Deadly bombing hits busy market in northeastern Nigeria

At least 27-30 people have been killed in an explosion at a busy market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Yola.
In recent years, Yola has been peacefull, a relative safe haven for hundreds of thousands of people forced to flee their homes because of ongoing violence in the country.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but fingers will likely be pointed at Boko Haram, which has carried out several attacks in the north of the state in recent weeks.
More than 60 people have been killed in attacks since the weekend in Maiduguri, the northeastern city that is the birthplace of the armed group.

Yemen president sacks Saleh nephew as military attache

Brigadier Ammar Mohammed Abdullah Saleh, the nephew of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, has been dismissed by presidential decree from his role as a military attache in Ethiopia.Thursday's announcement came on the same day that former al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) informant Hani Muhammad Mujahid disclosed that the brigadier had handed him funds for the 2008 attack on the US embassy in Sanaa, which killed 18 people..President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi issued a presidential decree on Thursday "calling for the dismissal of Brigadier Ammar Mohammed Abdullah Saleh from his military duties as a military attache in Ethiopia".   
Saleh's nephew was the deputy director of the National Security Bureau at the time.
Mujahid also alleged that the brigadier had a close relationship with Qasim al-Raymi, AQAP's military commander.
The former informant made the claims to Al Jazeera for a documentary called Al-Qaeda Informant, which focuses on his allegations that former President Saleh supported, and even directed, AQAP while he was Yemen's leader.

Nusra leader:Abu Mohammed al-Golani

 The head of al-Qaeda's Syria branch Nusra Front has said that he saw no solution to the conflict with the rival Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Syria.
"There is no solution between us and them in the meantime, or in the foreseeable future," Abu Mohammed al-Golani told the Doha-based channel in the second part of the interview that was aired on Wednesday.
"We hope they repent to God and return to their senses ... if not, then there is nothing but fighting between us."

They say Iran controls Iraq but the truth is it’s the US that occupied Iraq and handed it over to Iran on a golden platter. Abu Mohammed al-Golani, Nusra Front leader

Nusra Front, loyal to the successors of Osama bin Laden, and ISIL are the two most powerful forces fighting government forces in Syria. The groups have fought each other since a split in 2013, largely due to a power struggle between leaders.
Golani said his Sunni Muslim armed group had around 30 percent foreign fighters including "a small number" of Americans. The foreign contingent also included Europeans and many Asians, Russians and Chechens, he said.
It was the second of a two-part interview and included footage of a Nusra training camp, weaponry, a lesson inside a classroom, as well as images of a prison and a food packing operation inside Nusra-held territory.
The group has made gains in northwestern Syria alongside other armed groups in recent weeks, seizing the city of Idlib, the town of Jisr al-Shughour and bringing armed groups closer to government-held coastal areas north of the capital, Damascus.
The interview, aired on the pan-Arabic channel, appeared to be an attempt by the Nusra Front to cast itself to an Arab audience as a Syrian national movement.

Scores dead in blast at petrol station in Ghana's Accra

An explosion at a petrol station in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, has left at least 60 -70  people dead, the country's fire brigade said.
Many of the victims had sought shelter at the station due to torrential rain.
About a dozen people were taken to hospital after the blast, which is believed to have been an accident linked to the downpour.

Heavy fighting resumes in Ukraine's east

The conflict between the Ukrainian army and rebel forces has killed more than 6,400 people [File: AFP/Getty]

Ukraine's government forces and pro-Russian separatists have accused one another of launching a major new attack in the country's east.
The rebel forces began a "large-scale offensive against Ukrainian positions" close to their stronghold of Donetsk overnight on Wednesday, using about a dozen tanks and up to a thousand troops, the Ukrainian army general staff said in a statement.
It said government troops had fought back against the attack using heavy artillery.
Fighting has intensified in recent weeks around key hotspots on the frontline in eastern Ukraine despite a truce brokered by the West in February.
Vladimir Kononov, the chief of the separatist forces, told Russia's Interfax news agency that at least 15 people, including civilians, were killed around Donetsk.
"The Ukrainian side has carried out a provocation and started shelling our positions all along the front," Kononov was quoted as saying.

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Mariinka and Georgiivka, areas under the control of Ukrainian forces about 30km from Donetsk, were under "intense shooting" since the morning, Vyacheslav Abroskin, chief of the Donetsk region's police force, which is loyal to Kiev, told the AFP news agency.
"The enemy is shooting on Mariinka using Grad [rockets] as well as tanks," he said, adding that there were victims but without giving figures.

