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POLAND'S outgoing foreign minister, Radek Sikorski, is a polyglot foreign-policy wonk who helped lead his country to its heftiest international presence in centuries.  Grzegorz Schetyna is a party insider who has evinced little interest in international relations, and who, according to his mother, learned his English from the foreign basketball players on a team he used to help run in his native Silesia. But it was Mr Schetyna who was picked to replaced Mr Sikorski as foreign minister on Friday, when Ewa Kopacz, Poland's new prime minister, presented her cabinet (pictured). At a time when Russia is threatening neighbouring Ukraine, even Mr Schetyna's mother, Danuta, says her son was reluctant to take the job. My son was of the view that in the current international situation, it would be better for Sikorski to steer the [foreign ministry],” Ms Schetyna told the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. I don't know myself what prompted Mrs Kopacz to name him to that position. ...

BERLIN, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Germany and France agreed on Friday to launch a joint airlift to send aid supplies to western African states hit by Ebola, a spokesman for the German defence ministry said, adding the operation might start within 48 hours. Germany's armed forces will send up to 100 soldiers to a joint base in Dakar and from there two German Transall military transport planes will fly supplies to affected countries like Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the spokesman said. That will enable more than 100 tonnes to be transported per week, he said, adding that France would also provide planes. German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen and her French counterpart agreed on the airlift at a meeting in Paris on Friday. The supplies will include medicines, medical equipment, blankets and tents. The aim was to improve the logistics chain, so Germany's armed forces will also collect goods from countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg and fly them on to West Africa. ...

The head of Fiji's army said on Wednesday that he expected 45 Fijian U.N. peacekeepers seized two weeks ago on the Golan Heights by an al Qaeda-backed militant group, the Nusra Front, to be released within days. "Al Nusra has confirmed to the U.N. headquarters in New York that the Fijian peacekeepers will be released within the next few days," Brigadier General Mosese Tikoitoga told a media conference in the Fijian capital, Suva. Syria's three-year civil war reached the frontier with Israeli-controlled territory last month when Islamist fighters overran a crossing point in the line that has separated Israelis from Syrians in the Golan Heights since a 1973 war. The fighters then turned on the U.N. blue helmets from a peacekeeping force that has patrolled the ceasefire line for 40 years. After the Fijians were captured, more than 70 Filipinos spent two days besieged at two locations before reaching safety. The Nusra Front, a Syrian affiliate of al Qaeda, had a ...

Washington kickstarted its efforts to form a broad coalition against jihadists in Iraq and Syria Tuesday with Secretary of State John Kerry headed to the region to rally US allies. Regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia is to host talks on Thursday between Kerry and ministers from 10 Arab states plus Turkey on joint action against the Islamic State group. Kerry’s arrival in the region on Wednesday will coincide with a keenly awaited speech by President Barack Obama in which he has promised to set out a strategy to defeat the jihadists who have unleashed a wave of atrocities that have shocked the world. Washington has been buoyed in its diplomatic offensive by the formation of a new government in Baghdad that it hopes will be more acceptable to both Iraq’s disenchanted Sunni Arab minority and Sunni governments around the region. The Iraqi army’s campaign to claw back the territory it lost in the Sunni Arab heartland north and west of Baghdad in June — and US efforts to engage Sunni ...

Vietnamese authorities have vowed to seriously punish a prisoner caught posting photographs of drugs alongside status updates on Facebook from a smartphone smuggled into jail, state media reported. Nguyen Duc Hung, jailed on drugs charges, last week posted photographs of himself in a black and white striped prison uniform, as well as photos of him and other inmates taking drugs. The drugs were presumed to be heroin, a news website called Motthegioi reported on Sunday. Hung made the posts so that his wife at home could see him, the report added. He also uploaded shots of other prisoners at the Tan Lap jail 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Hanoi, chatting on phones, showing off their tattoos and eating in their cells. The photographs have since been taken down, the Dan Tri online newspaper reported. Police said security at the prison, which overwhelmingly houses people serving time for drugs-related convictions, was sometimes compromised due to its location in a residen...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US military will join the fight against fast-spreading Ebola in Africa, President Barack Obama said in an interview aired Sunday, but he warned it would be months before the epidemic slows. Obama said that, in its current form, he did not believe Ebola would reach the United States , but warned the virus could mutate and become a much greater threat to those outside Africa. The president argued that the deadly toll of the disease was being exacerbated because of the rudimentary public health infrastructure in Africa. “We’re going to have to get US military assets just to set up, for example, isolation units and equipment there, to provide security for public health workers surging from around the world,” Obama said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If we do that, then it’s still going to be months before this problem is controllable in Africa,” he said. But he added, “if we don’t make that effort now, and this spreads not just through Africa but other parts ...

