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America has ‘moral responsibility’ to intervene in Iraq, says Iraqi Kurdish foreign minister
By Mick Krever and Ken Olshansky, CNN
The foreign minister of Iraqi Kurdistan on Wednesday issued a desperate plea for American and Western intervention to halt the advance of ISIS extremists.
“We are left alone in the front to fight the terrorists of ISIS,” Falah Mustafa Bakir told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, in for Christiane Amanpour.
“I believe the United States has a moral responsibility to support us, because this is a fight against terrorism, and we have proven to be pro-democracy, pro-West, and pro-secularism.”
While much of the world's attention has recently been focused on Gaza, ISIS has been sweeping across northern Iraq.
Man saved JFK's life with a coconut
In August 1943, John F. Kennedy and his Navy crewmen were stranded on a Pacific island, after their PT was sunk.
They came across two islanders, Eroni Kumana and Biuka Gasa, who were among the allied scouts who helped keep watch on the Japanese.
Because they didn't speak English, Kennedy carved a message on a coconut, and the scouts risked their own lives to deliver it – making it possible for JFK and his crew to be rescued.
Eroni Kumana died last week at the age of 93.
Click above to watch.
Amid violence, Somali President pitches country as irresistible investment
By Mick Krever and Claire Calzonetti, CNN
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has a pitch.
“There is no investment without risk,” the president of Somalia – a country nearly synonymous with “failed state” – told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, in for Christiane Amanpour, on Tuesday.
“In Somalia, the level of risk right now we have – some people may claim that it's high, but it's not. It's a security situation that is improving. It is a state-building program that is improving. And there is a very bright future for Somalia and for the partners in Somalia.”
Optimism may as well be a job requirement for the leader of Somalia – especially for one who is pitching his country to investors at the first-ever U.S.-Africa summit in Washington.
When Mohamud was elected president in 2012, it was the first election the country had held on home soil in several decades.
The legacy of James Brady
Imagine a world where a presidential press secretary becomes more than a mouthpiece or a punching bag – he becomes a hero.
CNN’s Fred Pleitgen has the story of James Brady, who died Monday at the age of 73.
Click above to watch.
‘Traumatization is everywhere,’ says Red Cross President in Gaza
By Mick Krever, CNN
There is a deep feeling of trauma in Gaza, Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen from Gaza City.
“Traumatization is everywhere,” Maurer said. “I was shocked indeed by the impact of the shelling over the past couple of weeks on the neighborhood, but also a couple of hours later to see the children, women, and men who have been exposed to that shelling in hospitals – to see how wounded they were, and how difficult it was to cope with the numbers and the seriousness of the wounds of all those civilians who were in the hospitals I visited.”
Maurer was able to visit Gaza because of a shaky cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that seems to have held after going into effect early Tuesday.
During his visit, he tweeted that he had “never seen such massive destruction ever before” – strong words for the president of the Red Cross, who has no doubt seen quite some destruction in his time.
“Even if we are on the first day of a seemingly holding cease-fire, my clear opinion is that much more will have to be done over the days and weeks to come to scale up our operations in terms of health response, water and sanitation, sewage, economic livelihoods,” Maurer told Pleitgen. “A lot has been disrupted over the past couple of weeks.”
“In terms of response, I was on the one side positively surprised by the quality of work, by the engagement.”
“It will be a challenge. We are certainly motivated, and even more so after this visit today, to put as good as possible our resources into mobilizing this response.”
“We will have objective difficulties; we will have to engage with the Israelis in order to channel as much aid as possible through the crossing.”
Sierra Leone ‘not able to deal’ with Ebola outbreak, says Doctors Without Borders
By Mick Krever and Annabel Archer, CNN
Sierra Leone’s government “is not able to deal with this outbreak” of Ebola, an emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen from the epicenter of the largest-ever outbreak of the virus.
“We need much more help from international organizations – the WHO, the CDC, other organizations – to come to support the government,” Anja Wolz said from Kailahun, Sierra Leone.
There is a desperate need for international organizations “to send more infection control specialists, to send more epidemiologists here in Kailahun District.”
Century after start of WWI, Serbia strives to ‘be a part of the solution’
By Mick Krever, CNN
Ceremonies are taking place across Europe to mark 100 years since the outbreak of World War I.
Fifty heads of state gathered in Belgium to remember the German invasion, and Britain's declaration of war on Germany.
It was also supposed to be “the war to end all wars,” but a hundred years later, tensions in Europe are ratcheting up yet again, particularly between Russia and the West.
One country that is close to both sides is Serbia: a traditional ally of the Kremlin that is also looking to join the European Union.
“No one needs any more crisis in the heart of Europe,” Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, in for Christiane Amanpour, on Monday. “No one needs any more problems, any more clashes, any more fights.”
Israel calls ‘hypocrisy’ in international criticism
By Mick Krever, CNN
Criticism of Israel from some of its staunchest allies smacks of hypocrisy, the Israeli intelligence minister told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, in for Christiane Amanpour, on Monday.
“Sometimes I feel there is some hypocrisy in the criticism,” Yuval Steinitz said. “Maybe [the] United States, Britain, France, and NATO forces can teach us from their experience how to minimize collateral damage – for example, in their experience in Belgrade; their experience in Iraq; in Fallujah in Iraq; or in Afghanistan.”
“The IDF is doing more than any other armed forces, including Western armed forces, to minimize collateral damage.”
Could Israel face war crimes charges?
By Mick Krever, CNN
“Today the world stands disgraced.”
That is how the head of United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which runs shelters for Palestinians, reacted to the shelling of a Gaza school that was serving as a U.N. shelter for 3,000 Palestinians.
Twenty people were killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The United Nations blames Israel for the attack. Israel has not given a direct explanation, but says many Hamas rockets misfire and fall within Gaza; it also says that Hamas purposefully fire weapons from civilian areas and that the Israeli military does not target civilians.
UNRWA says that it had sent the school’s GPS coordinates to Israel 17 separate times to ensure it would remain safe.
“You see the Israelis shifting over the last several days to ground weapons,” CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr says. “You see them using tanks, mortars, artillery.”
“The real pinpoint accuracy comes if you’re going to go back to relying on airstrikes, because that type of munition – bombs out of aircraft – these days are guided to their target by a laser using GPS coordinates.”
Even the United States, Israel’s closest ally, said Thursday that the shelling of the school was “totally unacceptable and totally indefensible.”
Could Israel face war crimes charges?
Difficult road ahead for MH17 investigators
By Mick Krever, CNN
As Australian and other investigators reach the MH17 crash site in eastern Ukraine for the first time in more than a week, that country’s foreign minister laid out the difficult task ahead.
For one, there could be as many as 80 bodies still at the crash site, Julie Bishop told CNN’s Jim Clancy, in for Christiane Amanpour.
“Our first priority is to locate bodies and remains, remembering this is two weeks since this plane was shot down,” she said. “We know how many body bags were transferred from Kharkiv to the Netherlands, but we don't know how many bodies or remains are still on the site.”
“We won't know until our investigative teams are on the site and combing the crash site for remains. And that's the grisly and sobering task that they must undertake from now on.”
“We need to be on the site for probably weeks.”
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