CBN Gov. Stresses Need To Strengthen MSME

BY ANDREW IKEHI, DAILY TIMES, NIGERIA,  AUGUST 21, 2014 

In order to forestall the inevitable adverse socio-economic consequences of financial exclusion in the Nigerian economy, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr. Godwin Emefiele has canvassed the need for the strengthening of the nation’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
Emefiele who stated this during the opening ceremony of the two day 8th MSME Finance Conference holding at Sheraton Hotels, said that the counsel became imperative given the economic and financial viabilities of MSME to any given economy.
According to him, MSMEs, particularly the micro entrepreneurs account for more than 90 per cent of the MSMEs in Nigeria.
Besides, the CBN Governor attributed the sustained remarkable economic growth and development in the recent years in the country to the resilience of Nigerians, innovations of the nation enterprises as well as programmes of governments at all levels.
In the last seven years according to the CBN Boss, the nation’s economy expanded by an average of Seven per cent, adding that sub-sahara Africa’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) averaged 5.2 per cent.
He said that in the first quarter of 2014, Nigeria’s real GDP grew by 6.2 per cent which he noted was driven mainly by an 8.2 per cent growth in the non-oil sector.
“Sustaining this development strides with a balanced and inclusive economic growth will depend largely on the provision of affordable and efficient financial services to the MSMEs, particularly the micro entrepreneurs who account for more than 90 per cent of the MSMEs in Nigeria”.
While saying that that was part of the reasons why the CBN launched the N220 Billion MSME Development Fund, Emefiele disclosed that the fund would provide financial resources to the entrepreneurs across the country through participating Financial Institutions (PFIs).
“I am therefore very pleased that Mr. President has agreed to flag-off the disbursement of these funds tomorrow (Today) Emefiele said.

Liberia Gives Food In Slums Sealed To Stop Ebola

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Government officials handed out bags of rice and sachets of drinking water Thursday to residents of an impoverished slum in Liberia's capital where tens of thousands of people have been barricaded in an effort to stop the spread of Ebola.

International aid workers warned that more help was needed as the country battles not only the virulent disease but also hunger as travel restrictions have blocked food from getting to parts of the seaside capital.

In the tense township of West Point, hundreds of residents lined up to receive government provisions a day after authorities put up barbed wire barricades and enforced a blockade of the area that kept market traders from entering or leaving.

Prices were skyrocketing inside the community on a peninsula, with the price of water quadrupling in a matter of days in the slums where there is no clean running water amid steamy temperatures. "At the moment West Point is stuck at a standstill and is in an anarchy situation," said Moses Browne, who works for aid group Plan International in Liberia.

"We need food, we need water," he said, appealing for international support. "We're not fighting Ebola here, we are fighting hunger too." On Wednesday, residents of West Point clashed with police and soldiers hours after the neighborhood was sealed off, furious that they were being blamed and cut off from markets and jobs. The situation calmed down on Thursday, though fears remain about how much food and water will be brought into the half-mile-long (kilometer-long) peninsula.

By afternoon, hundreds of anxious residents lined up at the food distribution point to await their rations. The World Food Program said it would also begin distributing food in the area in the coming days.

Liberia is being hit especially hard by the dreaded virus that has killed 1,350 people in West Africa, accounting for 576 of the deaths. Several counties and districts in Sierra Leone and Liberia have been cordoned off, and there are concerns this is slowing the supply of food and other goods to these areas. The World Food Program is preparing to feed 1 million people affected by such travel restrictions.

In the United States, two aid workers who were infected in Liberia have recovered and were discharged from a hospital. Both Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol had received ZMapp, an experimental and unproven treatment for Ebola.

Three health workers are currently receiving the same treatment in Liberia — the first and so far only Africans to get the drug. They were showing "very positive signs of recovery," Liberia's information ministry said earlier this week.

A Spaniard who had contracted Ebola and also received the treatment died. The drug supply is now exhausted, the U.S. manufacturer has said. Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is sick and showing symptoms. To stop its spread, experts say, the sick should be isolated and not have any contact with the healthy. Overcrowded treatment centers, reluctance on the part of sick people to seek medical care, and burial practices that involve touching the dead have helped fuel the disease's spread.

A number of airlines have suspended flights to the affected countries, despite the World Health Organization's advice that Ebola is unlikely to spread through air travel. Guinea's president, Alpha Conde, met airline representatives and foreign diplomats on Wednesday to reassure them that Guinea is screening passengers leaving the country for fever and other symptoms, in line with WHO recommendations.

Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Wade Williams in Monrovia, Liberia; and Boubacar Diallo in Conakry, Guinea, contributed to this report.

