Geneva (AFP) - The US and Russian foreign ministers held "hopeful" talks in Geneva Monday to end fighting in Ukraine, where the UN says more than 6,000 people have died in less than a year.

The meeting between John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov in Geneva was just one of several attempts at mediation on the conflict Monday, as high-stakes talks to resolve a bitter gas dispute between Kiev and Moscow were also due in Brussels.

Speaking separately after their 80-minute meeting, Kerry and Lavrov both cautiously said that a February 15 ceasefire was on the right track, despite repeated breaches of the peace deal that have left hundreds dead.

The Russian foreign minister welcomed "tangible progress" in the implementation of the agreement reached in Minsk last month, saying "the ceasefire is being consolidated, heavy weapons are withdrawn."

Kerry, meanwhile, said he was "very hopeful" that his talks with Lavrov would help bring about the change needed to end fighting.

"Our hope is that within the next hours, and certainly not more than days, this (ceasefire) will be fully implemented," he said.

But he said that there so far had been "a kind of cherry-picking, a piecemeal selectivity to the application of the Minsk agreements," underlining that the violence had not stopped.

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A Grad rocket is lodged in the wall of the Chornukhyne prison in Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine, on Feb …

While fighting has broadly halted along much of Ukraine's frontline, several incidents took place over the weekend, with photographer Sergiy Nikolayev killed by a mortar shell and eight soldiers injured by rebel fire.

Ukraine's army said Monday that one soldier had been killed, but the ceasefire was still largely holding despite sporadic clashes.

Both sides have begun to pull back some heavy weaponry from the frontline, but monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have said it is too early to confirm a full pullback.

- 'Crime against humanity?' -

The United Nations, meanwhile, cast a cloud on hopes raised by the talks with a report that painted a bleak picture of developments in the country.

"More than 6,000 lives have now been lost in less than a year due to the fighting in eastern Ukraine," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

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Ukrainian volunteers with the Azov battalion take part in military exercises near the southeastern c …

The report detailed how the conflict was affecting civilians, pointing to arbitrary detention, torture and enforced disappearances committed mainly by armed groups but also in some cases by Ukrainian law enforcement agencies.

The swelling violence and dire living conditions have forced increasing numbers of people to flee, and by mid-February, at least one million people had been registered as internally displaced inside Ukraine.

"Many have been trapped in conflict zones, forced to shelter in basements, with hardly any drinking water, food, heating, electricity or basic medical supplies," Zeid said.

Speaking in Geneva for the launch of the report, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic said "the deliberate targeting of civilian areas may constitute a war crime, and if widespread and systematic, a crime against humanity."

Kerry said he hoped that the Geneva talks would lead to further de-escalation.

"But that's going to have to play out obviously over the course of the next few days," he said.

- Gas talks -

In Brussels, three-way gas talks were also set to take place between the energy ministers of Ukraine and Russia, together with European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic.

Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom threatened last week to cut deliveries to Ukraine over a dispute related to Moscow's move to supply gas directly to separatist areas and then demand that Kiev pay for it.

Rebel leaders in east Ukraine said that Kiev had suddenly ceased gas supplies, and asked for access to gas from Russia.

Ukraine's national gas company Naftogas did stop pumping gas to the separatist areas last month, saying it could not deliver due to a damaged pipeline, but added that deliveries resumed a few hours later.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine of perpetrating a kind of "genocide" by denying energy to four million people living in territories hit by a humanitarian crisis.

The Kremlin appeared to soften its rhetoric, however, after the European Union unveiled plans last week for a continent-wide single energy market, with the goal of decreasing its reliance on Russian gas.

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Israeli PM to address Congress on Iran nuclear deal during controversial visit

By Matt Spetalnick and Dan Williams

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and Israel showed signs of seeking to defuse tensions on Sunday ahead of a speech in Washington by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he will warn against a possible nuclear deal with Iran.

Policy differences over the negotiations with Iran remained firm, however, as Netanyahu arrived in the United States on Sunday afternoon for a speech to Congress, which has imperiled ties between the two allies.

