Yahoo! News: Iraq

Al Jazeera America launches, AT&T won't carry network
Autopsy found traces of drugs after Hastings death
Judge to announce Manning's sentence Wednesday
Sliced and diced, digitally: autopsy as a service
Prosecutors rest in Fort Hood shooting trial
Jury selected for sentencing of U.S. soldier in Afghan massacre
Prosecution rests in Fort Hood shooting rampage court-martial
Iraq war veteran arraigned in death of former U.S. military sniper
Iraqi Kurdistan sets quota for Syria refugees: aid groups
Syrian Kurds battle al-Qaida-linked rebel faction
Assad's forces counter rebel gains in Syria's Deir al-Zor
Army judge to sentence WikiLeaks' Manning on Wednesday
Syrian Kurds' flight drags Iraq deeper into neighbor's war
Blood Test May Predict Risk of Suicide
American al Qaeda militant urges attacks on U.S. diplomats
Second Briton jailed for selling fake bomb detectors
US military judge deliberating Manning's sentence
Iranian school kids will now learn ‘drone-hunting’ skills
Jordan's king warns of sectarian 'destruction'
Iraq's Kurdistan region sets quota for Syrian refugees: aid agencies
UK man jailed for making fake bomb detectors
Who Owns the Future?
Today in History
Beau Biden, Del. AG and son of VP, undergoes tests
10 Things to Know for Tuesday

Al Jazeera America launches, AT&T won't carry network

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 04:52 PM PDT

By Liana B. Baker and Lisa Richwine (Reuters) - New cable network Al Jazeera America introduced itself to U.S. viewers on Tuesday with reports on political strife in Egypt and a shooting at a Georgia elementary school, making its bid to win audiences shortly after a major pay TV distributor declined to carry the network. The decision by AT&T's U-verse pay-TV service stemmed from a contract dispute over terms to carry the new channel, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said. Globally, Al Jazeera is seen in more than 260 million homes in 130 countries. But the new U.S. ...

Autopsy found traces of drugs after Hastings death

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 04:39 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After 14 years of sobriety, journalist Michael Hastings had returned to drugs and had traces of amphetamine and marijuana in his system when he drove his car into a tree hours after he was seen passed out in his home, according to an autopsy report released Tuesday.

Judge to announce Manning's sentence Wednesday

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 02:52 PM PDT

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — A military judge said she'll announce on Wednesday the sentence for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who gave reams of classified information to WikiLeaks.

Sliced and diced, digitally: autopsy as a service

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 02:11 PM PDT

By Jeremy Wagstaff SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Malaysian entrepreneur Matt Chandran wants to revive the moribund post-mortem by replacing the scalpel with a scanner and the autopsy slab with a touchscreen computer. He believes his so-called digital autopsy could largely displace the centuries-old traditional knife-bound one, speeding up investigations, reducing the stress on grieving families and placating religious sensibilities. ...

Prosecutors rest in Fort Hood shooting trial

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 01:47 PM PDT

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — Military prosecutors rested their case Tuesday against the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people during the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, but whether the soldier plans to do anything to defend himself remains to be seen.

Jury selected for sentencing of U.S. soldier in Afghan massacre

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 12:56 PM PDT

By Jonathan Kaminsky TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) - A jury of six military personnel was impaneled on Tuesday for the sentencing of a decorated U.S. soldier who pleaded guilty in June to killing 16 Afghan civilians in two nighttime forays from his Army post last year, an Army spokeswoman said. Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, a veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has admitted to gunning down the villagers, mostly women and children, in attacks on their family compounds in Kandahar province in March 2012. In exchange for his guilty plea, Bales will be spared the death ...

Prosecution rests in Fort Hood shooting rampage court-martial

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 12:44 PM PDT

By Karen Brooks FORT HOOD, Texas (Reuters) - Military prosecutors rested their case on Tuesday in the capital murder court-martial of an Army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, killing 13 and wounding more than 30. Major Nidal Hasan, an American-born Muslim, has admitted in court to gunning down soldiers at a medical complex at the sprawling military base in central Texas, saying he switched sides in what he considered a U.S. war against Islam. ...

Iraq war veteran arraigned in death of former U.S. military sniper

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 12:27 PM PDT

By Marice Richter DALLAS (Reuters) - An Iraq war veteran accused of fatally shooting former U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, a decorated sniper, and another man at a shooting range in Texas was arraigned Tuesday on two counts of capital murder, his attorney said. Eddie Ray Routh, 25, was indicted in July on two counts of murder in the February shooting deaths of Kyle, and Kyle's friend, Chad Littlefield, at the upscale Rough Creek Lodge resort about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth. ...

Iraqi Kurdistan sets quota for Syria refugees: aid groups

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 10:40 AM PDT

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The government of Iraqi Kurdistan has set an entry quota of 3,000 refugees a day to cope with an influx of Kurds fleeing the civil war in Syria, but there are signs many more are still coming in, aid agencies said on Tuesday. About 35,000 refugees, believed to be mainly Syrian Kurds, have entered Iraq since last Thursday, including an estimated 5,100, well over the cap, on Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said. UNHCR officials told an internal U.N. ...