Foley's Death Isn't Changing Views In Congress

Journalist James Foley receives applause from students at the Christa McAuliffe Regional Charter Public School in Framingham, Mass. Foley had been released a month prior after being detained for six weeks in Libya. Students at the school had written government leaders to work for his release. Foley was abducted in November 2012 while covering the Syrian conflict. Islamic militants posted a video showing his murder on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014, and said they killed him because the U.S. had launched airstrikes in northern Iraq.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For all its horror, the beheading of an American journalist in Syria appears unlikely to change lawmakers' minds about military intervention against Islamic State extremists. It's equally unclear whether the Obama administration will be asking them to back a new U.S. approach.

President Barack Obama said the United States wouldn't scale back its military posture in Iraq in response to James Foley's killing. But he offered no specifics Wednesday about what new steps he might take to protect additional captives and other Americans, and ward off what he described as the al-Qaida offshoot's genocidal ambitions.

The initial response from members of Congress was mixed, reflecting the divide of the American people. While all decried Foley's death, hawks, particularly Republicans, continued to assail the Obama administration's limited airstrikes in Iraq and its refusal to target Islamic State bases in neighboring Syria. The president's supporters voiced support for the current, cautious intervention in Iraq. No tea partiers or dovish Democrats who have cautioned against military action publicly changed position.

"The president's rhetoric was excellent, but he didn't outline steps to stop the slaughter," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of Obama's harshest foreign policy critics, said in a telephone interview. "The strategy should be to launch all-out air attacks in Iraq and Syria to defeat ISIL," he said, using an alternative acronym for the Sunni militants.

Interrupting his family vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Obama denounced the Islamic State as a "cancer" threatening the entire Middle East. And military planners weighed the possibility of sending a small number of additional U.S. troops to Baghdad. Still, Obama was vague about what more his administration would do, saying the U.S. will stand with others to "act against" the extremists.

"We will be vigilant and we will be relentless," he said. "When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done." That message was clearly inadequate for McCain, the Republican candidate Obama defeated for the presidency in 2008. The Arizona senator, who has clamored for years for U.S. action against government forces and extremists in Syria, said the Islamic State has "erased the boundaries between Syria and Iraq, and we must treat it the same way." Otherwise, he said, the militants will enjoy a sanctuary in Syria where they can regroup and create more chaos.

Other Republicans echoed that message. "The Iraqis have already demonstrated that they cannot stop them on their own," said Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan., a House Intelligence Committee member and former Army officer. "The president's current path of action has been far too limited to make a difference."

Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said the U.S. must aggressively arm the Islamic State's opponents. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called Obama's approach "piecemeal."

Some Democrats, too, pushed for expanding U.S. military action into Syria. "Otherwise, they will continue to threaten Americans and the interests of our country," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. Others, however, expressed caution and said the president was reacting appropriately.

Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and House Intelligence Committee member, said the administration has to be on guard against mission creep after launching operations to protect Americans and Iraqi infrastructure, provide humanitarian relief and solidify Iraq's new government.

"The mission already crept a bit," Schiff said in a telephone interview. "The administration would be wise to not get sucked in. That's going to be very hard." He said Foley's death "brings home in the most horrifically graphic terms what a scourge" the Islamic State is, but it doesn't provide a broader lesson for U.S. policy.

"If they have time to consolidate their gains, they will attack us. If we take the fight to them, they will attack us," Schiff said.

Israeli Airstrike Kills 3 Senior Hamas Leaders

Graphic tracks fighting and cease-fires in the latest Israel-Palestinians war. 2c x 5 inches; 2c x 5 inches; 96.3 mm x 127 mm;

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed three senior commanders of the Hamas military wing on Thursday, the group said, in what is likely to be a major blow to the organization's morale and a significant achievement for Israel's intelligence agency.

The pre-dawn strike leveled a four-story house in the southern town of Rafah, killing six people, including the three senior military commanders, identified by Hamas as Mohammed Abu Shamaleh, Raed Attar and Mohammed Barhoum.

Israel said Abu Shamaleh had been the top Hamas commander in southern Gaza, overseeing fighters there during the current war. Attar was in charge of weapons smuggling into Gaza and the construction of attack tunnels, the Israeli military said.

In 2006, Attar was involved in the capture of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Schalit, through such a tunnel, said the statement. It did not refer to Barhoum. The Rafah attack came just a day after an apparent Israeli attempt to kill the top Hamas military leader, Mohammed Deif, in an airstrike on a house in Gaza City.

Deif's wife and an infant son were killed in that strike, but the Hamas military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said Deif was not in the targeted home at the time and was alive. The back-to-back targeting of top Hamas military leaders came after indirect Israel-Hamas negotiations in Cairo on a sustainable truce broke down.

