Iraqi security forces have found mass graves that could contain up to 400 bodies in an area recently retaken from the Islamic State group, an Iraqi official has said. The bodies of civilians and security forces were found in an abandoned base near Hawija, a northern town retaken in early October, the Kirkuk governor, Rakan Saed, said on Sunday. He did not say when authorities would start exhuming the bodies.

“Not less than 400 people were executed,” he said, adding that some were clad in the uniform of prisoners condemned to death while others wore civilian clothing. Khalaf Luhaibi, a local shepherd who led troops to the site, said Isis brought captives to the area and shot them or poured oil over them before setting them on fire. The area was strewn with torn clothing and what appeared to be human bones and skulls.

Saad Abbas, a farmer from the area, told Agence France-Presse that during the three years of Isis control the group’s fighters could be seen “driving around in cars with their prisoners. They would shoot them and then throw them to the ground or burn their bodies,” Abbas said. Iraqi forces have driven Isis from nearly all the territory it once controlled. Authorities have already uncovered several mass graves in other newly liberated areas.(theguardian)…[+]

The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has said the bloc is drawing up contingency plans for the possible collapse of Britain’s departure talks. Barnier, who last week gave the UK a two-week deadline to provide greater clarity on the financial settlement it was prepared to offer as part of the divorce deal, told France’s Journal du Dimanche newspaper the failure of the talks was not his preferred option.

“But it’s a possibility,” he said. “Everyone needs to plan for it, member states and businesses alike. We too are making technical preparations for it. On 29 March 2019, the United Kingdom will become a third country.” The remarks came as Theresa May faces increasing pressure at home, with Tory and Labour MPs warning she risks a Commons defeat over Brexit within weeks if she continues to deny parliament a meaningful vote on the final deal with the EU.

Michael Gove and Boris Johnson, who led the Brexit campaign but infamously split when Gove withdrew his support for Johnson’s Tory leadership campaign to run himself, have also joined forces to complain in a leaked letter of “insufficient energy” on Brexit in some parts of government and insist any transition period must end in June 2021.(theguardian)…[+]

Tens of thousands of nationalist demonstrators marched through Warsaw at the weekend to mark Poland’s independence day, throwing red-smoke bombs and carrying banners with slogans such as “white Europe of brotherly nations”.

Police estimated 60,000 people took part in Saturday’s event, in what experts say was one of the biggest gathering of far-right activists in Europe in recent years. Demonstrators with faces covered chanted “Pure Poland, white Poland!” and “Refugees get out!”. A banner hung over a bridge that read: “Pray for Islamic Holocaust.” The march organised by far-right groups in Poland is an annual event originally to mark Poland’s independence in 1918. But according to Nick Lowles, from UK anti-extremism group Hope Not Hate, it has become an important rallying point for international far-right groups.

“The numbers attending this year seem to be bigger and, while not everyone on the march is a far-right activist or fascist, it is undoubtedly becoming more significant and is acting as a magnet for far-right groups around the world.”(theguardian)…[+]