Talk to Al Jazeera: Samantha Power

He said the checkpoints at Georgiivka and Kurakhove, about 40km from Donetsk, were closed to traffic owing to the shooting.
According to Interfax, a hospital in Donetsk suffered a blackout and about 90 wounded people had to be evacuated.
In another related development, more than 900 miners were trapped undeground after Wednesday's clashes caused a power failure at two large mines, Skochinsky and Zasyadko, in Donetsk.
According to the territory's emergency services, all miners were evacuated from Zasyadko mine by the evening, but the rescue operation was still going on for more than 300 miners trapped in Skochinsky.
The conflict between the Ukrainian army and separatist forces has killed more than 6,400 people since April 2014.
Ukraine and the West accuse the Kremlin of supporting and arming the pro-Russian separatists, which Moscow denies.

Source: Al Jazeera

Nigeria's Boko Haram leader fails to appear in new video

Militant Islamists in Nigeria have released a new video and, unusually, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau fails to appear in it.

Instead, an unidentified young man speaks in the name of "The army of the caliphate in West Africa".
Mr Shekau's absence from the video has fuelled speculation about his fate.
At least 13 people were killed on Tuesday in a bombing at a cattle market in Maiduguri city, a former Boko Haram stronghold in north-eastern Nigeria.

Amnesty International Accuse Nigerian Military Of Extra-Judicial Killing

An international human rights group, Amnesty International has asked the Nigeria’s new President, Muhammadu Buhari, to investigate Senior Military officials for complicity in the extra judicial killing of over 8,000 people in the north-east.

Among those the organisation wants investigated are the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, Chief of Army Staff and Lieutenant General Keneth Minimah.
Also named for investigations are former Chief of Defence Staff, Retired Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim and former Chief of Army Staff, Retired General Azubuike Ihejirika.
Five other senior Military officers were also named for investigation in the report.
In its latest report on the fight against the Boko Haram insurgents, Amnesty International accused the leadership of the Military of participating, sanctioning and failing to prevent the violations.
The report said that the senior military officers were duly informed of the arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions and extra judicial killings but they did nothing about them.
The report covered the military operations between 2009 and 2014.

Yemen's war-displaced flood into Somaliland

Work for sailors has ground to a halt in Somaliland amid the Yemen conflict [Hamza Mohamed/Al Jazeera]

Berbera, Somaliland - In a temporary shelter made of corrugated iron and timber poles sit about 70 people, mostly women and children, hiding from the blistering mid-afternoon sun as hot, humid air blows in from the Red Sea.
They have come to the port town of Berbera in Somalia's breakaway Somaliland region to seek a respite from the Saudi Arabian-led air strikes in Yemen. They are part of a stream of people who arrived by boat with thousands having landed at ports across the Horn of Africa region since the attacks began in late March.
With no aid agencies to welcome them, most have simply blended into the population.
Ahmed Hassan Hashi used the last bit of money he had to pay for the journey from Yemen to Berbera. It took him more than two days to cross the busy shipping lane to reach the Somali coast, the toll the journey took on his fragile body all too visible.
Heavy fighting between Shia rebels and coalition forces forced him out of his home in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, where he had lived for the past 12 years.

Somalis return home to escape Yemen's war

He left in a hurry with his five children, his panic-stricken wife, and the few clothes he could grab. It was the second time in his life he had to escape war.
"Like rain the bombs were hitting everywhere. It was impossible to stay," Hashi told Al Jazeera, rocking his heat-blister-covered seven-month-old baby in his arms to try and stop it from crying. "I went to Yemen running from the war in Somalia. I ran back to Somalia because of the war in Yemen. Somalia is much safer." 
Hashi worked as a labourer in Yemen but the bombs brought that to an abrupt end. Sitting next to him trying to feed their six-year-old daughter water - because there is nothing else to provide - is his wife, Jamila Ahmed.
"There is nothing to give them. I only have this water. They don't want to drink it because the water is hot. This sun boils and burns everything," Ahmed said.
Their children who were going to school in Yemen sit next to them, still in a state of shock by what they witnessed. All their life they had only known Yemen as home.
No money
Not far from the Hashi family, sits Roda Hassan, 25, alone with her legs crossed and face covered in a veil. It is her first time in Somaliland, and with no relatives here she is worried, her dark brown eyes staring into the distance barely affording a blink.
"This town is expensive. I have no money to rent a place or buy food," Hassan told Al Jazeera, blocking the sun's rays from her eyes with her hand.
For her, life here is difficult but better than what she experienced in Yemen since the fighting started.
"Life changed after the first bomb dropped. Armed men started looting and shooting. They even raped some women. You could not move anywhere. I'm very lucky to have escaped with my life," Hassan said.