As talks ran aground on Tuesday, Gaza militants resumed rocket fire on Israel, even before the formal end of a six-day truce at midnight that day. Since then, Hamas and other groups have fired dozens more rockets, and Israeli aircraft have struck dozens of targets in Gaza, a sign that prospects for a resumption of the Cairo talks are slim.

Despite the crisis, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was holding talks in Qatar on Thursday with the top political leader of Hamas in exile, Khaled Mashaal, and the emir of Qatar. Before the collapse of the truce talks, Abbas had planned to use the meetings in Qatar to urge Mashaal and his Qatari backers to support an Egyptian cease-fire plan.

Hamas has since rejected the Egyptian proposal, saying it contained no specific commitments by Israel to ease the border blockade of Gaza. The blockade had been imposed by Israel and Egypt after the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007.

Hamas leaders said they could not return to Gaza from Cairo with a deal they feared would simply restore the closure regime that was in place before the start of the latest round of fighting on July 8. The border restrictions prevent most Gazans from traveling outside the crowded coastal strip and bar most exports.

Over the past six weeks, more than 2,000 Gaza residents have been killed and about 100,000 left homeless, according to figures by the U.N. and Palestinian officials. Israel lost 67 people, all but three of them soldiers.

It was not clear if Thursday's targeted killing of the three Hamas leaders will prompt a change in the group's strategy or diminish its ability to fire rockets. Israel estimated that Hamas had about 10,000 rockets before the war and that it lost about two-thirds of its arsenal.

A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said in a statement Thursday that Israel "will not succeed in breaking the will of our people or weaken the resistance," and that Israel "will pay the price." Thursday's airstrike on the house in the Tel Sultan neighborhood of Rafah was carried out shortly before 3 a.m.

Gaza police said a number of Israeli aircraft were involved, and that at least 12 missiles hit the four-story building. The Israeli military declined comment on the report. In addition to the Hamas operatives, three others were killed, including a resident of the house and two neighbors, according to Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra.

At least six people, including four children and a 27-year-old man, were killed in three other airstrikes across Gaza, according to al-Kidra. Israel also hit at smuggling tunnels along the Gaza border with Egypt and at agricultural lands west of Rafah in the latest airstrikes.

The military said 18 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza since midnight Wednesday, compared to more than 210 over the previous 30 hours. One Israeli was seriously injured when a mortar hit south of the southern city of Ashkelon on Thursday, it said.

In a nationally televised address Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed little willingness to return to the negotiating table after six weeks of war with Hamas. "We are determined to continue the campaign with all means and as is needed," he said, his defense minister by his side. "We will not stop until we guarantee full security and quiet for the residents of the south and all citizens of Israel."

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry expressed "deep regret" over the breaking of the cease-fire. It said in a statement Wednesday that it "continues bilateral contacts" with both sides aimed at restoring calm and securing a lasting truce.

The Egyptian compromise proposal called for easing the Gaza blockade but not lifting it altogether or opening the territory's air and seaports, as Hamas has demanded. While the plan does not require Hamas to give up its weapons, it would give the Western-backed Abbas, whose forces were ousted by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, a foothold back in the territory, running border crossings and overseeing internationally backed reconstruction.

Some See Qatar's Hand In Collapse Of Gaza Talks

A traditional dhow floats in the Corniche Bay area with tall buildings of the financial district in the background, a day ahead of the start of AFC Asian Cup soccer tournament in Doha, Qatar. The explosions rocking the Gaza Strip may seem far removed from the flashy cars and skyscrapers of ultra-rich Qatar, but efforts to end fighting between Hamas and Israel could hinge on how the tiny Gulf state wields its influence over a militant group with few friends left.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The explosions rocking the Gaza Strip may seem far removed from the flashy cars and skyscrapers of ultra-rich Qatar, but efforts to end fighting between Hamas and Israel could hinge on how the tiny Gulf Arab state wields its influence over a Palestinian militant group with few friends left.

Qatar has been home to Hamas chief-in-exile Khaled Mashaal since 2012 and has carved out a role as a key financial patron for Gaza, buying influence while shoring up an economy overseen by Hamas. That support is prompting accusations that Qatar helped scuttle a lasting truce in the monthlong Gaza war, piling on pressure as the U.S. ally finds itself increasingly isolated as larger Mideast powers marginalize Islamists following the Arab Spring

An official from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement suggested Wednesday that Qatar torpedoed the peace talks. After signs of progress last week, Hamas negotiators returned to the table after consultations in Qatar with new conditions — prompting a similar response by Israel, he said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the negotiations publicly, said the experience indicated the Qataris "have no interest" in seeing Egyptian-led talks succeed, and that Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood are working together to undermine Egypt.

The London-based pan-Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat separately quoted a senior Fatah official saying Qatar threatened to expel Mashaal if Hamas accepted an Egyptian peace proposal. It said Hamas demanded that Egypt grant Qatar a role in resolving the Gaza crisis, but Cairo rejected the idea until Qatar formally apologizes for its policies in Egypt since the military overthrow of Brotherhood-backed President Mohammed Morsi last summer.

