| Syrian civil war prompts polio vaccination effort Posted: 13 Nov 2013 04:06 PM PST  TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — Health officials are rushing to vaccinate millions of children from Egypt to Turkey, fearing a polio outbreak in Syria could spread as tens of thousands of refugees flee the civil war.
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| First test for Syria rebel government: provide services Posted: 13 Nov 2013 01:46 PM PST  The opposition Syrian National Coalition announced a new government this week, after months of delays, facing challenges on the ground from Kurds seeking autonomy and Al-Qaeda groups that reject its authority. The interim government is under pressure to quickly provide services to citizens living in large swathes of rebel-held territory, particularly in Syria's north. But the fractious internal politics of the Coalition, along with the strength of Al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists on the ground and advances by regime troops all pose key challenges for the new government. Members of the Coalition acknowledge that the government's first priority will be to prove itself by offering badly needed public services.
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| Iraq attacks kill 30 as Shiites mass for Ashura Posted: 13 Nov 2013 01:42 PM PST  Violence across Iraq, including bombings against Shiites, killed 30 people on Wednesday as worshippers massed in a shrine city on the eve of major commemoration rituals often targeted by militants. The bloodshed was the latest in a months-long surge in unrest that has forced Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to appeal for US help in combatting militancy, with Iraqi security forces having failed to stem the violence. Bombings mostly struck north and west of Baghdad, targeting Shiite Muslims and members of the security forces. On the outskirts of Baquba, north of the capital and one of Iraq's most violent areas, three coordinated bombs struck a gathering of Shiite pilgrims marking Ashura.
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| Emboldened by victory over jihadis, Syrian Kurds push toward autonomy Posted: 13 Nov 2013 01:38 PM PST On Tuesday, Kurdish groups announced the formation of an interim autonomous government in Syria's Kurdish region, with elections to follow. The announcement comes on the heels of battle successes against Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), among the most powerful of the myriad homegrown and foreign forces fighting the Assad regime. Since the latest fighting between the Syrian Kurds and Al Qaeda affiliates broke out in July, the dominant Kurdish organization, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), has used its battle successes to burnish its image among Kurds and consolidate its hold over the region. In October the PYD's armed wing drove ISIS from the strategic Iraqi border crossing of Yaroubiya, which analysts say has hampered the jihadis' access to its support network in Iraq and handed the Kurds a vital border crossing. |
| Turkey asks NATO to extend Patriot deployment near Syria border Posted: 13 Nov 2013 01:17 PM PST  Turkey has asked NATO to extend for another year the deployment of surface-to-air Patriot missiles to protect its troubled border with Syria because of a continuing "serious" threat, officials said on Wednesday. "We have received a letter from the Turkish government requesting the continuation of the Patriot mission," a NATO official told AFP on condition of anonymity. "The North Atlantic Council has regularly assessed the situation and the implementation of the Patriot mission. It is clear that the overall risks and threats to Turkey remain serious," the official said.
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| Syrian Kurdish leader claims military gains against Islamists Posted: 13 Nov 2013 12:13 PM PST  By John Irish PARIS (Reuters) - Islamist groups in northern Syria are weakening after months of fighting and Kurdish militias are gaining ground, a top Kurdish leader said on Wednesday, vowing to continue their advances. Saleh Muslim, head of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), told Reuters in Paris that Tuesday's announcement of an interim administration that aims to carve out an autonomous Syrian Kurdish region was only "provisional" until there was a viable solution to Syria's civil war. Long oppressed under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his father before him, Kurds view the war as an opportunity to gain more autonomy - much as their ethnic kin in neighboring Iraq have regarded turmoil there. Control over Syria's northeast, where Kurds predominate, had in recent months swung back and forth between them and mainly Arab Islamist rebels, who strongly oppose what they suspect are Kurdish plans to secede.
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| Assad's forces make further gains around Damascus Posted: 13 Nov 2013 10:31 AM PST  By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad captured the southern Damascus suburb of Hujaira on Wednesday, part of a broader advance that has brought him major gains south of the capital before proposed international peace talks. Syrian state television and al-Manar, the channel of the Lebanese group Hezbollah whose fighters helped drive rebels out Hujaira, broadcast live footage showing soldiers in control of otherwise empty streets flanked by shelled buildings and ruins. "Southern districts that have been under rebel control for more than a year are falling one by one," Damascus-based activist Rami al-Sayyed said, referring to gains by Assad's forces around the capital. The capture of Hujaira came a day after Islamist rebels in Aleppo declared an emergency and summoned all fighters to confront Assad's forces who have taken towns to the southeast of the contested northern city and also challenged rebel control in the center of Aleppo itself.
