Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• UN appeals for record aid to address Syria crisis
• HARD WORK OF GOVERNING REMAINS IN SOUTH AFRICA
• U.N. seeks $6.5 billion for Syria crisis in 2014
• Journalists hit by surge of attacks in Iraq's Mosul
• Report: Marine shooter had suffered brain injury
• Russia: Aug. 21 Syria chemical attack was 'staged'
• Wave of attacks kill 65 people in Iraq
• Car bombs hit Shiite pilgrims as Iraq unrest kills 68
• UN makes record funding appeal for Syria
• Testing a US 'empathy deficit' in Syria
• In echo of Bush, Cameron says mission accomplished in Afghanistan
• As foreign funds run dry, Syrian fighters defect to anti-Western militias
• In echo of Bush, UK's Cameron says mission accomplished in Afghanistan
• US ups security aid to SE Asia, criticizes China
• Wave of attacks kill 70 people in Iraq
• Half of Syria's population has no food security
• Scores killed in Iraq bloodshed ahead of Shi'ite holy day
• Exclusive: Iran nabbed CIA asset Levinson, says witness
• Double bombing kills 23 Shiite pilgrims in Iraq
• Syrian airstrikes pummel rebel areas
• Bombs kill at least 24 more Shi'ite pilgrims in Iraq
• Attacks across Iraq kill at least 47 people
• American Spy in Iran: TIME Talks to the Assassin at the Center of the Robert Levinson Saga
• UN: $12.9 billion aid needed in 2014
• Militants attack city council as Iraq unrest kills 42
• Syrian airstrikes pound rebel areas
• Insight: Syria uses red tape, threats to control U.N. aid agencies
• Attacks across Iraq kill at least 38 people
• Moderate Syrian rebels vow to protect journalists
• 'Barrel bomb' raids in Syria's Aleppo kill 76
• Attacks across Iraq kill at least 29 people
• Attacks in, around Baghdad kill at least 9 people
• After a Long Delay, Lebanon Finally Says Yes to Ikea Housing for Syrian Refugees

UN appeals for record aid to address Syria crisis Posted: 16 Dec 2013 03:06 PM PST The United Nations on Monday appealed for a record $12.9 billion in emergency aid, half of which is for victims of Syria's war, which is expected to generate another two million refugees next year. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 76 people died Sunday, among them 28 children, in the highest toll for air raids since the war started, while 10 others, including four children, were killed by the same weapons on Monday. The UN's humanitarian agency OCHA, which launched the appeal for emergency aid, said the funds are needed for 2014, when the number of Syrian refugees in the Middle East will nearly double to exceed four million. He described Syria's war and its regional impact as "the most dangerous crisis for global peace and security since World War II."

HARD WORK OF GOVERNING REMAINS IN SOUTH AFRICA Posted: 16 Dec 2013 03:00 PM PST WASHINGTON -- There was little that was not beautiful and, beauty's inevitable partner, appropriate about Nelson Mandela's burial in his Eastern Cape hometown of Qunu last weekend. They recalled for foreign journalists that funerals there are a manner of remembering a person's life -- and no one, ever, in South Africa had had such a life as his!

U.N. seeks $6.5 billion for Syria crisis in 2014 Posted: 16 Dec 2013 02:52 PM PST By Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations appealed for a record $6.5 billion for Syria and its neighbors on Monday to help 16 million people, many of them hungry or homeless victims of a conflict that has lasted 33 months with no end in sight. The Syrian appeal accounted for half of an overall funding plan of $12.9 billion for 2014 to help 52 million people in 17 countries, announced by U.N. emergency relief coordinator Valerie Amos at a meeting of donor countries in Geneva. The money requested for Syria, covering food, drinking water, shelter, education, health services and polio vaccines, was the largest U.N. appeal ever for a single crisis. Syria's currency has plummeted by 80 percent since the revolt began in March 2011, and destruction of the water network has left 10 million people - almost half the pre-war population - relying on the United Nations to chlorinate water.

Journalists hit by surge of attacks in Iraq's Mosul Posted: 16 Dec 2013 02:01 PM PST Mosul (Iraq) (AFP) - The northern Iraqi city of Mosul has become a nightmare for journalists, with five killed since October with alleged impunity, pushing some to flee the area or even the country. Iraq has come in for repeated criticism over the lack of media freedom and the number of unsolved killings of journalists. But the series of attacks on journalists in Mosul, with the latest on Sunday, when gunmen shot dead TV presenter Nawras al-Nuaimi, is the worst to hit Iraq in years. "I had to change my place of residence in Mosul and remain at my (new) home without leaving, after the killings that affected a number of my colleagues," said journalist Salim Fadhel, 30.