Qatari officials could not be reached to comment on the claims. A Qatar-based spokesman for Hamas dismissed the Al-Hayat report as baseless and said it was an attempt to sabotage the negotiations. "This is nonsense ... The nature of relations between Qatar and Hamas are not like that," Hamas spokesman Husam Badran told The Associated Press.

Khaled al-Batsch, a representative of the Islamic Jihad militant group, also denied Qatari interference. "We never felt at any point that there was a Qatari presence in the talks," he said. An Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter with journalists, said he did not know if Qatar actively encouraged Hamas to take a hard line, but said Qatar was at least indirectly responsible for the talks' failure.

"Qatar unfortunately has been part of the problem. They are the major supporter of Hamas," the Israeli official said. Qatar at one point allowed an Israeli trade office to operate there — a rarity in the Arab world — before ordering it closed following a 2008 Israeli conflict with Hamas.

The outpost's former head, Eli Avidar, told the AP that he believes Qatar has "enormous influence" over Hamas and has been pushing Mashaal to take a much more extreme position in negotiations. "Right now Qatar is the main problem and definitely not part of the solution," he wrote in an email. "The ruling family in Qatar should understand that this is a dangerous game their emir is playing."

But in a development reflecting both Qatar's significance and influence over Hamas, the Gulf country's news agency reported that Abbas arrived Wednesday in Doha, where he was due to hold talks with Mashaal and the emir.

It is hardly the first time Qatar has been accused of taking an unpopular stance in the region. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Qatar in March, saying it failed to uphold its end of a security agreement to stop meddling in other nations' politics and backing groups threatening regional stability. Analysts widely saw that as a rebuke of Qatar's support for Islamist groups and its activist foreign policy, including its backing of the Al-Jazeera satellite network, which has nettled governments across the region.

Qatar's leaders reject suggestions that they are behind Hamas, and insist that the Gaza funding is intended for those who live there. "Qatar does not support Hamas. Qatar supports the Palestinians," Qatari Foreign Minister Khalid al-Attiyah told CNN in late July.

The former Qatari emir, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, has at least publicly attempted to promote reconciliation between Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority that governs the West Bank. He brokered an interim unity government between Abbas and Hamas in early 2012, but that was never implemented.

Before the year was out, the emir traveled to Gaza, becoming the first head of state to visit the seaside territory since Hamas militants seized control in 2007. He launched more than $400 million worth of projects, including plans for housing, a hospital and roads, and called for Palestinian unity.

Khalil Shaheen, a political analyst in Ramallah, suggested the idea that Qatar is solely in Hamas' camp is overblown. He said it has also provided funding for Abbas' government and has not tried to tie its Gaza aid to Hamas' military activities.

"There never was a real crisis between Qatar and the Palestinian Authority even during the worst times between Fatah and Hamas," Shaheen said. He said Qatar wanted a role in the ceasefire talks based on its good relations with Hamas and to show that Egypt is "not the only dominant player in the region."

For the U.S., Qatar plays a role that it often can't by acting as a go-between with groups deemed unsavory by Washington. It earlier this year brokered the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban operatives in Afghanistan.

U.S. State Dept. spokeswoman Marie Harf described the Qataris as "a key partner" in the effort to forge a peace deal in Gaza earlier this week, before talks collapsed. Responding to questions about whether they support terrorism and Hamas, she said they play a key role in getting Hamas to agree to a cease-fire.

"We need countries that have leverage over the leaders of Hamas who can help get a cease-fire in place, and Qatar certainly plays that role," she said.

Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Cairo, Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Karin Laub in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, and Abdullah Rebhy in Doha, Qatar, contributed reporting.

Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at www.twitter.com/adamschreck.

As US Strikes In Iraq Grow, Details Stay Thin

Displaced Iraqis settle at a new camp outside the Bajid Kandala camp in Feeshkhabour town, Iraq, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014. Some 1.5 million people have been displaced by fighting in Iraq since the Islamic State's rapid advance began in June, and thousands more have died. The scale of the humanitarian crisis prompted the U.N. to declare its highest level of emergency last week.

WASHINGTON (AP) — America has returned to war, of a sort, in Iraq with airstrikes that have intensified in recent days against Islamic State militants. But details about the execution of this limited campaign, which so far includes no reported U.S. ground combat, are thin.

Some questions and answers about the mission, which began Aug. 8: Q. What U.S. forces are involved? A. The specifics are hard to pin down in part because, as in any U.S. overseas conflict, many of the contributors work behind the scenes, sometimes in secret. We do know that the U.S. has about 750 military personnel in Iraq, not counting the 100 who have worked out of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad since before this crisis began.