Israel fears that U.S. President Barack Obama's Iran diplomacy, with an end-of-March deadline for a framework accord, will allow its archfoe to develop atomic weapons, something Tehran denies seeking.

By accepting an invitation from the Republican Party to address Congress on Tuesday, the Israeli leader infuriated the Obama administration, which said it was not told of the speech before plans were made public in an apparent breach of protocol.

A senior Israeli official told reporters on Netanyahu's flight that Congress could be "the last brake" for stopping a nuclear deal with Iran.

Saying it was Israel's impression that members of Congress "do not necessarily know the details of the deal coming together, which we do not see as a good deal," the official said Netanyahu in his speech would give a detailed explanation of his objections to an Iran deal.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated Washington's determination to pursue negotiations with Iran, saying on Sunday the United States deserved "the benefit of the doubt" to see if a nuclear deal could be reached.

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Workers prepare the stage at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference …

Last week, Obama's national security adviser, Susan Rice, said the partisanship caused by Netanyahu's looming address was "destructive to the fabric of U.S.-Israeli ties".

Asked about this on the ABC program "This Week", Kerry said: "The prime minister of Israel is welcome to speak in the United States, obviously. And we have a closer relationship with Israel right now in terms of security than at any time in history."

'POLITICAL FOOTBALL'

He said he talked to Netanyahu on Saturday, adding: "We don't want to see this turned into some great political football." Israel and the United States agreed that the main goal was to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, he said.

The senior Israeli official said the Netanyahu-Kerry conversation "shows the relationship continues."

In remarks on Saturday at Jerusalem's Western Wall, Netanyahu said: “I would like to take this opportunity to say that I respect U.S. President Barack Obama.” He added that he believed in the strong bilateral ties and said, "that strength will prevail over differences of opinion, those in the past and those yet to come.”

Netanyahu did not repeat those remarks as he departed on Sunday. The Israeli prime minister, who is running for re-election in a March 17 ballot, has framed his visit as being above politics and he portrayed himself as being a guardian for all Jews.

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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens as U.S. President Barack Obama (R) speaks, du …

"I’m going to Washington on a fateful, even historic, mission," he said as he boarded his plane in Tel Aviv. "I feel that I am an emissary of all Israel's citizens, even those who do not agree with me, and of the entire Jewish people," he told reporters.

Netanyahu is expected to use his speech to urge Congress to approve new sanctions against Iran despite Obama's pledge to veto such legislation because it would jeopardize nuclear talks.

U.S. officials fear he is seeking to sabotage the Iran diplomacy, and critics have suggested his visit is an elaborate election stunt that will play well with voters back home.

With Obama past the midpoint of his final term, his aides see an Iran nuclear deal as a potential signature achievement for a foreign policy legacy notably short on major successes.

While White House and Israeli officials insist that key areas of cooperation, from counterterrorism to intelligence to cyber security, will remain unaffected, the divide over the Iran talks has shaped up as the worst in decades.

Previously, Israel has always been careful to navigate between the Republican and Democratic camps. The planned address, however, has driven a rare wedge between Netanyahu's government and some congressional Democrats. Some two dozen or more of them plan to boycott the speech, according to unofficial estimates.

IRANIAN ACCUSATION

Speaking in Tehran on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused Netanyahu of trying to undermine the nuclear talks in order to distract from the Palestinians' unresolved bid for an independent state.

"Netanyahu is opposed to any sort of solution," Zarif said.

Hard-line U.S. supporters of Israel say Netanyahu must take center-stage in Washington to sound the alarm over the potential Iran deal, even at the risk of offending long-time supporters.

But a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the "politicized" nature of his visit threatened "what undergirds the strength of the relationship".

As one former U.S. official put it: "Sure, when Netanyahu calls the White House, Obama will answer. But how fast will he be about responding (to a crisis)?"

Last month, U.S. officials accused the Israeli government of leaking information to the Israeli media to undermine the Iran negotiations and said this would limit further sharing of sensitive details about the talks.