Report: Marine shooter had suffered brain injury Posted: 16 Dec 2013 01:43 PM PST McLEAN, Va. (AP) — A distraught Marine who fatally shot his ex-girlfriend and a colleague before killing himself at the Quantico Marine Corps base was suicidal, had signs of traumatic brain injury and should have received better psychological care, a military investigation found.

Russia: Aug. 21 Syria chemical attack was 'staged' Posted: 16 Dec 2013 01:22 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia on Monday lashed out at the U.S. and its allies on the U.N. Security Council over who is to blame for chemical weapons attacks in Syria this year.

Wave of attacks kill 65 people in Iraq Posted: 16 Dec 2013 01:19 PM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A double car bombing and a shooting killed 34 Shiite Muslims on pilgrimage in Iraq on Monday, the deadliest in a wave of attacks across the country that left at least 65 dead. It was the bloodiest day of violence in nearly two months.

Car bombs hit Shiite pilgrims as Iraq unrest kills 68 Posted: 16 Dec 2013 01:03 PM PST Car bombs ripped through Shiite pilgrims near Baghdad while militants attacked a city council headquarters and a police station, as Iraq-wide violence killed at least 68 people Monday, officials said. The killing of the pilgrims underscored the danger of sectarian violence in Iraq, while the attacks on the city council and police station in Salaheddin province showed the impunity with which militants can strike even targets that should be highly secure.

UN makes record funding appeal for Syria Posted: 16 Dec 2013 12:58 PM PST BEIRUT (AP) — The exodus of millions of people from Syria in one of the largest refugee flights in decades is pushing neighboring countries to a breaking point, and thousands of lives are threatened with the onset of a bitter winter.

Testing a US 'empathy deficit' in Syria Posted: 16 Dec 2013 12:58 PM PST In his campaign to be president, Barack Obama often talked of an "empathy deficit" among Americans. These days, he may spend more time talking about the federal deficit. But with the world now coping with its worst humanitarian crisis in decades, it is a good time to take measure of the alleged empathy deficit. More than a third of all Syrians already need some humanitarian assistance, either within the war-ravaged country or in nearby Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon.

In echo of Bush, Cameron says mission accomplished in Afghanistan Posted: 16 Dec 2013 12:23 PM PST By Peter Griffiths LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that British troops could leave Afghanistan next year with a sense of having accomplished their mission, despite worries about the ongoing Taliban insurgency, drug cultivation and human rights abuses. British media compared his comments to a banner bearing the words "Mission Accomplished" that was strung across the bridge of an American aircraft carrier in 2003 for a speech about the Iraq war by former U.S. president George W. Bush. During a pre-Christmas visit to British soldiers in southern Afghanistan, Cameron was asked if they would be able to return home with the message "mission accomplished" after 12 years of fighting. "That is the mission, that was the mission and I think we will have accomplished that mission." Cameron's critics said the words were misguided, given the widespread concerns over Afghan security, the drugs trade, human rights and allegations of corruption under the governance of President Hamid Karzai.

As foreign funds run dry, Syrian fighters defect to anti-Western militias Posted: 16 Dec 2013 12:10 PM PST In an apartment in this Jordanian city that has become a rest stop for the Syrian opposition, Ahmed al-Hariri waits for the guns and ammunition that he says he has been promised. It may be a long wait. Hariri commands a brigade of 450 men in the Free Syrian Army in his hometown of Dara'a where the Syrian uprising began in 2011. Once courted by Western powers and funded by anti-regime exiles, support for the FSA has dried up in recent months, and its demoralized fighters have begun to desert. Some end up in the arms of armed opposition groups linked with Al Qaeda, whose sectarian cause has attracted foreign fighters and funding, to the alarm of Western powers that initially backed the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. The US and Britain said last week that they had suspended non-lethal aid to northern Syrian rebels after Islamist rebels raided a warehouse run by an FSA-allied group, underscoring the crisis of leadership in Syria's armed opposition.

In echo of Bush, UK's Cameron says mission accomplished in Afghanistan Posted: 16 Dec 2013 12:06 PM PST By Peter Griffiths LONDON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday that British troops could leave Afghanistan next year with a sense of having accomplished their mission, despite worries about the ongoing Taliban insurgency, drug cultivation and human rights abuses. British media compared his comments to a banner bearing the words "Mission Accomplished" that was strung across the bridge of an American aircraft carrier in 2003 for a speech about the Iraq war by former U.S. president George W. Bush. During a pre-Christmas visit to British soldiers in southern Afghanistan, Cameron was asked if they would be able to return home with the message "mission accomplished" after 12 years of fighting. "That is the mission, that was the mission and I think we will have accomplished that mission." Cameron's critics said the words were misguided, given the widespread concerns over Afghan security, the drugs trade, human rights and allegations of corruption under the governance of President Hamid Karzai.

