Top stories from DAWNS Digest
Word of a New Massacre in Syria
A mass execution is being reported near Aleppo. “At least 65 people apparently shot in the head were found dead with their hands bound in a neighborhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Tuesday, a pro-opposition monitoring group said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the death toll could rise as high as 80 in what it called a “new massacre”. It was not clear who carried out the killings.” (Reutershttp://reut.rs/WuXnF8)
UN Seeks Syria Aid Money in Kuwait
A major international humanitarian pledging conference will take place in Kuwait on Wednesday. The UN is trying to gin up interest ahead of the meeting. “The United Nations warned on Monday that it will not be able to help millions of war-hit Syrians without more money and appealed for donations at an aid conference this week in Kuwait to meet its $1.5 billion target. It has raised just 3 percent of that so far. Some 4 million Syrians need food, shelter and other aid inside the country and nearly 700,000 more have fled to neighbouring countries since the 22-month-old conflict began, U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos told reporters in Beirut.” (AlertNet http://bit.ly/116RsJX)
Timbuktu is Liberated. Au Revoir, France?
Rebels have been evicted from Timbuktu and France may be ready to leave. “French paratroopers arrived in the ancient desert oasis of Timbuktu on Monday, securing its airport and main roads as thousands of residents poured out of its narrow, mud-walled streets to greet French and Malian troops, waving the two countries’ flags, with whoops, cheers and shouts…The French president, François Hollande, suggested on Monday that French troops might soon stop their northward advance, leaving it to African soldiers to pursue the militants into their redoubts in the desert north. “We are winning this battle,”’Mr. Hollande said in televised remarks. ‘When I say, ‘We,’ this is the Malian army, this is the Africans, supported by the French.’” (NYT http://nyti.ms/Wc2Q4r)