None of the 750 are engaged in ground combat, but that does not mean they are not at risk. Among the 750 are about 160 at what the military calls "joint operation centers"— one in Baghdad and another in Irbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region that is near the center of the latest fighting. Those 160 military personnel are coordinating with Iraqi and Kurdish military officials in support of their efforts to defend Irbil, including the U.S. Consulate there, and surrounding territory from the Islamic State group.

Q. Who is carrying out the airstrikes? A. The only portion of the air campaign that has been discussed publicly in detail is the work being done by a range of Navy aircraft launching off the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf area. These include F/A-18F Super Hornets, which carried out the first strikes authorized by President Barack Obama.

Also flying are EA-6B Prowlers, which are electronic warfare planes designed to suppress enemy air defenses on the ground. Speaking Wednesday from aboard the Bush, Rear Adm. DeWolfe H. Miller III, commander of the carrier strike group, said in a telephone interview with Washington reporters that his F/A-18F planes have launched about 30 strikes in Iraq. He would not talk about any air defenses his pilots may have encountered over Iraq.

Q. What about the Air Force? The Air Force has said little about its combat role, although it is widely known inside the military that its F-15E attack planes as well as B-1 bombers and armed drones have participated in the campaign. The Air Force also flies aerial refueling missions that enable attack planes to remain over target areas for extended periods.

Q. Where are the Air Force planes flying from? A. U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for all U.S. military operations in Iraq and across the greater Middle East, will not say what bases are being used. It cites "host nation sensitivities," which is a diplomatic way of saying the U.S. government is acceding to the wishes of Gulf states like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates that insist their involvement in U.S. offensive military operations not be publicly acknowledged.

It is no secret inside the Pentagon that the U.S. is flying some of its Iraq missions from al-Udeid air base in Qatar. The U.S. has an advanced air operations center at al-Udeid but specifics are rarely acknowledged publicly; it used the center to coordinate air operations during the 2003-11 Iraq War as well as the war in Afghanistan.

The U.S. also has considerable ground and air forces in Kuwait. Q. How many targets have been bombed in Iraq so far? A. Central Command said Wednesday that it has conducted a total of 84 airstrikes since Aug. 8. That includes 14 on Wednesday against a range of Islamic State militant targets in the vicinity of a Tigris River dam just north of Mosul, the largest city in northern Iraq. Of the 84 strikes, 51 have been in support of Iraqi forces near the dam. President Barack Obama declared Monday that Iraqi and Kurdish forces had recaptured the dam.

Q. What else is being struck? A. U.S. warplanes have hit a wide range of Islamic State militant targets, including artillery, armored personnel carriers, armored Humvees, light trucks, mortar positions, checkpoints and roadside bomb emplacements.

There's the potential for the air campaign to expand into Syria, in which case the U.S. would have to call on aircraft and other elements of its military based in the Middle East and possibly Europe.

Nigeria's Kayode For WBA Title

The Golden Boy Promotions and Mayweather Promotions announced Wednesday, August 20, 2014, that the vacant WBA Heavyweight World Title will be held in the Main Event Golden Boy Live on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes. Nigeria's Lateef Kayode fighting out of Hollywood, California, will put his name in the history books when he meets Cuba's Luis Ortiz Thursday, September 11, 2014 for the WBA title at The Joint, Hard Rock Cafe $ Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada. Both fighters are unbeaten and Kayode will be Nigeria's second fighter to win the title in that division. The Kayode-Ortiz 12 round bout sponsored by Corona and O'reilly Auto Parts. Kayode is trained by 4-time trainer of the year Freddie Roach.

US Officials: Video Shows American's Beheading

Journalist James Foley responds to questions during an interview with The Associated Press, in Boston. A video by Islamic State militants that purports to show the killing of Foley by the militant group was released Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014. Foley, from Rochester, N.H., went missing in 2012 in northern Syria while on assignment for Agence France-Press and the Boston-based media company Global Post.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A grisly video released Tuesday shows Islamic State militants beheading American journalist James Foley, U.S. officials said, in what the extremists called retribution for recent U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. The militants threatened to kill another captive they also identified as an American journalist.

Separately, Foley's family confirmed his death in a statement posted on a Facebook page that was created to rally support for his release, saying they "have never been prouder of him." "He gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people," said the statement, which was attributed to Foley's mother, Diane Foley. She implored the militants to spare the lives of other hostages. "Like Jim, they are innocents. They have no control over American government policy in Iraq, Syria or anywhere in the world."

The statement was posted on a Facebook page called "Find James Foley," which his family has used a number of times since his November 2012 disappearance. Earlier Tuesday, a red-eyed but gracious Diane Foley said the family would not have an immediate statement when approached at her home by an Associated Press reporter. A priest arrived at the home several hours later.