A member of the Somaliland coastguard ties up a boat in Berbera [AP]

Not recognised by the rest of world as a nation, Somaliland has welcomed thousands of refugees but that may change if the international community doesn't step in to help this self-declared country.
"It will be impossible for us to cope if people continue coming. We are at full capacity," Somaliland's immigration commissioner, Colonel Mohamed Ali Yusuf, told Al Jazeera at his office in Hargeisa, capital of the breakaway region. "This is an international issue and, as such, the world needs to do more. We can't deal with this on our own." 
With more than half of Yemen's 22 governorates affected by coalition air strikes, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said last month it was preparing to receive as many as 130,000 refugees by boat from Yemen to African countries, namely Djibouti and Somalia.
In Djibouti over the next six months, the UN's refugee agency said it was making contingency plans to receive as many as 30,000 refugees. Djibouti is already home to nearly 15,000 people who fled Yemen.
In Somaliland and Puntland - a semi-autonomous region in northeastern Somalia - the UN said it has already started preparing to receive up to 100,000 war refugees.
Economic hit
Berbera is a historic trading port that connects the Horn of Africa to the Gulf countries and beyond. It is not only refugees who have been affected by the turmoil in Yemen.
Away from the temporary refugee shelter, traffic at the port has ground to a halt. Men stand idle with nothing to do.
With Gulf countries' appetite for Somali livestock at an all-time high, millions of animals used to pass through the port destined for the Middle East, the main revenue generator for Somaliland. But fighting has delayed exports indefinitely.
The conflict couldn't have come at a worse time for traders. It was the high season for animal exports with the Muslim Holy month of Ramadan less than a month away.
Standing on the dock next to the white-painted, Yemen-flagged Asal-Aldin ship practicing his Somali with his crew members is Yemeni national Ali Mohamed.
A father of seven, Mohamed, 45, is praying for the bombing to stop so he can resume his trade. His 22-crew ship used to travel between Yemen and Somalia at least four times a month. But since March, they have been stuck idle at Berbera port.

Yemen refugees flock to overcrowded camps in Djibouti

Every month his vessel used to transport at least 8,000 animals to Yemen. Now that is a distant memory.
"No work, my family is in Yemen. I have to earn money to support my family, but the war stopped us leaving Berbera," Mohamed told Al Jazeera in broken Somali.
Just before the start of coalition air strikes, a much-needed expansion and maintenance work started on the port.
"The war has not been good to us. Financially it has affected us badly. Every day we don't export animals or goods we lose a lot of money," Ali Omar, Berbera port's long-serving manager, told Al Jazeera.
With no sign of the Houthi rebels losing ground in Yemen and the coalition continuing its bombing, both refugees and traders are only left to hope and pray.
"If the bombs don't kill my family then maybe they will die from lack of food, because without work I can't buy them food," said Mohamed.

Source: Al Jazeera

Spying, lying, and the end of the US Patriot Act

Smoke spews from a World Trade Center tower on September 11, 2001 after hijacked planes attacked [Getty Images]

Washington DC, United States - For the first time since the September 11, 2001 attacks triggered a massive US counterterrorism response, the US Congress is curtailing the broad electronic spying authority given to the National Security Agency.
Congress passed new legislation, the US Freedom Act, that would narrow domestic-spying permission enacted 14 years ago in the now-expired Patriot Act, ushered in during the fear-driven days following the attacks on New York and Washington, DC.
"It really is historic. It's a new day. We haven't seen anything like this since 9/11," said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Project at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.
Several factors account for the change in domestic US politics and consequent shift in policy, analysts say.
The Patriot Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by former president George W Bush, gave the government expansive, some argue unchecked, powers. 

The future of mass surveillance

It was intended to give US spy agencies and the FBI electronic surveillance authorities needed to go after al-Qaeda and other armed groups overseas.
Concern at the time among US lawmakers was that American intelligence agencies had failed to warn of the September 11 attacks.
"After 9/11, a lot of authorities were given to the national security establishment to protect the country," Carrie Cordero, director of national security studies at Georgetown University Law Center, told Al Jazeera.
"We are now 14 years past 9/11. We are a generation ahead and the public dialogue has shifted," said Cordero.
'Making us afraid'
Few expressed doubts in 2001 about the law's infringement on Americans' constitutionally protected privacy rights and civil liberties. 
Then senator Russ Feingold was the only senator to vote against the bill. For a nation still reeling from horrific tragedy, national security trumped those concerns.
Over time, however, the Patriot Act came to be seen by critics as part of the US' overreaction to 9/11. But despite growing controversy and concerns raised by civil rights activists over the years, the law had been repeatedly renewed in various forms by Congress and President Barack Obama - until now.
On Sunday, a small group of legislators led by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon succeeded in blocking senate renewal of the provisions of the Patriot Act, which allowed bulk phone data collection of all Americans in the US.
"The people who argue that the world will end and that we will be overrun by jihadists tonight are trying to use fear," Senator Paul said in fiery remarks to the senate during the debate. "They want to take just a little bit of our liberty, but they get it by making us afraid."