"What the prime minister is doing here is simply so egregious that it has a more lasting impact on that fundamental underlying relationship," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, head of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel lobbying group aligned with Obama’s Iran policy.

Netanyahu will address the influential pro-Israel lobby AIPAC on Monday. Even as he makes his hard-line case against Iran, he is expected to try to keep tensions from spiraling, mindful that Israelis are wary of becoming estranged from their superpower ally.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Mark Hosenball and Dan Williams in Washington and Ori Lewis in Jerusalem; Editing by Jeffrey Heller, Frances Kerry, Crispian Balmer, Susan Fenton and Eric Walsh)

People hold flags and posters during a march to commemorate Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on Friday night, near St. Basil's Cathedral in central Moscow March 1, 2015. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

By Elizabeth Piper

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A corpse on a bloodstained bridge, with the Kremlin's red stars glowing behind: the perfect symbolic backdrop, Russian media say, for the West to step up a campaign to vilify President Vladimir Putin.

Faced with a wave of revulsion around the world at the assassination of leading opposition figure Boris Nemtsov, the loyal media establishment is on the counter-attack, preparing Russians for a malicious propaganda campaign by a hostile West.

"And they say that's how the 'bloody regime' kills its competitors. The world is outraged and indignant. And then - sanctions, credit downgrades and the further demonization of Russia and its leader," Dmitry Kiselyov, a TV anchor reputed to be one of Putin favorite journalists, told his prime-time audience on Sunday evening.

"At a time when there is grief, to engage in polemics is disgusting."

With the gunning-down of Nemtsov in central Moscow late on Friday, Russia enters a new phase of the 'us or them' tug-of-war that has played out in the media, increasingly pliant to Putin, since Ukrainians took to the streets and overthrew their Moscow-leaning president just over a year ago.

Russia accused the West of backing 'a coup d'etat' in Ukraine. Now those who support the West or Ukraine are called traitors or a 'fifth column', a term Putin used a year ago to suggest the presence of internal enemies ready to help stir up discontent.

It was a term familiar to Nemtsov who, along with many opposition figures, had criticized Putin for annexing Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, supporting separatists in east Ukraine and causing the West to impose sanctions on Russia.

While the murder is so far unsolved, Putin's critics say the 'fifth column' rhetoric has helped to create a climate in which pro-Kremlin hardliners could have felt they were performing a patriotic duty in disposing of a man like Nemtsov.

"BORIS WILL BE MISSED"

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People march to commemorate Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, who was shot dead on Friday night, in cent …

In his Sunday night show, Kiselyov moved away from Putin's initial characterization of the murder as a 'provocation' meant to undermine the Kremlin chief.

Putin is an elected leader whose popularity ratings have hit 86 percent, Kiselyov pointed out. Nemtsov, he implied, was an opposition figure of little significance, not to be compared with the president.

Instead, he claimed Nemtsov as Russia's own, calling him by his first name and describing him as a "muzhik", a typical Russian bloke, and a charmer.

"He was seen as a handsome, charismatic, open and energetic man. An artistic orator with a biting tongue ... And of course Boris will be missed like spice, which in small doses can give a rich taste," he said.

Russian officials, most of whom have followed Putin by blaming the country's woes largely on the West, took a similar line to Kiselyov on Monday.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told the United Nations Human Rights Council it was "sacrilege to use such tragedies ... to try to substitute investigators and law enforcement organs by pushing politicized, ungrounded and provocative interpretations".

RIFT WIDENS

Russia still has some independent media critical of the government and, at times, Putin. The president is frequently satirized on the Internet; a few newspapers such as Novaya Gazeta, part-owned by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, are fiercely critical of him.

But the vast majority of Russians get their news from television, and all the main channels are either in the hands of the state or of business leaders loyal to the Kremlin.

Reactions to the murder underscored a rift in society between a small liberal middle class, which feels marginalized and fearful of expressing its views, and a pro-Putin majority that opponents see as increasingly strident and aggressive.

The authorities have come up with several possible motives and lines of investigation, from jealousy over Nemtsov's girlfriend, model Anna Duritskaya, to his support of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo over its cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

They are also muddying the waters, reminding people Nemtsov had visited and supported Ukraine, had a much younger girlfriend, and was once a deputy prime minister who may have had rivals and enemies.

