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world lead
Faysh Khabur, Iraq (CNN) - An Iraqi helicopter being used to bring aid to trapped Yazidis on Mount Sinjar crashed Tuesday, state-run Iraqiya TV reported.
The military cited "technical failure" in the crash of the MI-17.
The office of the Kurdish regional government's prime minister said the pilot died.
The survivors were evacuated by the Kurdistan Regional Government, al-Iraqiya reported. Among them was Vian Dakhil, the only Yazidi in parliament.
world lead
Donetsk, Ukraine (CNN) - A Ukrainian journalist working as a freelancer for CNN remains in detention two days after he was detained by pro-Russian separatists.
Armed men from the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic seized Anton Skiba outside a hotel in the separatist-controlled city of Donetsk after he had worked for one day with a CNN television crew.
world lead
(CNN) – The United States said it has proof that Russia is firing into Ukraine.
"We have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russia to attack Ukrainian military positions," said State Department spokesoman Marie Harf.
Two U.S. officials said earlier Thursday that Russian troops near the border with Ukraine have broken up into smaller groups and moved closer to the border.
world lead
(CNN) – Pope Francis' recent three-day trip to the Middle East may have just set the stage for new peace negotiations in the Holy Land.
The Pope invited the presidents of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to visit the Vatican for an interfaith "prayer of peace," and both accepted. CNN’s Jake Tapper and Ivan Watson discuss the significance.
world lead
(CNN) – The U.S. military is on the move. A U.S. guided missile destroyer, the USS Truxtun, entered the Black Sea Friday, part of a previously planned military exercise with Romania and Bulgaria.
But it comes as tension in neighboring Ukraine continues to simmer. CNN's Ivan Watson reports from the Bosphorus Strait.