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RELATED: 9/11's secret 28-page history

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"This is a programme that is not making us safer," Senator Wyden said as the clock towards expiration wound down on the Patriot Act.
For civil libertarians who have long disliked the Patriot Act a major breakthrough came when former NSA analyst Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that the NSA had been secretly and systematically collecting massive amounts of phone data on Americans.
Snowden's revelations caused public outrage.
"No one was surprised that the NSA was collecting phone records. What's surprising is that they were authorised to collect the records of an entire nation," Harley Geiger, senior counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington-based advocacy group, told Al Jazeera.
"The only reason the bulk collection lasted as long as it did is because it was under secret law."
'End the dragnet'

Resetting the 'Net: Snowden and surveillance

Geiger said a key development came as recently as May 7.
"A federal judge on the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union that the NSA's systematic collection of Americans' phone records was, in fact, illegal," he said.
In its decision, the court avoided the constitutional issues by ruling that - executive branch claims notwithstanding - the "bulk telephone metadata programme is not authorised" by the Patriot Act.
A week later, the US House of Representatives, with support from the Obama administration, passed the USA Freedom Act by a 338-88 vote.  The Senate approved the bill Tuesday by a vote of 67-32, sending it to the president for his signature.
After losing a series of amendments designed to weaken reforms in the House bill, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell slammed Obama's conduct of the US's so-called war on terror.
"While the president has reflexively clung to campaign promises from 2008, Al Qaeda hsa metastasized and poses threats to us around the world."
The bill would conform US law to the court ruling by narrowing the expired Patriot Act authorities to prohibit bulk collection of Americans' phone data. The senate began debate on the measure on Monday.
Advocates for reform of US mass surveillance laws view the bill as a first step.
"The goal of the USA Freedom act is to end the nationwide dragnet. It is merely shaving off the most egregious uses [of the Patriot Act]," Geiger said.
In addition to restricting bulk-data collection under the controversial Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the bill includes new transparency provisions requiring declassification of significant Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court opinions currently withheld from the public.
"We currently have secret laws in the United States where a secret court interprets the secret laws in a way the rest of the public does not know and cannot react to," Geiger said.

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RELATED: Is the US government spying on Americans?

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Observers see an irrevocable shift in the political winds.  Goitein said Congress was unwilling to see the bulk collection programme continue.
Cordero agreed that political support for mass surveillance is shifting. "Members of Congress receive information about national security threats, and they have to make a judgement about whether these authorities are worthwhile."

Nearly 3,000 people were killed on September 11, 2001 [AP]

Reform advocates are looking ahead to the next political battle over a 2017 expiration of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, which provides for substantial data-gathering on Americans via overseas sources.
"The pattern we see, once these programmes are started up, the claim is always made that it's absolutely essential to foiling terrorist plots. But once someone independent starts looking into it, with access to files and classified information, we find out that none of it is true," Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the CATO Institute, a libertarian think-tank in Washington, told Al Jazeera.
"The question now is are we going to move on to have real debate, not just about this programme but the entire interconnected architecture of surveillance and monitoring that has been constructed over the last 14 years," Sanchez said.

Source: Al Jazeera

Muslim woman alleges discrimination on US flight

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Ahmad's account of the incident has gone viral on social media [WikiMedia/Russavia]

A US airline has been accused of discrimination after a Muslim woman was allegedly told that she could not have an unopened can of cola because she could use it as a weapon.
Tahera Ahmad, who wears a headscarf, was travelling on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to the capital Washington DC on Saturday when she said a flight attendant refused to give her an unopened can while other passengers were given so.
When Ahmad asked the attendant for an explanation, she was told that she could not be given one for security reasons.
The woman, who works as a Muslim chaplain connected to Northwestern University, posted her account on social media, where it went viral and was reported on by media outlets globally.
"I can't help but cry on this plane because I thought people would defend me and say something," Ahmad wrote in a Facebook post.
Both the attendant involved and the plane's pilot later apologised for the incident, Ahmad wrote in a later post.
United Airlines released a statement on Saturday evening saying there had been a "misunderstanding regarding a can of diet soda", and said they had tried several times to accommodate Ahmad's requests.
"The inflight crew met with Ms Ahmad after the flight arrived in Washington to provide assistance and further discuss the matter," the statement said, adding that the airline had apologised for the incident.
The incident has sparked outrage on social media, with calls for boycotting the airline and tens of thousands of mentions using various hashtags on Twitter, according to analytics site Topsy. The story was also widely shared on Facebook.