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| Online peace institute recruits students Posted: 13 Nov 2013 10:20 AM PST Hundreds of students from Israel and across the Arab world will soon be headed to school together. YaLa-Young Leaders, which calls itself the largest online peace movement, says it's recruiting 1,500 students ... |
| Bosnia's U.S. Embassy attacker says sorry, rejects radical Islam Posted: 13 Nov 2013 09:40 AM PST By Daria Sito-Sucic SARAJEVO (Reuters) - A man being re-tried for attacking the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in 2011 apologized for his "stupid act" on Wednesday and told the court he had been manipulated and then abandoned by his radical Islamist mentors. The attack ignited fears about the radicalization of Muslims in Bosnia as it recovered from the wars of the 1990s. Jasarevic was found guilty of terrorism and sentenced to 18 years in prison by Bosnia's state court in December 2012. Most Bosnian Muslims practice a moderate form of Islam. |
| Syrian army captures suburb south of Damascus Posted: 13 Nov 2013 09:38 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops captured a contested suburb of Damascus on Wednesday as the government forged ahead with a punishing military offensive that already has taken four other opposition strongholds south of the capital, state media said.
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| Army advances as jihadists call to arms in north Syria Posted: 13 Nov 2013 09:32 AM PST  Syrian troops advanced on the Islamist-held northern village of Tal Hassel on Wednesday, prompting jihadist rebels in nearby Aleppo to call for mass mobilisation to counter the offensive. Fighting raged at Tal Hassel, some 12 kilometres (seven miles) from Aleppo, the country's pre-war commercial hub, where the regime and rebels have been locked in a bloody standoff for more than a year. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that relies on activists and other witnesses on the ground, said three people were killed and 30 wounded in the shelling. The Syrian army has been pounding away at the Damascus suburbs in recent months in a bit to protect President Bashar al-Assad's seat of power from rebel shelling but has not managed to halt almost daily fire.
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| Genies, archangels, prophets join Iran Shiite ceremony Posted: 13 Nov 2013 08:56 AM PST  NOUSH ABAD (Iran) (AFP) - In the town of Noush Abad in central Iran, genies, prophets and archangels travel alongside Imam Hussein to Karbala, in a locally interpreted Ashura procession marking the martyrdom of the third Shiite imam. The event that pitted Imam Hussein and dozens of his loyal followers against the troops of the Caliph Yazid has become one of the founding tenets of Shiite Islam, the predominant faith practiced in Iran.
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| Syria opposition blasts Kurd self-rule as 'hostile' Posted: 13 Nov 2013 08:34 AM PST  The main Syrian opposition alliance dubbed as "hostile" forces Wednesday Kurdish groups that control large swathes of the country's north after they proclaimed provisional self-rule. Kurdish militia, dominated by the Democratic Union Party (PYD), sister party of veteran Turkish rebel group the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), have held the Afrin region of northwestern Syria and big chunks of the northeast for more than a year. The Sunni Arab-dominated main opposition alliance, the Syrian National Coalition, has been at pains to keep the Kurds on side. Its main faction, the Syrian National Council, even named secular Kurdish dissident Abdulbaset Sayda as its leader last year.
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| UN: 21 nations take up polio 'emergency' Posted: 13 Nov 2013 08:03 AM PST Some 21 nations in the Middle East and nearby regions have jointly made the eradication of polio an emergency priority and recognized that Pakistan is a key part of the problem, the World Health Organization ... |
| Bombings target Iraq police, pilgrims, killing 19 Posted: 13 Nov 2013 07:01 AM PST  At least 19 people were killed in bomb attacks targeting Iraqi police and pilgrims on Wednesday, police and medical sources said, just before the end of a Shi'ite Muslim religious festival. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which coincided with the holy ritual of Ashura, when Shi'ites commemorate Imam Hussein who died more than 1,000 years ago. Shi'ites are considered apostates by hardline Sunni Islamist insurgents who have been regaining momentum in Iraq this year. Security personnel are also a prime target for Sunni militants linked with al Qaeda, which seeks to destabilize Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and foment intercommunal conflict.
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| Syrian Kurds make fresh military gains after declaring self-rule Posted: 13 Nov 2013 06:12 AM PST  By Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - Kurdish militias seized another seven villages in northeastern Syria, activists said on Wednesday, a day after the fighters' political wing announced an interim administration that aims to carve out an autonomous Syrian Kurdish region. Kurds, often described as the world's largest stateless ethnic group, number about 30 million, concentrated in parts of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. While they have had partial autonomy in Iraqi Kurdistan since 1991, nationalist movements have long been suppressed in Turkey, Syria and Iran. In the chaos of Syria's 2-1/2 year civil war, Kurds there have captured most Kurdish-dominated cities.
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| Obama Really Needs a Win Right Now Posted: 13 Nov 2013 06:10 AM PST  Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's Prime Minister Javid Zarif almost reached a deal to dissolve Iran's nuclear weapons program, which would have been a real win for the administration after a long dry spell. Of course negotiations fell through, Kerry blamed Iran, and Zarif fired back—with a tweet. Stewart asked Senior International Affairs correspondent Samantha Bee how the administration was taking this diplomatic setback. Obama just really needed this win," Bee said.