The arguments did not deter tens of thousands from marching in big cities on Sunday holding banners declaring: "I am not afraid". Many said they feared for the future of Russia.

But a Twitter feed belonging to rebels in eastern Ukraine under the name "Strelkov", in homage to a former Russian rebel commander who fought there, called Sunday's march "a gay parade for Ukraine supporters and liberals". Gay is a term that is used as an insult by some conservatives.

Opposition leaders have failed so far to unite the critics of Putin's leadership, hamstrung by his popular appeal to patriotism. Nor have they been able to overcome their own rivalries and differences.

But Nemtsov's murder may have broken a psychological barrier, wrote Vedomosti, a business daily that is critical of the government and whose future is in doubt.

"It has happened at a moment when society is in the middle of a cold civil war," said the newspaper, adding that such killings often prompt leaders to pursue tougher policies.

A tightening of the screws, it said, "would mean the almost complete political and economic closure of the country, the severe repression of those who disagree, and put the kibosh on the economy."

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska and Lidia Kelly, editing by Timothy Heritage and Mark Trevelyan)

A new posting by the Islamic State is encouraging its members to kill the founder of Twitter and other employees of the social network.

The declaration, which was originally posted on justpaste.it, and thentranslated by BuzzFeed, is addressed to Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter in 2006 and is now chairman of its executive board. The threat takes issue with Twitter’s attempts to thwart IS’s dissemination of propaganda on the social network. The company frequently shuts down any official IS accounts as they pop up.

“Your virtual war on us will cause a real war on you,” the post reads. Though it was shared online by IS supporters, its source has not been confirmed. “We told you from the beginning it’s not your war, but you didn’t get it and kept closing our accounts on Twitter, but we always come back.”

An image from the post that depicts Jack Dorsey’s face beneath a gun target. (Via justpaste.it).

Twitter, as I’ve reported in the past, is one of IS’s main avenues to quickly spread content; it has posted beheading videos on the service and has attempted to recruit new members there, too. In some cases, actual fighters tweet from the front lines of battle in Syria. A recent study showed that as many 46,000 Twitter accounts were used by IS sympathizers during a three-month period last fall.

Though Twitter’s official terms of use policy bans “direct, specific threats of violence against others,” the company told my colleague Mike Isikoff that it does not proactively monitor its networks for terrorist activity. This laissez-faire attitude has spurred Congress to pressure Twitter to ramp up its efforts at blocking the terrorist organization’s online presence.

Now, it seems that IS is trying to intimidate Twitter executives with a call from all its members around the globe to attack the company.

“For the ‘individual jihadi’ all over the world, target the Twitter company and its interests in any place, people, and buildings, and don’t allow any one of the atheists to survive,” the post reads.

A Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed that the company is looking into the veracity of the posts’s threats with law enforcement.

You can follow Yahoo Tech on Twitter here.

Supporters of the family of Tamir Rice are outraged over the city of Cleveland’s claim that the 12-year-old boy was responsible for his own shooting death.

“It’s unbelievable,” Walter Madison, one of the Rice family’s attorneys, told the Washington Post on Monday. “There are a number of things that we in society don’t allow 12-year-olds to do. We don’t allow them to vote, we don’t allow them to drink. In court we don’t try them as adults. They don’t have the capacity to understand the consequences of their actions.”

Benjamin Crump, Rice family co-counsel, told CNN that the family was “just in disbelief.”

Tamir Rice was killed on Nov. 22 outside a recreation center by police officers who were responding to a report of a person with a gun. Rice, who was playing with a pellet gun, was shot within seconds after officers arrived at the scene by rookie cop Timothy Loehmann, who reportedly said he had “no choice” but to defend himself.

The family’s lawsuit, filed in December, alleges police used excessive force and failed to immediately provide first aid.

On Friday, the city’s attorneys responded to a lawsuit filed by the family, saying their claims “were directly and proximately caused by their own acts” and that Tamir caused his own death “by the failure ... to exercise due care to avoid injury.”

