palestinianliberator:

Israeli forces hours ago assassinated well-known Palestinian Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh during an invasion of Jenin.

Shireen was in full press gear, wearing a clearly marked PRESS jacket & helmet, and was shot in the exposed area just beneath her helmet by Israeli snipers on rooftops.

Shireen arrived in a vehicle with a number of other journalists, all in full PRESS gear, who made themselves known to the Israeli forces in the area. Shortly after they began filming, the journalists came under fire, confirmed by journalists at the scene who also came under fire to have come from the Israeli snipers.

After Shireen was hit, the other journalists couldn’t bring her to safety as Israeli forces kept shooting, despite the journalists, which I’ll stress again were all in CLEAR PRESS GEAR, shouting “PRESS!”.

Then, moments ago, Israeli forces also murdered a 17 year old Palestinian student in Ramallah with a shot to the heart.

Israel’s response will likely be:

1- Say she was killed by Palestinians 
2- Say “it’s unclear what happened” when more eyewitnesses give their statements
3- Still blame her or Palestinians one way or another, while still denying they’ve done anything wrong

Reporters on-site who came under fire say that “it was very clear that all gunfire was coming from Israeli forces, with there being no civilians or resistance forces in the area”.

May those Israeli terrorist see justice in both this life and the next.

Al Jazeera remembers the man who embodied South Africa’s long walk to freedom: http://aje.me/mandela

In Pictures: Building a new life from the mud in Myanmar

Many families displaced by cyclone Nargis in 2008 are now working in brick factories for $1 per day.

Kenya’s president says mall siege over

Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta has announced that the siege of Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall has ended, calling for three days of national mourning for the victims of the four-day national ordeal.

Kenyatta said on Tuesday that 67 people had been killed in the attacks by al-Qaeda linked gunmen, and added five members of the armed group had been killed by gunfire and another 11 suspects are currently being held in custody.

He did not, however, make any mention of whether any remaining hostages had been released by the attackers.

Kenya has “shamed and defeated our attackers” but the “losses are immense”, he said in a televised address to the nation.

Sixy-one civilians and six members of the security forces had died in the four-day siege which Somali based armed group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for.

“Al-Shabab are looking for relevance on an international scale - especially after a change of leadership - and is looking to send the message that they are still a force to be reckoned with,” Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Adow reported from Nairobi.

To continue reading, click here.

For more in-depth analysis, visit:

Al-Shabab: A war of vengeance?
Q&A: Al-Shabab defends Nairobi attack
Feature: ‘This is not Kenya’s war’
Ghanaian poet among Nairobi dead
In pictures: Moving to end Westgate siege

Al-Shabab claims deadly Nairobi mall attack | The Somali group has told Al Jazeera it carried out the deadly attack inside the Westgate shopping centre in neighbouring Kenya.

On its own Twitter account, al-Shabab, which has links to al-Qaeda, said it had “on numerous occasions warned the Kenyan government that failure to remove its forces from Somalia would have severe consequences”.

A senior Kenyan security official has put the death toll at 11. However, the Kenyan Red Cross says at least 30 people were killed and dozens injured.

In pictures: Nairobi shootout
Video footage of deadly gun battle

For more on this developing story, click here.

Syria’s War: UN report confirms sarin ‘war crime’ | UN investigators found "clear and convincing evidence’’ that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in an attack last month in Syria that killed hundreds of people. 

As expected, the report, released on Monday, did not say who launched the attack in rebel-held Damascus suburbs.

It said: “The environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used … in the Ghouta area of Damascus" on August 21.

”The conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic … against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale,“ the report said.

Addressing the media after he had presented the report to the Security Council, UN chief Ban Ki-moon described the chemical attack as a "war crime”.

Costa Concordia‬’s resurrection: Engineering teams have begun lifting the wrecked Costa Concordia liner upright, the start of one of the most complex and costly maritime salvage operations ever attempted.

After a three-hour delay caused by an overnight storm which interrupted final preparations, salvage crews started the all-day operation at around 9:00am local time (0700 GMT) on Monday.

Thirty-two people died in January last year when the cruise liner hit a reef off the Tuscan island of Giglio.

Syria is given one week to declare its stock of chemical weapons as part of a plan to eliminate its arsenal:

The United States and Russia have agreed a deal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, US Secretary of State John Kerry has said after talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

Syria has been given a week to declare its stock of chemical weapons, and must allow international inspections, Kerry told reporters.

The demands are part of a six-point plan on eliminating the stockpiles, agreed on Saturday after three days of negotiations in Geneva.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Lavrov, Kerry said that weapons inspectors should be on the ground in Syria by November with the goal of eliminating President Bashar al-Assad’s stockpiles by mid-2014.

“Providing this framework is fully implemented it can end the threat these weapons pose not only to the Syrian people but also their neighbours,” Kerry said.

“Because of the threat of proliferation this framework can provide greater protection and security to the world,” he added.

For more details, click here.