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| Attacks in Iraq around religious ritual kill 22 Posted: 13 Nov 2013 05:26 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Attacks across Iraq targeting security forces and those marking a major Shiite commemoration killed 21 people on Wednesday while gunmen in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah assassinated the city's mayor as he was supervising a clean-up project.
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| Canada launches new attack against EU's proposed dirty oil rules Posted: 13 Nov 2013 05:06 AM PST  By Scott Haggett CALGARY (Reuters) - Canada on Wednesday renewed its attack on the European Union's plan to classify Canadian tar sands oil as particularly dirty and released a study questioning the data behind the controversial measure. Canada has the world's third-largest proven reserves of crude, much of which is locked in the tar sands of Alberta. The EU is working on a Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) to cut emissions of greenhouse gases from the transport sector. The directive singles out the tar sands, a move Canada fears could set a bad precedent and hit crucial energy exports.
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| Expanded Fertility Treatment Discounts for Veterans Who Served in Iraq or Afghanistan Posted: 13 Nov 2013 05:06 AM PST FAIRFAX, Va., Nov. 13, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As a special thank you to members of the military who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, The Genetics & IVF Institute (GIVF), is offering those who served in those areas double the discounts normally available to active duty and twenty-year retired military and their spouses on both traditional in vitro fertilization (IVF) and donor egg IVF fertility treatment, including some of GIVF's outstanding refund and multicycle programs. "GIVF's regular military discount program, SALUTE, offers excellent benefits," says Laurence Udoff, M.D., a fertility specialist and Medical Director at GIVF, "but we want to do something very special for those who served our country in Iraq and Afghanistan." To enjoy the benefits of the enhanced program, patients must complete a consult with a GIVF physician by January 31, 2014. |
| Special Report: To expand Khamenei's grip on the economy, Iran stretched its laws Posted: 13 Nov 2013 04:45 AM PST  (This is the third story in a three-part series, Assets of the Ayatollah: http://www.reuters.com/investigates/iran/#article/part3) By Yeganeh Torbati, Steve Stecklow and Babak Dehghanpisheh (Reuters) - Two months before his death in 1989, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini tried to solve a problem unleashed by the revolution he led a decade earlier. The result was a new organization - known as Setad, or "The Headquarters" - that reported to Iran's supreme leader. Khomeini's successor as supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has used it to amass assets worth tens of billions of dollars, rivaling the holdings of the late shah. Reuters found no evidence that Khamenei puts these assets to personal use.
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| Attacks in Iraq around religious ritual kill 21 Posted: 13 Nov 2013 03:55 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Attacks across Iraq targeting security forces and those marking a major Shiite commemoration killed at least 21 people Wednesday, officials said. |
| Attacks in Iraq around religious holiday kill 21 Posted: 13 Nov 2013 03:35 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Attacks across Iraq targeting security forces and those marking a major Shiite holiday killed at least 21 people Wednesday, officials said. |
| Attacks in Iraq ahead of religious ritual kill 21 Posted: 13 Nov 2013 03:13 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Officials in Iraq say attacks against Shiites and police ahead of a religious ritual have killed at least 21 people. |
| Syrian troops make inroads south of Damascus Posted: 13 Nov 2013 03:03 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops captured most of a contested suburb south of Damascus on Wednesday as the government forges ahead with a punishing military offensive that already has taken four other nearby opposition strongholds, state media said.
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| Triple bombing kills 8 Shiites in eastern Iraq Posted: 13 Nov 2013 12:01 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say a triple bombing targeting Shiites observing a key religious ritual killed at least eight people in the country's east. |
| US welcomes Syrian rebels' decision to attend mooted peace talks Posted: 12 Nov 2013 08:16 PM PST  The United States welcomed the decision by Syria's rebel Opposition National Coalition to take part in mooted Geneva peace talks. "This is a significant step forward in the process to convene the Geneva conference, the goal of which is... establishing by mutual consent of the two negotiating delegations a transitional governing body exercising full executive powers," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. "We also welcome the inclusion of representatives of the Kurdish National Coalition within the Syrian Coalition, ensuring the Coalition is more inclusive of Syria's diversity," she stressed. Syria's main opposition grouping said Monday it will attend peace talks but only on the condition that President Bashar al-Assad transfers power and is excluded from any transition process.
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| Suarez not taking Jordan lightly in World Cup quest Posted: 12 Nov 2013 07:53 PM PST  Uruguay and Liverpool star Luis Suarez has warned his national side against complacency when they take on Jordan in their World Cup playoff in Amman on Wednesday. Suarez –- who has been in tremendous form for Liverpool with eight Premier League goals already this season -– flew on a private jet to Amman for the first leg match that has captured the imagination of Jordanians hoping for an upset victory that could help their nation qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time in history. "Jordan will be very motivated to play us, just as teams are when they meet us in the World Cup and the Copa America," said Suarez.
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