US ups security aid to SE Asia, criticizes China Posted: 16 Dec 2013 11:24 AM PST U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry offered harsh words for China and new maritime security assistance for Southeast Asia on Monday to bolster countries facing growing Chinese assertiveness in a region ...

Wave of attacks kill 70 people in Iraq Posted: 16 Dec 2013 10:58 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A double car bombing and a shooting killed 34 Shiite Muslims on pilgrimage in Iraq on Monday, the deadliest in a wave of attacks across the country that left at least 70 dead. It was the bloodiest day of violence in nearly two months.

Half of Syria's population has no food security Posted: 16 Dec 2013 10:31 AM PST Half of Syria's population is "food insecure" and nearly a third needs urgent assistance, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday, as it reported plans to step up aid. The report came as the International Rescue Committee also warned that Syrians were struggling to secure food as the price of bread has soared by 500 percent since the conflict erupted 33 months ago. "Recent assessments show that almost half the population inside Syria is food insecure and close to 6.3 million people need urgent, life-saving, food assistance," WFP said in a statement.

Scores killed in Iraq bloodshed ahead of Shi'ite holy day Posted: 16 Dec 2013 10:27 AM PST By Ghazwan Hassan TIKRIT (Reuters) - Suicide bombers and gunmen killed scores of people in Iraq on Monday in attacks mostly targeting Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims and official buildings ahead of a major Shi'ite ritual next week. Al Qaeda-linked Sunni Muslim militants have intensified attacks on the security forces, civilians and anyone seen as supporting the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad, tipping Iraq back into its deadliest levels of violence in five years. The first major attack of the day came in Baiji, 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, when four men wearing explosive belts took over a police station after detonating a car bomb outside, police sources said. "All the militants were killed before they reached the police department building where the detainees are held." No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suicide bombings are the trademark of al Qaeda's Iraqi wing, which merged this year with its Syrian counterpart to form the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Exclusive: Iran nabbed CIA asset Levinson, says witness Posted: 16 Dec 2013 10:08 AM PST Dawud Salahuddin, an African-American convert to Islam who met with Mr. Levinson on Iran's resort island of Kish in 2007, told the Monitor in Tehran that they were detained at the Maryam Hotel on March 9, 2007, by six plainclothes policemen and then separated. "They took me away, and when I left – we were down in the lobby – Levinson was surrounded by four Iranian police," says Salahuddin, who spent the night in jail. When he returned the next day, Salahuddin spoke to the Indian manager of the hotel, who told him Levinson was gone: "He told me that, and without saying a word let me know that the guy did not leave on his own accord, that he was in custody. Salahuddin, a fugitive who has lived in Iran since carrying out a 1980 murder in Maryland on behalf of Iran's revolutionary regime, says the flurry of publicity and revelations about Levinson's CIA connections could be a sign of an impending release, though Levinson's family has more than once been given false hope by the US government.

Double bombing kills 23 Shiite pilgrims in Iraq Posted: 16 Dec 2013 09:10 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Authorities in Iraq say a double car bomb attack has killed 23 Shiites pilgrims just south of Baghdad.

Syrian airstrikes pummel rebel areas Posted: 16 Dec 2013 08:57 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government aircraft pounded opposition areas in the northern city of Aleppo and near the southern border with Jordan on Monday, a day after airstrikes killed at least 76 people, while the United Nations issued a record appeal for $6.5 billion to help the millions of Syrians uprooted by their homeland's civil war.

Bombs kill at least 24 more Shi'ite pilgrims in Iraq Posted: 16 Dec 2013 08:56 AM PST BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two parked cars laden with explosives and a roadside bomb went off near a funeral tent and killed at least 24 Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims on Monday in a southern Iraqi town, police and medical sources said. The attack took place in Yusfiya, 20 km (12 miles) south of Baghdad, the latest in a series of attacks mostly targeting Shi'ites, who mark a religious festival next week. (Reporting by Kareem Raheem; Writing by Suadad al-Salhy; Editing by Alison Williams)

Attacks across Iraq kill at least 47 people Posted: 16 Dec 2013 08:47 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A group of suicide bombers launched a brazen assault on a police station north of Baghdad, killing eight policemen, the deadliest in a string of attacks across Iraq that left at least 47 people dead on Monday, official said.

American Spy in Iran: TIME Talks to the Assassin at the Center of the Robert Levinson Saga Posted: 16 Dec 2013 08:00 AM PST Dawud Salahuddin, who was named David Belfield when he was growing up on Long Island, says he's never regretted serving as an assassin for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Salahuddin converted to Islam as a young man and in July 1980, disguised as a mailman, he shot and killed the spokesman for the exiled Shah of Iran in the foyer of the man's home in Bethesda, Md. Salahuddin then fled to Iran, where he has lived ever since. But something else has been a burden on the conscience of the American fugitive for more than six years: the fate of Robert Levinson, the retired FBI agent who was arrested by security officials while visiting Salahuddin in Iran in March 2007 and has not been seen since. "Not any more," Salahuddin tells TIME.