Muslim woman alleges discrimination on US flight

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Ahmad's account of the incident has gone viral on social media [WikiMedia/Russavia]

A US airline has been accused of discrimination after a Muslim woman was allegedly told that she could not have an unopened can of cola because she could use it as a weapon.
Tahera Ahmad, who wears a headscarf, was travelling on a United Airlines flight from Chicago to the capital Washington DC on Saturday when she said a flight attendant refused to give her an unopened can while other passengers were given so.
When Ahmad asked the attendant for an explanation, she was told that she could not be given one for security reasons.
The woman, who works as a Muslim chaplain connected to Northwestern University, posted her account on social media, where it went viral and was reported on by media outlets globally.
"I can't help but cry on this plane because I thought people would defend me and say something," Ahmad wrote in a Facebook post.
Both the attendant involved and the plane's pilot later apologised for the incident, Ahmad wrote in a later post.
United Airlines released a statement on Saturday evening saying there had been a "misunderstanding regarding a can of diet soda", and said they had tried several times to accommodate Ahmad's requests.
"The inflight crew met with Ms Ahmad after the flight arrived in Washington to provide assistance and further discuss the matter," the statement said, adding that the airline had apologised for the incident.
The incident has sparked outrage on social media, with calls for boycotting the airline and tens of thousands of mentions using various hashtags on Twitter, according to analytics site Topsy. The story was also widely shared on Facebook.

Imam: US anti-Islam protests brought solidarity

Around 200 protesters, some of them armed, demonstrated outside the mosque in the US city of Phoenix.

An imam of a mosque hit by armed anti-Islam protests has said that the incidents had led to an outpouring of support from local churches and other communities.
Usama Shami, the president of the Islamic Community Center of Phoenix, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that armed protesters had intimidated worshippers but "there had been positives".
Hundreds of anti-Islam protesters, some of them armed with assault rifles and dressed in military fatigues, picketed the mosque in the US state of Arizona, carrying placards depicting Prophet Muhammad and shouting slurs at worshippers and counterprotesters.
The two groups of demonstrators were separated by a column of US police and no incidents of violence were reported.
Organisers of the anti-Islam march chose the mosque because two men who carried out a failed attack on a US exhibition showcasing drawings of Islam's prophet in the US state of Texas last month had attended services there.
Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi were shot dead during the course of the attack in Dallas on May 4, for which the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group claimed responsibility.
Imam Shami told Al Jazeera the two had attended services but were not affiliated with the mosque and were not influenced by its teaching.
Below is an edited transcript of Al Jazeera's interview with Shami:
Al Jazeera: How did you find out the protest was going to take place?
Shami: We were contacted by the local and federal authorities. There was an initial protest on May 17 but it did not get a lot of attention and there was no incident at that time.
Al Jazeera: Have there been previous incidents at the mosque?
Shami: We've had individuals who would come in front of the mosque and make hate speech but it was never something that was organised.
Al Jazeera: Did the Garland [Dallas] shooters have any affiliation with the mosque?
Shami: They used to attend, but it's like any other mosque, anyone can come. One of them came to the mosque in 2005 and again in 2011, when he was put under probation he stopped coming. The other man, Mr Soofi, came infrequently to the mosque, so maybe that's why they were trying to connect the two men to the mosque.
The mosque had no influence on them and one of them was under surveillance, the FBI were watching him.
Al Jazeera: Have the authorities been supportive of the mosque?
Shami: The local authorities, the Phoenix police in particular, have been very supportive. They've been at these events in force trying to maintain the peace. They were worried about a possible incident with the protesters who had weapons, they thought they might use those weapons.
Al Jazeera: What was it like for worshippers seeing armed men outside the mosque?
Shami: They felt intimidated, especially the ones with children. Some of them stayed at home, afraid of exposing their kids to that hatred. Also they didn't know what would happen, we don't want children and families being hurt. They were very intimidated ... these guys [anti-Islam protesters] had assault rifles.
Al Jazeera: Do you think anti-Islamic sentiment is becoming more pervasive?
Shami: The images coming from the Middle East at the moment, especially with ISIL, have had a psychological impact on people. There's also an entire industry in the US to promote Islamophobia and to make money out of it. The Islamophobes are taking advantage of people who are not very well informed ... you have groups who want Americans to be scared of their Muslim neighbour.
Al Jazeera: What role have US politicians played in perpetuating that feeling?
Shami: A lot of Tea Party Republicans get their funding from sources that support Islamophobes. Many politicians get money from Islamophobic groups ... you have this industry that feeds on itself.
Al Jazeera: How have local communities responded?
Shami: The same night the protests happened, a church down the street organised a counterprotest and the number of counterprotesters they got was higher than the anti-Muslim ones. Yesterday we had an event where various interfaith groups came to the mosque, about 900 people, some of them with flowers. A lot of people realise they need to speak against hate ... there is a positive side to this.

