23/06/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me Zeinab Badawi.

On a surprise visit to Baghdad, the US Secretary of State John

Kerry warns of a "critical moment" for Iraq, as ISIS insurgents extend

territory under their control in the north and west.

He warns Iraqi leaders that the country's future survival

depends on them uniting, urgently, against the jihadists.

The support will be intense and sustained and if the readers of Iraq

take the necessary steps it will be effective.

Shock at the outcome of the trial in Egypt of three Al Jazeera

They?re jailed for seven years, convicted of "spreading false news".

Pro-Russian separatists say they will respect a ceasefire declared

In Spain finally win a World Cup match, defeating Australia 3-0. Both

teams go home anyway. The US Secretary of State John Kerry

has been in Iraq today for crisis talks as the situation

in the country escalates. Sunni militants have tightened

their grip in the north and west of the country, seizing control

of strategic border towns. Mr Kerry has asked the Iraqi

Prime-Minister Nouri al-Maliki to The rebels led by the jihadist group

ISIS are now in control of much of They've also reportedly retaken

control of the town of Tal Afar - The group are also effectively

in control of Iraq's western border And government forces have pulled

out of al-Waleed crossing with Syria and

the Turaibil crossing with Jordan. Well Mr Kerry has also visited

Jordan today, After the recent collapse

of the Iraqi army, these pictures seem to show greater determination

and it is clear from the evidence that they are starting to be

successful in taking back territory Still, ISIS has scored further

successes just today, it has taken over more border crossings and it

is sounding a major hydroelectric So this is the position that

John Kerry, the US Secretary of The atmosphere when he met the

Iraqi Prime Minister was not He thinks

the Americans are deliberately not Mr Kerry wants him to step

down or at least to widen It is essential that Iraq's leaders

form a genuinely inclusive government

as rapidly as possible within The most Mr Kerry has probably gone

from this visit is an undertaking from the Iraqi Prime Minister that

he will broaden his government to It is the feeling amongst Sunni

people that they have been excluded from power, which has turned many

of them into supporters of ISIS. We would like a new government

as well but it is not time for If the parliament decide something

else this is a democratic country so we believe in democracy, we

believe in the will of the people. This is the way ISIS

likes to present itself. In this case the pictures are

from the city of Mosul ISIS fighters are handing

out copies of the Koran. They are not unbeatable

but it will take sole American help with the Iraqi government is to win

back places like Mosul. Pro-Russian separatist leaders

in eastern Ukraine have announced It comes after talks

between Ukrainian, The ceasefire in Donetsk and Luhansk

is expected to last until Friday and will run parallel to

a unilateral Ukrainian ceasefire that was declared by

President Petro Poroshenko David Stern is in Kiev

and joins me now. What will happen when the cease-fire

takes effect? What is important is what is not going to happen.

Apparently there will be a truce, both sides have agreed that they are

not going to conduct any operations against the other side until, as you

say, Friday at 10am local time. We will see if that lasts, there is

still a great deal of tension. The pro-Russian separatists have agreed

to a cease-fire. This is a unilateral cease-fire. The rebels

have agreed to match that. Until the time that the government cease-fire

is supposed to expire, this obviously is a positive step that is

being welcomed as such here in the yes. The question is, what will

happen next? They have also announced a 14 point peace plan.

They hope to bring peace ultimately to the east. The rebels say they

will not accept anything less than what their demands are, but

obviously both sides are talking to one another. This was a contact

group that met. It was not top officials. There is some contact

among European officials and with the Russian ambassador so it remains

to be seen what will happen but obviously any time they are not

fighting in the East, this is a positive development. Thank you for

that commitment. Three journalists with the

Al Jazeera network have been jailed for seven years in Egypt,

after being convicted of spreading false news and supporting

the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The case of Peter Greste,

from Australia, and Egyptians Mohamed Fahmy and Baher

Mohamed has attracted international attention, and sparked outrage since

they were detained last December. They were

among twenty defendants accused Inside, Australian Peter Greste

and two Al Jazeera colleagues desperately hoping this

ordeal is about to end. The judge had sat through 12

hearings at this trial, which Amnesty International dismissed

as a vindictive farce. The verdicts, then,

even more shocking. Peter's parents

watching a live feed in Australia. My God!

