Britons Who Fought IS Freed From Iraqi Jail

Two Britons and an Irishman jailed in northern Iraq after joining the fight against Islamic State have been freed.

Joe Akerman, a former soldier from Halifax, and Jac Holmes, an IT worker from Dorset, were incarcerated along with ex-Royal Irish Regiment soldier Joshua Molloy, from Co Laois, after crossing from Syria.

It is understood they had been with the Kurdish People's Protection Units, a force of up to 50,000 fighters trying to fend off IS.

But after leaving the frontline to come home they were jailed by the Kurdish Regional Government, who reputedly demanded £10,400 in fines to be paid.

The trio were released after 10 days following diplomatic efforts from the UK and Ireland.

Mr Molloy's father said it felt like Christmas when he heard the news.

"We are all delighted here," said Declan Molloy. "We are jumping with joy to know that he is out.

"You know that Christmas morning feeling, it's a bit like that, when you find your most sought-after present under the tree, the dream present. That's how we feel."

Ireland's Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan welcomed the news of Mr Molloy's release with a Tweet wishing him a safe journey home.

It is understood the three spent months fighting IS.

Mr Holmes, who had no military experience before travelling to Syria, was shot in one arm in a gun battle with IS forces last May.

His mother Angie described the three as "heroes".

"Jack's family and friends are grateful for all the help and support they've received during this difficult time," she said.

"(We) would like to thank everyone including the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Kurdish Regional Government for their assistance in securing his release."

A Foreign and Commonwealth spokeswoman said: "We are helping two British men make arrangements to leave Kurdistan after they were released from custody."

It is understood Mr Molloy is in a hotel in Kurdistan and is considering spending time in Europe with fellow foreign fighters before he returns to Ireland.

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Obama To Send 250 Extra US Troops To Syria

Barack Obama is planning to send up to 250 extra American troops to Syria to fight Islamic State, bringing the total US deployment on the ground to 300.

The plan was announced by US officials ahead of a meeting in Germany today attended by Mr Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister David Cameron.

French President Francois Hollande and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi will also join the talks in Hanover, which will consider the war in Syria and other foreign policy issues.

The additional deployment aims to accelerate recent gains against IS and reflects renewed confidence in the ability of US-backed forces inside Syria and Iraq to claw back territory from the militants.

Mr Obama has resisted sending US troops into Syria, where a five-year civil war has killed more than 250,000 people.

Last year he sent 50 US special operations forces into Syria in what was described as a "counterterrorism" mission.

Commenting on the further deployment, one US official said: "He (Mr Obama) intends to put in more ... forces to the tune of 250 in Syria."

A second official added: "The president has authorised a series of steps to increase support for our partners in the region, including Iraqi security forces as well as local Syrian forces who are taking the fight to ISIL."

The deployment is expected to be officially announced during remarks by the US President at the Hanover Messe fairgrounds later today.

Speaking at a news conference with Ms Merkel on Sunday, Mr Obama said he was "deeply concerned" by a recent surge in violence in Syria.

Airstrikes and shelling pounded the city of Aleppo for the third straight day on Sunday, killing two young siblings and at least 24 others.

The northern city has been bitterly contested between insurgents and government forces since 2012.

At least 10 people were killed by rebel shelling on government-held areas in the city, according to activists and Syria's state news agency SANA.

Mr Obama said it is difficult to see how a so-called safe zone would work in Syria without a large military presence.

"The issue surrounding a safe zone in Syrian territory is not a matter of an ideological objection on my part," he said.

"It's not a matter of me not wishing I could help and protect a whole bunch of people. It’s a very practical about how do you do it?"

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North Korean Spy Chief Defects To The South

A North Korean spy chief has fled Kim Jong-Un's secretive state and defected to the South, officials in Seoul have said.

The army colonel had handled spy operations targeting South Korea at the North's General Bureau of Reconnaissance and is the highest level military official ever to defect, a Seoul government official told the Yonhap news agency.

Unification and defence ministry spokesmen confirmed the report to AFP but declined to elaborate on details including the official's name.

He is already believed to have passed on valuable intelligence about North Korea's spying operation against the South.

The latest blow to dictator Kim Jong-Un's authority comes days after the mass defection of 13 workers in a state-run restaurant in China.

The group switched sides after watching TV and surfing the internet alerted them to Pyongyang's propaganda.

The defections come at a time of elevated military tensions on the divided Korean peninsula.

North Korea has defied the international community with a series of missile tests in 2016 - and last week claimed to have successfully tested an engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang has condemned Seoul and Washington for a sanctions drive at the UN over its nuclear and missile programmes, while also lashing out at the annual US-South Korea military war games.

Nearly 30,000 North Koreans have fled poverty and repression, despite risk of imprisonment and torture if caught, and settled in the South.

But the number of defectors - who once numbered more than 2,000 a year - has nearly halved since leader Kim Jong-Un took power after the death of his father and longtime ruler Kim Jong-Il in December 2011.

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Al Qaeda Digs In As Dust Settles On Yemen War

Among the ruins of ancient treasured buildings, the twisted remains of the victims of air strikes and the soiled reputation of international relations, it's often hard to find a winner in any civil war.