Usama Shami said worshippers were intimidated but the local community had spoken out against the anti-Islam protests [AP]

Source: Al Jazeera

Interpol issues six wanted person alerts in FIFA probe

Warner is among nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives charged by the US Department of Justice [File pic - Reuters]

Interpol has placed six people, including two former FIFA officials and four corporate executives, on its most wanted list on racketeering and corruption charges at the request of US authorities.
The former FIFA officials are ex-vice president Jack Warner and former FIFA executive committee member, Nicolás Leoz.
The Red Notices issued by Interpol are not international arrest warrants.
However, they are used by the organisation to inform its member countries that an arrest warrant has been issued for an individual by a judicial authority and who seeks the location and arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition or similar lawful action.
Warner is among nine FIFA officials and five corporate executives charged by the US Department of Justice with running a criminal enterprise that involved more than $150m in bribes.
Meanwhile, FIFA President Sepp Blatter is being investigated by US authorities as part of their corruption inquiry into football's governing body, the New York Times (NYT) has reported.
Blatter, who announced on Tuesday that he will be resigning from his position, has not been directly implicated in the parallel US and Swiss criminal investigations into FIFA, which were announced last week.
Unidentified US law enforcement officials, however, told the NYT that "they were hoping to win the cooperation of some of the FIFA officials now under indictment and work their way up the organisation" in a bid to build a case against Blatter.

Blatter to resign as FIFA president

Nine FIFA officials and five business executives were indicted by the US last Wednesday on corruption charges, with seven arrested in Zurich ahead of FIFA's annual congress on Friday.
Blatter announced his decision to resign on Tuesday, just four days after the congress that saw him win a fifth term as the body's president.
"I cherish FIFA more than anything and I want to do only what is best for FIFA and for football," Blatter said at a news conference in Zurich on Tuesday.
"FIFA needs a profound overhaul. I have decided to lay down my mandate at an extraordinary elective Congress.
"I will continue to exercise my functions as FIFA president until that election."
Domenico Scala, head of FIFA's independent audit and compliance committee, said there would need to be four months' notice for any new presidential election.
At the FIFA meeting in Zurich last Friday, Blatter, 79, had been re-elected when his only rival, Jordan's Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, withdrew after gaining 73 votes to Blatter's 133 in the first round of voting.
A day later, Blatter came out fighting, implying that the US timed the announcement of a major corruption probe to try to scupper his re-election bid.
Meanwhile, Switzerland's Office of Attorney General (OAG) has confirmed that it is not investigating Blatter.
Swiss authorities have launched a separate criminal investigation into the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups that are set to be held in Russia and Qatar.

ISIL pushes for control of Iraq's Anbar province

The Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) group is continuing to advance across Iraq's Anbar province after consolidating its grip on areas around the recently seized city of Ramadi.
ISIL was pushing further east of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, on Saturday, taking the town of Husaybah. There was also fierce fighting in Khalidiya, a town just a few kilometres from the Habbaniyah military base.
"ISIL wants to take control of this base which would serve as a staging ground for the Iraqi army and Shia paramilitary forces when they launch a counter-offensive against the group," Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Baghdad, said.
Shia militias and the Iraqi army were being deployed to Khalidiya on Saturday, in a strategic move aimed at preventing ISIL from advancing on Habbaniyah, our correspondent said.
The spokesperson for the Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella organisation for Shia militiamen, told Al Jazeera the counter-offensive against ISIL would begin in the coming days.
He said thousands of troops were expected to be involved.
ISIL has also opened a new front in the town of Haditha, the only significant town in government hands in western Anbar, targeting a number of government checkpoints.
US strategy criticised
ISIL seized towns and cities in northern Iraq last summer and have since expanded their territory in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

US: No plans to alter strategy in fight against ISIL

A US-led coalition has since launched air strikes in a bid to stop the group's advance, with limited success.
On Thursday, ISIL took over the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The last government-held border post between the two countries has also fallen.
The US administration has downplayed ISIL's recent gains but calls are growing for a review of the strategy against the group.
The Iraqi vice president, Ayad Allawi, has said publicly that the aerial campaign is simply not working.
"There are no good news from the international coalition, and there is no strategy, so I asked the Iraqi leaders to put a strategy together and to present it to the coalition," he said. "The international coalition meets but without any results, the air strikes do not solve the problem."
Sunni politicians say they will only aid efforts to combat ISIL if they get larger say in the running of the country.
"Sunnis want to take control of their own territories, govern their own territories, be responsible for their own security," our correspondent said. "For them, this is the way forward. But there is opposition in Baghdad."