My God! Of 20 people on trial,

only two were acquitted. The rest,

most of them tried in their absence, In court, the families

reacted with disbelief. Seven years is

absolutely ridiculous. For the families,

this is the verdict they had feared And no wonder

the prisoners shout in anguish. From here,

they will be taken back to the cell they've shared for six

months. It is three metres by four metres,

just a small window and three beds. They are in lockdown

for 23 hours a day. This was the night of the arrests

in late December and the recording of the raid on the

Marriott hotel room where the Al Jazeera journalists

were working. Peter and the Cairo bureau chief

sitting next to him were charged with spreading false news in support

of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. For six months,

the international media has run But in the absence

of any real evidence, it seemed certain this case was

part of the wider diplomatic row between Egypt and the Gulf

state Qatar, which owns Al Jazeera and has backed the deposed Islamist

president Mohamed Morsi. Outside court today,

Muhamed's mother said her son is If they could find any one

single evidence... Anyone doing anything should

take the punishment. From here,

the appeals process is a long road. There can be no presidential pardon

until the legal battle is exhausted. We're joined now from Qatar

by Dominic Kane, a journalist for Al Jazeera English who was

today convicted in absentia and Dominic, first novel, shock and

outrage at what has happened to your colleagues absolutely. Shock was the

first reaction of all others. Like you just heard there, the evidence

against us was flimsy in the extreme. It was inconsistent, at

times it was incoherent. Because of that and because he believed in the

Egyptian justice system that the judges would see that the evidence

was flimsy and take the only decision possible, which was clearly

to acquire all of us, but since then in the last few hours we have had

tainted digests this and now our reaction is one of outrage. This is

a serious miscarriage of justice. It should not be allowed to happen and

in the new Egypt's where there was a referendum on a new constitution

that was supposed to enshrine the freedom of expression, the only

verdict that should have come from that was not guilty. It did not

come. Yes, our journalists was in the dock and I was in the dock in

absentia but now the only thing that should be in the dock is the

Egyptian justice system. Dominic, you have a ten year jail sentence in

absentia. What does that mean for you? For those of us who were

convicted in our absence and given ten year sentences it is quite

profound. It means we cannot go to any country which has a valid

extradition treaty with Egypt for fear that extradition rights may be

sought by the Egyptians. There is a recent development which is of

concern. The joke was allowed back into the African union in the last

few days as a consequence of the election of the president. The

African union has a convention which allows for the extradition of people

who have been charged and convicted of terrorist letting fences. --

terrorist related offences. The worst-case scenario is that the

entire African continent is out of bounds for us. What would you all

like to happen from here on out? What do you want the international

community to do? The Egyptian ambassador in London was summoned to

the Foreign Office. What do you want? Obviously I would like the

verdict to be overturned. Let's not forget that journalism is not a

trained in the reality is that my friends and colleagues are now deal

with rapists and murderers and they have done nothing wrong. Immediately

they must be released. Secondly, unfortunately because of the nature

of the Egyptian justice system either myself or my colleagues can

appeal against this convection and as he heard the appeals process can

be very protracted. What we are calling for as British citizens is

that the British government take whatever action it can in order for

this terrible travesty of a trial to be overturned and for the innocent

journalists that we are to be recognised as such for my colleagues

to be released and for all the convictions to be overturned. Thank

you very much. convictions to be overturned. Thank

Dominic Keane who was today convicted in absentia in Cairo and

given ten years. Let's speak now Gamal Abdel-Gawad,

Professor of political science at The American University in Cairo

and advisor to Al-Ahram Centre . A travesty of a trial is what

Dominic said. What does this tell us about the independence of the

Egyptian judiciary? To a great extent I think it is highly

influenced by the political development, looking at the verdict

it is clear that the judge applied articles that are in the law but on

the other hand it is also politicised in terms of the fact

that those articles apparently have been interpreted in a way that is a

highly influenced by the political atmosphere in the country. Those

journalists have been caught in the middle of a fierce power struggle

between the Muslim brotherhood on one hand and the government on the

other and also there is an original damage and do that, they are

struggling between Egypt and the fact that in the state the

government of Qatar owns Al Jazeera and to some extent at least Al

Jazeera has been influenced by the political differences in the state

of Qatar. This is not a good thing to happen for the journalists. Do

they not make a distinction between Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera

