marched by many on their way to France, and which for some was their last sight of home.
Organised by the charity Step Short, the arch is a tribute to the men who "stepped short" – or took a shorter stride – as they marched down the steep hill to the ships carrying them to the front line.
The prince later joined the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the prime minister and 500 guests at a twilight ceremony at St Symphorien military cemetery in Belgium, where 229 Commonwealth and 284 German troops are laid to rest, including the first and last British soldiers to die on the western front.
Peace campaigners staged their own events, with one group using the steps of the church St Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square, London. It was mounted by the First World War Peace Forum, including Pax Christi, the Quakers, and the Peace Pledge Union.
"The route to war was not scripted in advance: there were always choices and different possible endings," was the campaigners' message.
Bruce Kent, the veteran CND campaigner, was among the scores taking part in the vigil. So too was Norman Kember, emeritus professor of biophysics at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, who was freed by the SAS after being abducted in Iraq in 2005.
"I am glad in the media there is no sense of celebration", Kenber said. "People realise what a tragedy it was."
British commemorations were due to culminate at Westminster Abbey, with the flame of a single oil lamp at the tomb of The Unknown Warrior extinguished at 11pm – the exact moment of the declaration of war.
It was to be the finale of a candlelit vigil at the abbey, one of many being held at churches and war memorials throughout the country, including at St Anne's cathedral in Belfast, and Llandaff cathedral in Cardiff.
More than 1,000 candles held by the congregation were to be slowly extinguished.
The candle on the tomb, a focus of prayers for peace since it was created to house the remains of the bodies moved from northern France on Armistice Day, 11 November, 1920, was due to be put out last, leaving the large, white, Paschal candle alone alight.

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