Source: Al Jazeera

after consolidating its grip on areas around the recently seized city of Ramadi.
ISIL was pushing further east of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar, on Saturday, taking the town of Husaybah. There was also fierce fighting in Khalidiya, a town just a few kilometres from the Habbaniyah military base.
"ISIL wants to take control of this base which would serve as a staging ground for the Iraqi army and Shia paramilitary forces when they launch a counter-offensive against the group," Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Baghdad, said.
Shia militias and the Iraqi army were being deployed to Khalidiya on Saturday, in a strategic move aimed at preventing ISIL from advancing on Habbaniyah, our correspondent said.
The spokesperson for the Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella organisation for Shia militiamen, told Al Jazeera the counter-offensive against ISIL would begin in the coming days.
He said thousands of troops were expected to be involved.
ISIL has also opened a new front in the town of Haditha, the only significant town in government hands in western Anbar, targeting a number of government checkpoints.
US strategy criticised
ISIL seized towns and cities in northern Iraq last summer and have since expanded their territory in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

US: No plans to alter strategy in fight against ISIL

A US-led coalition has since launched air strikes in a bid to stop the group's advance, with limited success.
On Thursday, ISIL took over the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The last government-held border post between the two countries has also fallen.
The US administration has downplayed ISIL's recent gains but calls are growing for a review of the strategy against the group.
The Iraqi vice president, Ayad Allawi, has said publicly that the aerial campaign is simply not working.
"There are no good news from the international coalition, and there is no strategy, so I asked the Iraqi leaders to put a strategy together and to present it to the coalition," he said. "The international coalition meets but without any results, the air strikes do not solve the problem."
Sunni politicians say they will only aid efforts to combat ISIL if they get larger say in the running of the country.
"Sunnis want to take control of their own territories, govern their own territories, be responsible for their own security," our correspondent said. "For them, this is the way forward. But there is opposition in Baghdad."

Source: Al Jazeera

Iraqi army in counter-offensive near ISIL-held Ramadi

Iraqi government forces backed by Shia militias have launched a counter-offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) near the central city of Ramadi.
The Iraqi army, backed by US air support on Saturday, pounded ISIL positions near Ramadi, which ISIL fighters captured last week in an embarrassing setback for the Iraqi government and the US-led coalition against the group.
Ramadi, situated about 110km west of Baghdad, is the capital of Anbar province. The strategic city extends along the Euphrates River and is the largest city in the governorate.
Iraqi troops and Shia fighters also deployed to defend Khalidiya, a town just a few kilometres from the Habbaniyah military base. The surroundings of the base saw heavy fighting on Saturday.

"ISIL wants to take control of this base which would serve as a staging ground for the Iraqi army and Shia paramilitary forces when they launch the counter-offensive against the group," Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Baghdad, said.

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The spokesperson for the Popular Mobilisation Forces, an umbrella organisation for Shia militiamen, told Al Jazeera that thousands of troops were involved in the counter-offensive against ISIL.
ISIL has also opened a new front in the town of Haditha, the only significant town in government hands in western Anbar, targeting a number of government checkpoints.
US strategy criticised
ISIL seized towns and cities in northern Iraq last summer and have since expanded their territory in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.
A US-led coalition has since launched air strikes in a bid to stop the group's advance, with limited success.
On Thursday, ISIL took over the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The last government-held border post between the two countries has also fallen.
The US administration has downplayed ISIL's recent gains but calls are growing for a review of the strategy against the group.
The Iraqi vice president, Ayad Allawi, has said publicly that the aerial campaign is simply not working.
"There is no good news from the international coalition, and there is no strategy, so I asked the Iraqi leaders to put a strategy together and to present it to the coalition," he said.
"The international coalition meets but without any results, the air strikes do not solve the problem."
Sunni politicians say they will only aid efforts to combat ISIL if they get a larger say in the running of the country.
"Sunnis want to take control of their own territories, govern their own territories, be responsible for their own security," our correspondent said.
"For them, this is the way forward. But there is opposition in Baghdad."

Source: Al Jazeera

The Gaza that you didn't know

Things were very different in July 2014 during the last Gaza war.

CNN's Senior International Correspondent Nic Robertson first visited Gaza two decades ago. Since then he has returned many times.

Israeli jets were pounding the small strip of land, destroying buildings and killing fighters and civilians in response to Hamas rocket attacks.

Let me take you back for a moment: The war had really started a few hundred miles away in the West Bank, when three Israeli teens were abducted and murdered. Israel blamed Hamas.

The retaliatory abduction and murder of a Palestinian teen wound tensions in the region to a fever pitch.

There followed a dramatic escalation in the number of rockets Hamas was firing into Israel and after a failed attempt by militants to storm into its territory, Israel launched the so-called Operation Protective Edge.

The war lasted six or so weeks and by the time a ceasefire was agreed, some 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 68 Israelis, mostly soldiers, had been killed.

Israeli official: Hamas a major obstacle in rebuilding Gaza 02:53

At its height, the crossing into Gaza was often closed, and slowed to a crawl at other times.

So, the first surprise was a relatively pain-free crossing from Israel through the Erez junction crossing, not a first but always nice.

To get in to Gaza, you need to be a credentialed aid worker or journalist -- some diplomats gain access too.

It's like an airport but you carry your own bags all the way. After passport control, there's no jet way to a waiting plane, instead long metal corridors funnel you to the entry turnstiles.