Arabic? There have been criticisms of that. Al Jazeera is based in cat

that which is very pro-Mohamed Morsi anti-Muslim brotherhood. There are

even worse the exiles living in cat and the Egyptian authorities are not

very happy about that. This distinction between art is either

English and Al Jazeera Arabic is not very much accepted by the Egyptian

facials. They see both of them as a package, as a tool used by the

Qatari government to advance its policy in the region, a policy that

has been perceived here as an outstanding policy. That they

provided a kind of extraordinary instance of coverage of the

developments in Egypt, not only reporting the news but also giving a

broad room for opinion critical of the Egyptian government. This was

perceived negatively in the Egyptian government and apparently this case

against journalists of Al Jazeera is a -- to any great extent and outcome

of that. And one question on Iraq. We have the Americans and others

think they want a more inclusive government. A lot of people are

saying that actually the president is being encouraged to step down.

What do they see in the Arab world about what is going on in Iraq? Do

they see him as being an obstacle? Yes, this is a white belief you're

in the Arab world, that the performance over the past eight

years was not really encouraging to people around the Arab world. And

the fact that those developments are happening at the end of his second

term are strong indication of his failures to providing clues of, to

recompile and integrate the Sunni segments of Iraqi society. -- to

provide an inclusive government. This is a popular demand around

here, a new Prime Minister for Iraq. He is also losing the American

support. They are not happy with him. If the crowd decides that he is

not right, I think we are likely to see a new premier in Iraq. Thank you

very much indeed for talking to us both about what has gone on in Egypt

and Iraq. In other news Israel says it's

carried out air strikes Latest reports say at least ten

Syrian soldiers were killed in the raids, on positions near

the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The attacks were in response to