Foley, a 40-year-old journalist from Rochester, New Hampshire, went missing in northern Syria while freelancing for Agence France-Presse and the Boston-based media company GlobalPost. The car he was riding in was stopped by four militants in a contested battle zone that both Sunni rebel fighters and government forces were trying to control. He had not been heard from since.

The video released on websites Tuesday appears to show the increasing sophistication of the Islamic State group's media arm and begins with scenes of President Barack Obama explaining his decision to order airstrikes.

It then cuts to a bald man in an orange jumpsuit kneeling in the desert, next to a black-clad militant with a knife to his throat. Foley's name appears in both English and Arabic graphics on screen, and he is wearing a clip-on microphone as he begins his statement. The scene is captured on at least two video cameras and has been edited in a professional style.

After the captive speaks, the masked man is shown apparently beginning to cut at the neck of the captive; the video fades to black before the beheading is completed. The next shot appears to show the captive lying dead on the ground, his head on his body. The video appears to have been shot in an arid area; there is no vegetation to be seen and the horizon is in the distance where the sand meets the gray-blue sky. The sound quality is sharp.

At the end of the video, a militant shows a second man, who was identified as another American journalist, Steven Sotloff, and warns that he could be next captive killed. Sotloff was kidnapped near the Syrian-Turkish border in August 2013 and freelanced for Time, the National Interest and MediaLine.

One U.S. official said the video appeared to be authentic, and two other U.S. officials said the victim was Foley. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the killing by name.

One of the officials said Obama was expected to make a statement about the killing on Wednesday. Obama was briefed about the video on Air Force One on Tuesday as he flew from Washington to resume his vacation on the resort island of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. A White House statement said he would continue to receive regular updates.

The beheading marks the first time the Islamic State has killed an American citizen since the Syrian conflict broke out in March 2011, upping the stakes in an increasingly chaotic and multilayered war. The killing is likely to complicate U.S. involvement in Iraq and the Obama administration's efforts to contain the group as it expands in both Iraq and Syria.

The group is the heir apparent of the militancy known as al-Qaida in Iraq, which beheaded many of its victims, including American businessman Nicholas Berg in 2004. The Islamic State militant group is so ruthless in its attacks against all people they consider heretics or infidels that it has been disowned by al-Qaida's leaders. In seeking to impose its harsh interpretation of Islamic law in the lands it is trying to control, the extremists have slain soldiers and civilians alike in horrifying executions — including mounting the decapitated heads of some of its victims on spikes.

Several senior U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the situation said the Islamic State very recently threatened to kill Foley to avenge the crushing airstrikes over the last two weeks against militants advancing on Mount Sinjar, the Mosul dam and the Kurdish capital of Irbil.

Both areas are in northern Iraq, which has become a key front for the Islamic State as its fighters travel to and from Syria. Since Aug. 8, the U.S. military has struck more than 70 Islamic State targets — including security checkpoints, vehicles and weapons caches. It's not clear how many militants have been killed in the strikes, although it's likely that some were.

Officials from the State Department and Pentagon contacted social media sites Tuesday to inform them of the video and ask them to remove it. White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the Obama administration asked the sites to "take appropriate action consistent with their stated usage policies."

In 2011, Foley was among a small group of journalists held captive for six weeks by the government in Libya and was released after receiving a one-year suspended sentence on charges of illegally entering the country. In a May 2011 interview about his experience, he recounted watching a fellow journalist being killed in a firefight and said he would regret that day for the rest of his life. At the time, Foley said he would "would love to go back" to Libya to report on the conflict and spoke of his enduring commitment to the profession of journalism.

"Journalism is journalism," Foley said during the AP interview, which was held in GlobalPost's office in Boston. "If I had a choice to do Nashua (New Hampshire) zoning meetings or give up journalism, I'll do it. I love writing and reporting."

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists estimated Tuesday that about 20 journalists are missing in Syria, and has not released their nationalities. In its annual report last November, CPJ concluded that the missing journalists are either being held and threatened with death by extremists, or taken captive by gangs seeking ransom. The group's report described the widespread seizure of journalists as unprecedented and largely unreported by news organizations in the hope that keeping the kidnappings out of public view may help in the captives' release.

Earlier Tuesday, GlobalPost CEO and co-founder Philip Balboni in a statement asked "for your prayers for Jim and his family." AFP chairman Emmanuel Hoog said the French news agency was "horrified" by the video and called Foley "a brave, independent and impartial journalist."

Associated Press Writers Julie Pace, Rik Stevens in Rochester, New Hampshire, and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

Suspected Ebola Cases In Germany, Austria

Police officers wearing protective masks receive instructions stand outside the job center in the Berlin district of Pankow, August 19, 2014. Image: Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

BERLIN - Several people have been taken for testing at European hospitals after fears that they may have contracted the deadly Ebola virus. 