The violence erupted just hours after a phone call between Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, who agreed that the ceasefire was “generally being observed”. EU leaders plan to put further pressure on Russia over its alleged support for the insurgents by approving fresh sanctions Monday on its defence and oil companies, although the bloc’s President Herman Van Rompuy said these steps could be reviewed “if the ceasefire is durable, and/or if the peace talks start”. The 12-point pact signed in Minsk on Friday was the first to win the backing of both Kiev and Moscow after five months of warfare that set off the deepest crisis in East-West relations for a generation. But it delays difficult decisions about the status of the two rebel-run regions of Donetsk and Lugansk until later negotiations, which one separatist leader said may begin in about a week. - ‘Unable to sleep’ - The peace plan was drawn up after the rebels — reportedly back...

KABUL, Afghanistan — The seven suspects in the rape of four women had not even gone to trial when President Hamid Karzai assured a visiting delegation of female politicians that he wanted them to be executed — after their convictions, of course. While he generally opposes the death penalty, Mr. Karzai said, in this case he was ready to make an exception. “I told them to arrest these people, and I expect the chief justice will give them capital punishment,” Mr. Karzai said. “And by God’s willingness, we will implement it immediately.” On Sunday, all seven defendants were convicted and sentenced to death. The gang rape has transfixed a country that has grown weary of political paralysis in what has turned into a five-month effort to decide who the new president will be. The arrests and prosecution of the suspects in this case has been every bit as fast as the election recount has been slow — and in the view of many foreign observers, just as embarrassing an example of a...

Opposition says limited anti-discrimination bill offers no protection, as rightwing campaigners resist call for civil unions Nearly three years after it was first brought to parliament, Greek MPs are poised to pass an anti-discrimination bill which human rights groups say still falls far short of dealing with an epidemic of racist and homophobic violence in the country. Before this week's vote, gay rights protesters have taken to the streets to denounce the conservative-dominated government's refusal to extend protective rights, including domestic partnerships, to same-sex couples. Rightwing MPs have resisted introducing legal protection for gay people despite an alarming rise in homophobic attacks in Athens, claiming that such measures could take Greece down a dangerous path. In Holland there are parties that recognise paedophilia; what are we going to do, adopt it too? asked Anastasios Nerantzis, an MP with the ruling New Democracy party, as debate raged in the 30...

Kurdish forces were jubilant after recapturing Mount Zartak, says Jim Muir Kurdish forces in northern Iraq have recaptured a strategically important mountain from Islamic State (IS) militants, helped by US air strikes. Mount Zartak overlooks a plain that stretches to Mosul, the city seized by IS in June. The mountain fell to the Islamists last month when they staged a lightning attack on Iraqi Kurdistan. Since then Kurdish "peshmerga" fighters have been slowly pushing back, assisted by US air power. Mosul is a mainly Sunni city which Kurdish forces say they do not intend to recapture on their own. The BBC's Jim Muir in Iraq says Mount Zartak was retaken in a short, sharp battle that left more than 30 IS fighters dead. Under the gun The Kurdish forces said US air strikes had made a "big difference". Nearby villages still occupied by the Islamic militants are now at the mercy of Kurdish guns that dominate the entire plain of Nineveh, our corresponde...

SYRIA launched air strikes targeting a stronghold of the Islamic State extremist group yesterday, killing at least 25 people, most of whom died when a missile slammed into a crowded bakery. The eight air strikes smashed buildings, set cars alight and crushed people under rubble in the north-eastern city of Raqqa, which is ruled by the extremist group, according to video of the aftermath uploaded to social media networks. At least 16 civilians were killed, alongside nine Islamic State fighters, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Most of the civilians were killed after at least one strike hit a bakery on a busy street, and the death toll was likely to rise, said the Observatory, which obtains its information from a network of activists on the ground. Another group, the Raqqa Media Centre, uploaded video of the aftermath which appeared to be genuine. Activist Abu Ibrahim said the local morgue was packed with charred bodies, making identification diff...

NEW DELHI — Officials in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir said Saturday that more than 100 people had died in five days of flooding, with rivers swollen far above their normal level and flowing at unusual speed. In the region of Kashmir, at least 40 bridges have been washed away, and four districts are cut off from the summer state capital, Srinagar, said Rohit Kansal, a civilian official who is supervising rescue and relief operations in the Srinagar district. Thousands of people are living in relief camps because their homes have collapsed or are submerged in water. An army spokesman said that 7,000 soldiers had been deployed in the region, distributing food and shelter and transporting people to safer places. On Saturday, a boat carrying 11 soldiers capsized in floodwaters, and two soldiers were still missing by the evening, said S. D. Goswami, a spokesman for the army’s northern command. A bus loaded with more than 50 wedding guests was washed away by floodw...