Syrian Kurds battle al-Qaida-linked rebel faction

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 10:22 AM PDT

BEIRUT (AP) — Kurdish militias battled al-Qaida-linked rebel groups in northeastern Syria on Tuesday in the latest round of heavy fighting that has helped fuel a mass exodus of civilians from the region into neighboring Iraq, activists said.

Assad's forces counter rebel gains in Syria's Deir al-Zor

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 10:02 AM PDT

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces attacked rebel positions in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Tuesday, days after a rebel advance threatened to bring the whole city under the control of anti-Assad forces, opposition activists said. The provincial capital on the banks of the Euphrates, 430 km (270 miles) northeast of Damascus, anchors a vast, arid oil-producing region bordering Iraq. Half of it fell to rebels a year ago but Assad's forces have held out in several districts in the west of the Sunni Muslim city and in the airport to the east. ...

Army judge to sentence WikiLeaks' Manning on Wednesday

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 09:53 AM PDT

By Medina Roshan FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - Bradley Manning, the soldier convicted of giving classified U.S. files to WikiLeaks, will be told at 10 a.m. EDT on Wednesday how much of his life will be spent in a military prison, a U.S. Army spokesman said on Tuesday. The judge, Colonel Denise Lind, began deliberating Manning's sentence on Tuesday and later told the court that sentencing would take place at 10 a.m., the spokesman said. ...

Syrian Kurds' flight drags Iraq deeper into neighbor's war

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 09:51 AM PDT

By Murad Talaat PESHKHABOUR, Iraq (Reuters) - Mahmoud Qarou packed his bags two days ago, joining tens of thousands of Syrian refugees escaping into northern Iraq, convinced that the two-year conflict could only get worse. About 35,000 Syrian refugees have poured into neighboring Iraqi Kurdistan over a new border crossing since Thursday, fleeing a surge in attacks by al Qaeda-linked Sunni Arab rebel group al-Nusra Front on Kurdish villages near the border. "There is no peaceful solution in Syria. ...

Blood Test May Predict Risk of Suicide

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 09:49 AM PDT

It can be difficult to tell when a person is contemplating suicide -- people may be reluctant to speak about it. But now, researchers say they may have a new tool that reveals suicidal thoughts with a blood test.

American al Qaeda militant urges attacks on U.S. diplomats

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 08:03 AM PDT

DUBAI (Reuters) - An American al Qaeda militant has called for more attacks on Western diplomats in the Arab world, praising the killers of the U.S. ambassador to Libya on September 11 last year, a U.S.-based monitoring group said on Sunday. Western nations shut embassies across the Middle East and North Africa early this month, after a warning of a possible militant attack. Many have reopened, and Britain said its Yemen embassy would open on Sunday after being closed for 12 days. Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million U.S. ...

Second Briton jailed for selling fake bomb detectors

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 07:33 AM PDT

LONDON (Reuters) - A British businessman who made fake bomb detectors from boxes, plastic handles and glue and sold them internationally for up to 11,000 pounds each was jailed for seven years on Tuesday. Gary Bolton, 47, was the second Briton in three months to be jailed for selling fake bomb detectors to countries around the world including Iraq, Mexico, Thailand and Egypt. A court heard the devices made by Bolton were just a box with a handle and completely ineffectual as a piece of detection equipment despite him saying they could detect explosives, drugs, tobacco, ivory and cash. ...

US military judge deliberating Manning's sentence

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 07:18 AM PDT

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — A military judge began deliberating Army Pfc. Bradley Manning's sentence Tuesday for disclosing reams of classified information through WikiLeaks.

Iranian school kids will now learn ‘drone-hunting’ skills

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 06:32 AM PDT

This fall, while American grade school students learn under the Obama administration's Common Core that 3 x 4 can totally be 11 as long as there's a good reason for the answer, Iranian students will learn a much more useful life skill: how to hunt for unmanned U.S. drones.

Jordan's king warns of sectarian 'destruction'

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 06:25 AM PDT

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan's king warned Tuesday that ethnic and sectarian violence sweeping across several Arab countries could lead to the "destruction" of the Muslim world.

Iraq's Kurdistan region sets quota for Syrian refugees: aid agencies

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 03:33 AM PDT

GENEVA (Reuters) - Syrian refugees continue to stream over the border into northern Iraq, where the Kurdistan regional government has put in place a daily quota of 3,000, aid agencies said on Tuesday. About 30,000 refugees, believed to be mainly Syrian Kurds, have poured into Iraq since Thursday, and up to 3,000 are lined up to cross on Tuesday, the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said. "The Kurdistan regional government authorities have put a daily quota for those refugees who will be allowed in. ...

UK man jailed for making fake bomb detectors

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 03:30 AM PDT

LONDON (AP) — A British businessman who was convicted of making and selling fake bomb detectors has been jailed for seven years.

Who Owns the Future?

Posted: 20 Aug 2013 12:00 AM PDT

In the near term, bet on the men with the guns.

Today in History

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 09:00 PM PDT

Today is Tuesday, Aug. 20, the 232nd day of 2013. There are 133 days left in the year.

Beau Biden, Del. AG and son of VP, undergoes tests

Posted: 19 Aug 2013 08:48 PM PDT

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Beau Biden, the Delaware attorney general and the son of Vice President Joe Biden, is undergoing medical testing in Texas after being hospitalized last week for weakness and disorientation, his office said Monday night.