 

German health authorities on Tuesday took to hospital and quarantined a 30-year-old West African woman who showed symptoms consistent with the deadly Ebola disease.

 

Dozens of other visitors and staff at a Berlin employment office building were also stopped from leaving for several hours as emergency services sealed off part of the street.

 

The mass-circulation Bild daily said the woman had fainted, that she hailed from Nigeria and that she said later that she had recently been in contact with people infected with Ebola.

 

Several people who had been with the woman inside the building in the northeastern district of Prenzlauer Berg were later also taken to hospital for testing.

 

Berlin fire department spokesman Rolf Erbe said that because the patient came from "an area affected by a highly contagious disease, we took these precautions".

 

He said the testing in the city's Charite hospital would take some time.

 

"The patient was isolated inside the ambulance, the staff took the appropriate protective measures. An emergency medic, the public health officer, arrived and the necessary precautions were taken," he added.

 

West Africa's Ebola epidemic, which has hit four nations since it broke out in Guinea early this year, is by far the deadliest since the virus was discovered four decades ago in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

Two men who arrived in Austria last week from Nigeria have been hospitalised on suspicion of carrying the Ebola disease, a regional Austrian governor said on Tuesday.

 

Blood samples were sent to a laboratory in Germany with results expected later on Tuesday, Josef Puehringer, governor of Upper Austria province said.

 

The two men were hospitalised in Voecklabruck after developing a fever following their return from Lagos and were currently being held in quarantine, Puehringer said.

 

Authorities were also trying to locate anyone the pair may have been in contact with in case further action was needed, he said.

 

The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday that the global death toll for the virus had reached 1,229, most of them in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, with four cases in Nigeria.

------AFP

Police, Protesters Collide Again In Ferguson

man is detained by police during a protest Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo. Brown's shooting has sparked more than a week of protests, riots and looting in the St. Louis suburb.

FERGUSON, MO. (AP) — The National Guard arrived in Ferguson but kept its distance from the streets where protesters clashed again with police, as clouds of tear gas and smoke hung over the St. Louis suburb where Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer.

Protesters filled the streets after nightfall Monday, and officers trying to enforce tighter restrictions at times used bullhorns to order them to disperse. Police deployed noisemakers and armored vehicles to push demonstrators back. Officers fired tear gas and flash grenades.

Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, who is in charge of security in Ferguson, said bottles and Molotov cocktails were thrown from the crowd and that some officers had come under heavy gunfire. At least two people were shot and 31 were arrested, he said. He did not have condition updates on those who were shot. Johnson said four officers were injured by rocks or bottles.

Demonstrators no longer faced the neighborhood's midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew, but police told protesters that they could not assemble in a single spot and had to keep moving. After the streets had been mostly cleared, authorities ordered reporters to leave as well, citing the risk from the reported gunfire.

A photographer for Getty Images was arrested while covering the demonstrations and later released. Two German reporters were arrested and detained for three hours. Conservative German daily Die Welt said correspondent Ansgar Graw and reporter Frank Herrmann, who writes for German regional papers, were arrested after allegedly failing to follow police instructions to vacate an empty street. They said they followed police orders.

Johnson said members of the media had to be asked repeatedly to return to the sidewalks and that it was a matter of safety. He said in some cases it was not immediately clear who was a reporter but that once it was established, police acted properly.

Citing "a dangerous dynamic in the night," Johnson also urged protesters with peaceful intent to demonstrate during the daytime hours. The latest clashes came after a day in which a pathologist hired by the Brown family said the unarmed black 18-year-old suffered a bullet wound to his right arm that may indicate his hands were up or his back was turned. But the pathologist said the team that examined Brown cannot be sure yet exactly how the wounds were inflicted until they have more information.

Witnesses have said Brown's hands were above his head when he was repeatedly shot by an officer Aug. 9. The independent autopsy determined that Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, the family's lawyers and hired pathologists said.

The St. Louis County medical examiner's autopsy found that Brown was shot six to eight times in the head and chest, office administrator Suzanne McCune said Monday. But she declined to comment further, saying the full findings were not expected for about two weeks.

A grand jury could begin hearing evidence Wednesday to determine whether the officer, Darren Wilson, should be charged in Brown's death, said Ed Magee, spokesman for St. Louis County's prosecuting attorney.

A third autopsy was performed Monday for the Justice Department by one of the military's most experienced medical examiners, Attorney General Eric Holder said. Holder was scheduled to travel to Ferguson later this week to meet with FBI and other officials carrying out an independent federal investigation into Brown's death.