The suspected killer of a British TV host has died in hospital after the “plug was pulled” on his life support machine. Police have revealed that Matthew Hodgkinson died in Our Lady of the Lake medical centre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, just after midday on Friday. Investigators believe Mr Hodgkinson, 36, shot and killed 52-year-old Scott Rogers before turning the gun on himself. Mr Rogers, who was Mr Hodgkinson’s father-in-law and ex-lover, died in the attack on August 27, but his suspected killer survived but was in a critical condition on life support. Speaking to a local news channel, Sheriff Brett Stassi revealed their main suspect had died and that officers were now investigating who gave the instruction to turn off the life support machine. He said: “(I) still have questions to be asked about the procedure that was done.” News of the death comes after it was revealed police are investigating sex abuse allegations made against the British ex-pat. Suffolk Police s...

Estonia said Friday that a security service officer was abducted by unknown gunmen and taken across the border to Russia, but Russia said the man was detained on its territory and suspected of being a spy. The incident came at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries. Only two days earlier, U.S. President Barack Obama visited Estonia and gave the NATO member assurances of protection from any Russian threat. The Estonian Internal Security Service said the officer was investigating cross-border crime when he was abducted at gunpoint on Estonian territory near the Luhamaa border checkpoint. The Russian Federal Security Service said the Estonian was detained in the Pskov region of Russia — a claim that the Estonian security service denied. He was carrying "a Taurus handgun with cartridges, 5,000 euros in cash, special equipment for concealed audio recording and materials that indicated an intelligence mission," the agency said in a statement. Arnold S...

WASHINGTON  (AFP) – US President Barack Obama on Thursday named Google vice president Megan Smith as his new chief technology officer, charged with unleashing the power of data and computers inside the fusty world of government. Smith fronted Google’s acquisition of major platforms including Google Earth, Google Maps and Picasa, and has been active in gay, lesbian and trans-sexual rights, a key social policy goal for many members of the Obama administration. Megan has spent her career leading talented teams and taking cutting-edge technology and innovation initiatives from concept to design to deployment, Obama said in a blog post on the White House web site. I am confident that in her new role as America’s Chief Technology Officer, she will put her long record of leadership and exceptional skills to work on behalf of the American people. In his two successful presidential campaigns, Obama was known for the pioneering use of computer and software technology but revolutioni...

David Cameron has said Britain must "use everything we have in our armoury" to squeeze the Islamic State terror group out of existence. Cameron joined US president Barack Obama to insist that Britain and America will not waver following the murders of two US journalists and threats against the life of a British hostage by the jihadi group in Iraq. They are joining other leaders of Western powers for a Nato summit in south Wales which will be dominated by the situation in Iraq, as well as the stand-off with Russia over Ukraine. Mr Cameron restated his policy that Britain will not pay ransoms to free nationals held by terror groups, but said that this meant the Government had a duty to do "everything we can" to help hostages. He said he had not ruled out UK involvement in air strikes on IS, but stressed that the priority was support for those already fighting the militants on the ground.

Steven Sotloff, the kidnapped journalist beheaded by Islamic State, was a dual Israeli-US citizen who had managed to hide his second nationality from his militant Islamist captors, even while reportedly managing to fast during the Yom Kippur religious festival. Sotloff (31) became the second kidnapped journalist to be beheaded by the group, which also murdered US journalist James Foley. Islamic State has threatened to kill a British hostage next. The revelation of Sotloff’s Israeli citizenship was disclosed by the country’s foreign ministry yesterday morning. In a brief tweet, Paul Hirschson, a spokesman, said: Cleared for publication: Steven Sotloff was Israel citizen RIP. It followed confirmation by the US that the video depicting his murder was genuine. The US intelligence community has analysed the recently released video showing US citizen Steven Sotloff and has reached the judgment that it is authentic, national security council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statem...

Apparent incursions by Russian troops into Ukraine indicate a Moscow orchestrated counter- offensive in rebel-contested areas, the US says. The United States has warned that apparent incursions by Russian military units into Ukraine indicate a Moscow-orchestrated counter-offensive in rebel-contested areas. Kremlin-aligned rebels in east Ukraine have seized territory from retreating government forces, with Kiev accusing Russia of pushing columns of its tanks and weaponry toward towns in southeastern Ukraine. These incursions indicate a Russian-directed counter-offensive is likely under way in Donetsk and Lugansk," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. "Clearly that is of deep concern to us. Psaki also said Washington has noted "the Russian government's unwillingness to tell the truth even as its soldiers are found 30 miles (48km) inside Ukraine." She cited reports of wounded soldiers at a hospital in St. Petersburg, and said Russia was...

(CAIRO) — Egyptian state media has announced a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel to halt the seven-week Gaza war, which has killed over 2,200 people. Both Egyptian state television and the state news agency MENA announced the deal Tuesday night. Both said it begins at 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT), without elaborating. Earlier, officials with from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the main groups fighting in Gaza against Israel, said a cease-fire had been reached. Israeli officials have not immediately commented. They described it as an “open-ended” cease-fire that included an Israeli agreement to ease its blockade of Gaza to allow relief supplies and construction materials into the war-battered territory.