UN: $12.9 billion aid needed in 2014 Posted: 16 Dec 2013 07:30 AM PST The United Nations said Monday it will need nearly $13 billion in aid in 2014 to reach at least 52 million people in 17 countries, including the millions of Syrians who have been displaced by their civil ...

Militants attack city council as Iraq unrest kills 42 Posted: 16 Dec 2013 07:04 AM PST Tikrit (Iraq) (AFP) - Militants attacked and temporarily occupied a city council headquarters and assaulted a police station in Iraq on Monday, as violence across the country killed 42 people, officials said. The attacks on the city council and the police station, both in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, illustrate the impunity with which militants in Iraq can strike even targets that should be highly secure.

Syrian airstrikes pound rebel areas Posted: 16 Dec 2013 06:53 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — A day after airstrikes killed at least 76 people, Syrian government aircraft pounded opposition areas in the northern city of Aleppo and near the southern border with Jordan on Monday, while the United Nations appealed for $6.5 billion to help the millions of Syrians uprooted by their homeland's civil war.

Insight: Syria uses red tape, threats to control U.N. aid agencies Posted: 16 Dec 2013 04:12 AM PST By Oliver Holmes and Stephanie Nebehay BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - It is a 15-minute drive from the five-star hotel that houses U.N. aid staff in Damascus to rebel-held suburbs where freezing children are starving to death. As the United Nations launched an annual appeal on Monday to help 16 million people affected Syria's civil war, divisions among world powers that have crippled peacemaking are also denying U.N. staff the power to defy President Bashar al-Assad's officials and push into neighborhoods now under siege. "In government-controlled parts of Syria, what, where and to whom to distribute aid, and even staff recruitment, have to be negotiated and are sometimes dictated," said Ben Parker, who ran the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Syria for a year until last February. "According to the Syrian government's official position, humanitarian agencies and supplies are allowed to go anywhere, even across any frontline," he wrote last month in the journal Humanitarian Exchange.

Attacks across Iraq kill at least 38 people Posted: 16 Dec 2013 04:08 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A group of suicide bombers launched a brazen assault on a police station north of Baghdad, killing eight policemen, the deadliest in a string of attacks across Iraq that killed at least 38 people on Monday, official said.

Moderate Syrian rebels vow to protect journalists Posted: 16 Dec 2013 04:00 AM PST The leaders of Syria's main Western-backed moderate rebel faction said they would do everything in their power to protect journalists on assignment in the country and work to secure the release of those ...

'Barrel bomb' raids in Syria's Aleppo kill 76 Posted: 16 Dec 2013 03:54 AM PST The Syrian air force was on Monday accused of killing 76 people by unleashing barrels packed with explosives on Aleppo, a focal point for fighting between regime and rebel forces. The bombardment, which activists described as "unprecedented", came as the United Nations said the number of Syrian war refugees in the Middle East was likely to double to 4.1 million by the end of 2014. The number of people slain in Sunday's bombing of Aleppo "with explosive-packed barrels... rose to 76," including "28 children and four women," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, updating its previous toll of 36 dead. Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said it was "one of the heaviest tolls from air raids since the beginning of the war" that flared after a brutal regime crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired democracy protests that erupted in March 2011.

Attacks across Iraq kill at least 29 people Posted: 16 Dec 2013 02:18 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A group of suicide bombers launched a brazen assault on a police station north of Baghdad, killing eight policemen, the deadliest in a string of attacks across Iraq on Monday that killed at least 29 people, official said.

Attacks in, around Baghdad kill at least 9 people Posted: 16 Dec 2013 12:23 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say bombings in and around Baghdad have killed at least nine people and wounded 28.

After a Long Delay, Lebanon Finally Says Yes to Ikea Housing for Syrian Refugees Posted: 16 Dec 2013 12:00 AM PST As every new homeowner knows, Ikea's flat-pack furniture fills the niche for cheap, trendy and ultimately disposable housewares. So it only made sense that Ikea's philanthropic wing would team up with the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, to develop a similarly of-the-moment solution to the vexing problem of temporary refugee housing, which hasn't substantially evolved beyond the tent since the Israelites fled Egypt. The only problem is that the flat-pack Ikea Refugee Housing Unit, with its roomy interior, solar lights and insulated wall panels — all designed to last three years compared to a tent's six months — isn't temporary enough for some. Nowhere is that more evident than in Lebanon, where government authorities had, until last week, prohibited their use for the mass influx of Syrians fleeing the war, worried that the upgraded housing may just incite refugees to stay.

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