The Justice Department has mounted an unusually swift and aggressive response to Brown's death, from the independent autopsy to dozens of FBI agents combing Ferguson for witnesses to the shooting. In Washington, President Barack Obama said the vast majority of protesters in Ferguson were peaceful, but warned that a small minority was undermining justice. Obama said overcoming the mistrust endemic between many communities and their local police would require Americans to "listen and not just shout."

Obama said he also spoke to Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon about his deployment of the National Guard in Ferguson and urged the governor to ensure the Guard was used in a limited way. Brown family attorney Benjamin Crump said Brown's parents wanted the additional autopsy because they feared results of the county's examination could be biased. Crump declined to release copies of the report.

"They could not trust what was going to be put in the reports about the tragic execution of their child," he said during Monday's news conference with forensic pathologist Shawn Parcells and Dr. Michael Baden, who has testified in several high-profile cases, including the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

The second autopsy, Crump said, "verifies that the witness accounts were true: that he was shot multiple times." Parcells, who assisted former New York City chief medical examiner Baden during the private autopsy, said a bullet grazed Brown's right arm. He said the wound indicates Brown may have had his back to the shooter, or he could have been facing the shooter with his hands above his head or in a defensive position across his chest or face.

"We don't know," Parcells said. "We still have to look at the other (elements) of this investigation before we start piecing things together." Baden said one of the bullets entered the top of Brown's skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when he suffered that fatal injury. The hired pathologists said Brown, who also was shot four times in the right arm, could have survived the other bullet wounds.

Baden also said there was no gunpowder residue on Brown's body, indicating he was not shot at close range. However, Baden said he did not have access to Brown's clothing, and that it was possible the residue could be on the clothing.

Crump also said that Brown had abrasions on his face from where he fell to the ground, but there was "otherwise no evidence of a struggle."

Associated Press writers Alan Scher Zagier in Ferguson, Jim Salter in St. Louis and David A. Lieb in Jefferson City contributed to this report.

Israeli Leader Recalls Team From Cese Fire Talks

Smoke rises after an Israeli strike hit Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014. The Israeli military said it carried out a series of airstrikes Tuesday across the Gaza Strip in response to renewed rocket fire, a burst of violence that broke a temporary cease-fire and endangered negotiations in Egypt over ending the month long war between Israel and Hamas. The fighting occurred some eight hours before a temporary truce was set to expire.

CAIRO (AP) — An Egyptian effort to broker an end to a monthlong war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip appeared to collapse Tuesday after Israel walked out on the talks in response to a barrage of Palestinian rocket fire.

The Israeli walkout occurred just hours before a midnight deadline, leaving the fate of the negotiations in question and raising the possibility of a resumption of heavy fighting. "The Cairo talks were based on an agreed premise of a total cessation of hostilities," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said. "When Hamas breaks the cease-fire, they also break the premise for the Cairo talks. Accordingly, the Israeli team has been called back as a result of today's rocket fire."

He would not say whether the team would return to Cairo, or whether Israel would resume cease-fire talks. There was no immediate Egyptian comment, but a Hamas official declared the talks over. The breakdown dealt a harsh blow to nearly a week of Egyptian-led diplomacy meant to end weeks of fighting that has killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian and U.N. officials. Sixty-seven Israelis, including three Israelis, have also been killed. It has been the heaviest fighting between Israel and Hamas since the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Hamas is seeking an end to a seven-year Israeli-Egypt blockade that has ravaged Gaza's economy, while Israel wants guarantees that Hamas will disarm. In nearly a week of indirect talks, Egypt appears to have made little headway in resolving the differences. Late Monday, it secured a 24-hour extension in a temporary truce to allow more time for a last-ditch attempt to reach a longer term deal.

An Egyptian compromise proposal calls for easing the blockade, but not lifting it altogether and opening the territory's air and seaports as Hamas has demanded. While the plan does not require Hamas to give up its weapons, it would give Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were ousted by Hamas in 2007, a foothold back in Gaza, running border crossings and overseeing internationally-backed reconstruction. Abbas' presence would minimize friction with Israel and allow large amounts of international aid to flow into Gaza for reconstruction.

But hours before Tuesday night's deadline, Palestinian militants fired three rockets into Israel. The military said the rockets landed in open areas near the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. Later, Israel said it intercepted two more rockets over southern Israel.

Hamas police officials in Gaza said there were at least 25 airstrikes across Gaza. Medical officials said seven people were wounded, including two children. In Cairo, the head of the Palestinian delegation, which is comprised of various factions, said no progress had been made in Tuesday's talks, but expressed hope they could still succeed.

"We gave the Egyptians our final position. We are waiting for them to come back with a response," said Azzam al-Ahmed, a close aide to Abbas. But a Hamas official said the talks had collapsed. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the negotiations with journalists.

Federman reported from Jerusalem.

Associated Press writer Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.