The logistics of getting into Gaza 01:46

The surprise was small but very pleasant.

At a turnstile, Israeli border guards remotely activated a door to the side and, with our bags teetering dangerously on an overladen cart, we wobbled through.

We'd been saved from humping and heaving them on and off the trolley through the turnstile.

Next came the kilometer-long cage that contains the concrete walkway to the Gazan gatekeepers.

Nice surprise two, a motorbike trailing a big baggage barrow was waiting.

Once loaded, we sped towards the Palestinian passport checkers, past a poster warning departing Palestinians not to be pressured by Israeli police.

Poster at the border crossing between Israel and Gaza warning Palestinians not to be intimidated by Israeli police.

As if a reminder were needed, trust between Palestinian and Israeli officials is at a low ebb. The sprawling but secure crossing complex is a sterile statement on how that gulf is bridged.

I won't count the surprises, but for the record the next is number three.

Banksy -- the elusive British graffiti artist -- had been to Gaza recently. Before anyone noticed, he sneaked in, left his mark, and was gone. There were four works, and by chance we drove past a couple. One has already been impounded by the police.

Controversy surrounds ownership: Banksy gifted them to Gaza, while in New York or London they could have made him a tidy six or seven-figure sum.

I saw his graffiti cat, sprayed on a house wall and freshly caged. His lucky "owner" had just erected a chicken coop structure -- a wood-and-wire mess -- around the artwork.

A Gazan man erects a chickenwire cage around a Banksy graffiti artwork.

It looked to me like it would barely keep out a fox -- never mind a wily cat burglar or committed thief. Anyway, it was a nice surprise and the cute cat put a smile on my face.

I met Gaza's youthful and spring-legged Parkour team too. Not at all what you'd expect in a strip more famed for fighters than sportsmen.

But there they were in their bright yellow T-shirts launching themselves in great death-defying salvos atop the crumpled concrete and angry twisted rebar wreckage of last summer's war.

'I want to be free': Escaping Gaza through parkour 02:25

All 12 of them were committed to nothing more than the feeling of freedom in flight -- however brief -- and the hope that this sport could catapult them beyond Gaza's borders to a better life.

This possibility came maybe a little closer recently.

The team was spotted by the popular Middle East TV show "Arabs Got Talent," which might just have the pull to make their dreams come true and get them out of Gaza -- if they can show they've got real talent.

In a tiny strip just 41 kilometers (25 miles) long, by six to 12 kilometers across, crammed with 1.8 million people, most of them under 30, it's perhaps no surprise that conditions should throw up a Parkour team.

Competitive soccer, which for so many aspiring youngsters worldwide offers a ticket to riches, always seemed a nonstarter here.

In these youngsters, I found something else perhaps unsurprising: Unlike their parents, they have little understanding of the Israelis beyond the fence -- because they have no connection with them.

Gaza's Parkour team flip through the rubble.

Some of the team were still children, not even in high school, when Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005. Their parents were once able to pass to Israel for work with relative ease, but since withdrawal the wall has become a barrier only their imagination can leap. Beyond it they fear evils that ignorance amplifies.

Their parents had relationships with Israelis, understood them, knew them as people -- not as figures of fear and hate.

When I first came to Gaza two decades ago, the Erez junction crossing of today, with its steel corridors and caged walkways wasn't there. We walked down the road past long lines of Palestinians on their way to work in Israel. Today a tiny trickle passes through.

But here's the next surprise. Well it was to me anyway. Abdu Salim, in his sparkling, spanking new restaurant. There are pristine white tablecloths, creases neatly rising from the wood beneath, and clean, oh so clean.

That's of itself something a little unexpected amid the dust and, sometimes, squalor that can be Gaza. But the real surprise I had was when Abdu told me he bought this place as the bombs were still falling last summer.

It was a hideously brave investment in a semi-derelict property in the middle of a war wrapped in an enduring conflict.

But the gamble seems to be paying off, customers are coming not just because it's clean and tidy but because the food, particularly his shawarma, is so good. It has already achieved legendary status here. The best in town we were told.

What I wouldn't have guessed is where he earned his culinary chops. He told me it was in Israel -- at restaurants in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem -- where he used to work when the Erez crossing was more open.

Working in kitchens there taught him not just how to make great food but helped fuel and finance his ambition to open his own business. He employs 40 people now.

He remembers those days, and understands Israelis well enough, he thinks, to get along with them. He wants peace, not just because it's good for business but because he can see the two sides moving further apart. But he's not sure his leaders can deliver that peace.

Abdu wasn't the only person of his generation I talked to whose fears oscillate between anger at Israelis and frustration with their own leaders. They fear what the future holds for their children, whose estrangement from Israeli youth seems to be a one-way ticket to continued conflict.