But as the dust begins to settle on Yemen's year-long conflict, the glint of white can be discerned through the fog of bloodshed – the white teeth of al Qaeda fighters.

A Saudi-led coalition of fellow Sunni Arab states launched air strikes and later a land campaign against Shia Houthi rebels in March last year.

They were officially coming to the aid of the internationally-recognised president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

The Houthis sided with his (Sunni) predecessor, Ali Abdullah Saleh, and were seen as having the backing of Iran, the Shia theocracy and arch rival of the Sunni Arab dynasties.

The coalition saw the fight against the Houthis as essential.

Making up 35% of Yemen's population, the Houthis were seen as a potential threat along Saudi Arabia's southern border - much like the Hezbollah along Israel's northern frontier.

A new confidence among younger members of the Gulf Co-operation Council fed a belligerent mood and pride that (at last) Arab nations were taking control of their own destinies and not asking Americans to do their fighting for them.

But a year in, things have not gone so well.

The coalition has been blooded. The military performance of some units, led occasionally by Gulf royals, have gone some way to shaking off the caricature of the overweight and idle "Gulfie".

But human rights groups have been outraged by that they say has been the profligate disregard for civilian life shown by coalition war planes.

On top of that, Gulf allies, notable the UK and the US, have come in for bitter criticism for supplying bombs to the coalition.

British officials have been squirming about trying to come up with a credible moral explanation for the "six to ten" personnel the military have working in the Saudi targeting cell.

The Whitehall line is that they're there to train Saudi targeteers but have no access to battle damage assessments - without which no training would be possible.

This has all been awkward for governments keen to flog munitions to the Saudis.

Britain sold £1.75bn-worth in the first six months of last year. Western governments continue to stick to the notion (publicly anyway) that human rights matter.

More problematic, though, is that the war in Yemen has created more space for al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to operate.

This, remember, is the group behind the Charlie Hebdo massacres and numerous bomb plots.

Al Qaeda now has a significant presence across at least a quarter of central Yemen, and control of Makallah Port which generates $2m a day in revenues.

It controls about 370 miles of Yemen's coastline and has begun raising taxes to fill coffers already gorged with $100m in looted bank cash.

This is the first time al Qaeda has controlled and administered territory on this scale – a victory delivered thanks to a war against someone else.

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Panama Papers: Poroshenko Denies Tax Avoidance

The President of Ukraine, whose name was mentioned in the Panama Papers, has denied trying to minimise his taxes.

Petro Poroshenko was among dozens of politicians named in millions of files leaked from an offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca, to a German newspaper earlier this week.  

Mr Poroshenko told reporters in Tokyo that he set up a blind trust offshore to separate his business and political interests when he became president in 2014. 

"This is absolutely normal procedure, and I think this is the main difference from the naming of all the political figures in this Panama list," he said.

"If we have anything to be investigated, I am happy to do that," he added. 

"But this is absolutely transparent from the very beginning.

"No hidden account, no associated management, no nothing."

Mr Poroshenko – nicknamed the 'chocolate king' – made a large amount of money from his confectionery company, Roshen.

When reporters asked him why he had not kept a campaign promise to sell his business if elected, Poroshenko said there were no buyers when his country was "in a state of war".

Ukraine’s fiscal service is to examine documents detailing his offshore assets.

Mr Poroshenko said he could not access those assets until the end of his presidency.

Iceland's Prime Minister became the first casualty of the Panama Papers when he resigned on Tuesday.

The leaked documents are said to show that Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and his wife owned a firm in the British Virgin Islands which held investments in Iceland's collapsed banks.

David Cameron has also been caught up in the controversy, after his late father Ian was named in the papers.

Meanwhile the top actor in Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan, has denied any connection to four shipping companies registered in tax havens.

Responding to a story in the Indian Express based on the Panama Papers, he said: "It is possible that my name has been misused."

He insisted he was unaware of any of the companies he’d allegedly been linked with.

In a statement, he said: "I have paid all my taxes including on monies spent by me overseas … In any event the news report in the Indian Express doesn't even suggest any illegality on my part."

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Brussels Bomber Worked As EU Parliament Cleaner

One of the suicide bombers who attacked the Brussels airport had previously worked as a cleaner at the European Parliament.

According to a parliamentary spokesman, Najim Laachraoui did not have a criminal record at the time of his employment.

"As a student, he held a summer holiday job cleaning at the parliament for one month in 2009 and one month in 2010,” the spokesman said in a statement.

"Those were the only instances he worked at the parliament."

Najim Laachraoui blew himself up at the Brussels airport, and is also suspected of making suicide vests for last November’s Paris attack.

The revelation came as Belgium’s prime minister admitted the country had made mistakes in how it tackled violent extremism.

"In the fight against terrorism, in all countries in the world and in Europe, there have been successes and there have been failures," Prime Minister Charles Michel said.

But he rejected suggestions Belgium had become a "weak link" in Europe’s war on terrorism.

"If we were weak, then we would not have been able to convict 100 persons," he said, arguing that Belgian authorities had prevented many attacks.

He made the comments to an audience of largely foreign journalists following last month’s attack on the Brussels airport and metro.

The attacks killed 32 people, along with the three bombers.

Mr Michel says Belgium is determined to learn from its mistakes and improve information sharing between various security agencies.

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