Not surprisingly, the city’s seemingly cold response has drawn considerable outrage online.

Andra Searles @andrasearles Follow GOD NO, CLEVELAND: Tamir Rice to blame for his own death by cop, Cleveland argues http:// circanews.com/news/cleveland -police-shoot-boy-with-toy-gun … … pic.twitter.com/fx7DOcblvO #appalled 11:18 AM - 2 Mar 2015 14 RETWEETS 2 FAVORITES

Cameron Browne @camyk Follow No justice, no peace. http:// goo.gl/Mtyzwq 11:19 AM - 2 Mar 2015 1 RETWEET

Sil Lai Abrams @Sil_Lai Follow Under what circumstances is a 12 y.o. boy reponsbile for his murder by a police offficer? WHEN HE IS BLACK. #TamirRice 11:12 AM - 2 Mar 2015 21 RETWEETS 4 FAVORITES

Maria Young @_RiaYoung Follow Other measures could have been taken and that is not his fault. #TamirRice 10:59 AM - 2 Mar 2015 2 RETWEETS

Shaun King @ShaunKing Follow My rebuttal to Cleveland's infuriating excuses & lies on why they murdered 12 year old 6th grader Tamir Rice. http://www. dailykos.com/story/2015/03/… 02/1367942/-A-rebuttal-to-Cleveland-s-infuriating-excuses-on-why-they-killed-12-year-old-Tamir-Rice RT! 11:18 AM - 2 Mar 2015 237 RETWEETS 76 FAVORITES

Wesley Lowery ✔ @WesleyLowery Follow Tamir Rice was a child, playing in a park, who did not at any point break any law. Video makes it hard to argue he did not comply w/officers 10:58 AM - 2 Mar 2015 365 RETWEETS 186 FAVORITES

Bri @ArbriOHH Follow The Tamir Rice case literally makes me sick to my stomach 11:06 AM - 2 Mar 2015 1 RETWEET 1 FAVORITE

TV Is Great @tvisgreat Follow You know in American Sniper where the guy tells C Kyle they'll fry him if he kills that kid and he's not a threat? Unrealistic. #TamirRice 11:13 AM - 2 Mar 2015 2 RETWEETS 3 FAVORITES

Kate Ottavio Kent @KOttavioKent Follow How is this possible? Cleveland: 12-year-old's death his own fault http:// ow.ly/JPCAV 12:13 PM - 2 Mar 2015 3 RETWEETS

The city’s attorneys did not immediately respond to requests seeking further comment.

Last week, the head of the Cleveland Police Patrolman’s Association suggested Tamir was an adult-size suspect.

“He’s menacing. He’s 5-feet-7, 191 pounds. He wasn’t that little kid you’re seeing in pictures,” Steve Loomis, the association's president, told Politico. “He’s a 12-year-old in an adult body.”

Justin Ellis ✔ @JustinNXT Follow And again, police are using the narrative of the menacing super-human black kid. This time, Tamir Rice http://nie.mn/1APpu6z 10:19 AM - 2 Mar 2015 13 RETWEETS 7 FAVORITES

license to shrill @theshrillest Follow the City of Cleveland is now using the police union's logic to defend itself: it is Tamir's fault that he was shot http://www. washingtonpost.com/news/post-nati on/wp/2015/03/02/tamir-rice-family-attorney-says-unbelievable-that-city-of-cleveland-court-filing-blames-tamir-for-his-own-death/ … 11:15 AM - 2 Mar 2015 42 RETWEETS 7 FAVORITES

Ms. Wright @msonemic Follow "@marymad: http://www. washingtonpost.com/news/post-nati on/wp/2015/03/02/tamir-rice-family-attorney-says-unbelievable-that-city-of-cleveland-court-filing-blames-tamir-for-his-own-death/ … #TamirRice" Lord Jesus these ppl are murdering our children, and find some way to justify it! 11:18 AM - 2 Mar 2015 Cinco Ranch, TX, United States 3 RETWEETS 2 FAVORITES

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