the killing of a teenage boy Two other people,

including the boy's father, were Police in Kosovo have fired tear gas

and used batons to disperse hundreds of ethnic Albanians

angry about minority Serbs reinforcing a barricade on a bridge

in central Mitrovica. At least seven police officers were

injured and five cars set on fire. The clashes follow the decision

by the authorities last week to remove a three-year old blockade on

the bridge, which has been the scene A court in Sudan has ordered

the release of a 27-year-old woman who was sentenced to death last

month for converting The case of Meriam Ibrahim,

who is married to a Christian Sudanese-American,

triggered an international outcry. She gave birth to the couple's baby

daughter while in prison last month. The BBC has learned that a third

British man in a recruitment video for the Islamic militant group Isis

is from Aberdeen in Scotland. The 13-minute video emerged

on Friday, Two of the other fighters have been

identified as Nasser Muthana The BBC has also been told that

the families -- that a third grew up in Aberdeen

although he was originally from Bangladesh. One former acquaintance

spoke of his shock at seeing the man sitting with a very self-declared

Jihadist, urging others to take part in jihad. He does not want to be

named for fear of retribution but said that he had regularly been in

trouble as a young teenager. He came here when he was a younger child and

went to primary and secondary school year. After that, he was around in

Aberdeen. He was a bit arrogant, maybe something to prove. He ended

up in a lot of fights. To learn he has accepted religion in such an

extreme way is shocking because he is from Aberdeen and has ended up

somewhere like that. A former acquaintance of one Jihadist from

Aberdeen. With me now is Usama Hasan,

a senior researcher with the counter extremism think tank

the Quilliam Foundation. First of all, let's get the numbers

right, are we talking about a fairly small number of vulnerable young men

who get recruited? No, we are talking about 500 at least in the

area at the moment. For those in from across Europe. They are

fighting in Syria with this highly brittle terrorist group. These are

fairly large numbers. A very small proportion of Europe's Muslim

communities, which are tens of millions strong. That is what I

really meant. Fortunately, there are very small. But they have larger

support networks and sympathisers, who clearly provide the mood music

for them to carry on doing this kind of recruitment and activity. How

I've recruited? What would be typical way for a young man to end

up in Syria or Iraq? -- how I've recruited? British Jihadist is 20

years old, when people went to Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kashmir,

Pakistan, Somalia and most recently Syria. There are networks in place.

I went to fight in -- some went to my -- I went to fight in

Afghanistan. What motivated you? It was a very similar, narrow ideology,

this idea of not being able to live in a non-Muslim country like Britain

or Europe, we had to live in an Islamic state and be willing to

fight and die for it. In Afghanistan, we had an Islamic state

at the time. So it is a continuation of this kind of thing. People carry

these kind of ideas and make contact with like-minded people. What do you

do about it? Do you make it punishable by law and the that you

are going to be in real trouble? That is what the law says at the

moment. Under the terrorism legislation, if you fight abroad and

are not a member of a legitimate Armed Forces, you are a terrorist.

There is that very hard option to prosecute. In parts of Europe, they

are taking a very different approach. In Belgium and part of

Germany, they have a civic reintegration programme to try to

support them and give them counselling when they returned to

get rid of their, and help them reintegrate into civilian life and

find a job. -- get rid of their trauma. That is likely to work in

the long term but is quite a difficult one because some of them

may relapse into Jihadist and more terrorism. It is quite difficult to

do when you have passed laws against terrorism. What do you do? We have

to destroy the narrow ideology which promotes this. It is isolationist

and says that Muslims cannot love of anywhere else and that causes

problems over. That is the core of this that we must tackle. Thank you

very much. Now to the World Cup in Brazil,

where the tournament is nearing the end of week two and every match is

testing the strength of each team. Today is a big day, as the hosts,

Brazil, compete in their next game He joins us now. A couple of hours

to catch your breath before that they match. Absolutely. We are

looking forward to that. Let me tell you about the games we have already

had today. Four altogether. We have had two. Let's talk about the

Netherlands against Chile. 2-0 to the Netherlands. The first was

scored by a player from Norwich City, who had come on as a sub. He

has got one. Then it was the 92nd minute for the second goal. They

finished top of group be and will probably face Mexico or Croatia in

the next round. Chile lost but will probably face result. In the other

game, Spain beat Australia 3-0, salvaging a little bit of Spanish

pride. Not finishing bottom of the group. Fernando Torres scored one of

those goals. And what do we expect in the Brazil

team? That is the one that everybody is going to be watching in the

stadium. It certainly is. Let me sure you down here on Copacabana

Beach, behind me, they are going to be showing it on the big screen.

Already, couple of hours to go, and Brazilian fans are packing in. A

beautiful place to watch football. Brazil, the host and favourites in

the tournament, a few are little bit nervous but they only need a draw

against Cameroon and the other game, Croatia against Mexico.

Thank you very much indeed, from Rio de Janeiro.

And for more on the World Cup

You can catch up with all the latest news

and find out what's on offer today, including who is tipped to win.

You can also join the conversation on Twitter using #bbcworldcup.

Police say a bomb explosion in northern Nigeria killed at least

eight people. 20 people were injured as students gathered to pick up the

admission letters for the next term. It is not yet known who

carried out the attack but the area has previously been targeted by Boko

Haram. Let's bring you a reminder of our top story. John Kerry has been

in Iraq for crisis talks as the situation in the country escalates.

Sunni militants from a jihadist group have taken their grip on the

country. But for now, from me and the rest

of the team, goodbye. month so far. There will be some

subtle changes in the forecast but it will not be too drastic. There

will be some sunny spells or tomorrow and a few showers but