Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Listening to Edward Snowden at SXSW
• Saudi protester jailed for 10 years over Twitter messages
• Israel displays rockets seized in Red Sea raid
• A list of prominent people missing in Syria
• Iraq suicide bombing death toll rises to 50
• Spain says still a target 10 years after train bombs
• Saudi slams 'irresponsible' terror charges by Iraq PM
• Saudi Arabia rejects Maliki's charges on funding Iraqi militants
• Israel open to joint missile defense with Jordan, Egypt
• Syrian forces committing war crimes in Yarmouk siege: Amnesty
• Release of Syrian nuns belies persecution of Christians in rebel areas
• To build the Death Star, we’ll need this space elevator
• Japan, U.S. differ on China in talks on 'grey zone' military threats

Listening to Edward Snowden at SXSW Posted: 10 Mar 2014 02:56 PM PDT His fellow panelists were Ben Wizner and Chris Sogohian of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), but Mr. Snowden, sitting in front of a screen with the US Constitution emblazoned across it, was the star of the show. What did Mr. Snowden, currently residing in Russia to avoid arrest at home, have to say? Snowden said the US needs some new kind of "public oversight" of its intelligence community. He attacked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court that provides secret warrants for surveillance inside the country as a "rubber stamp" for US intelligence and law enforcement (never mind that just today the court denied an NSA request to hold on to telephone metadata indefinitely).

Saudi protester jailed for 10 years over Twitter messages Posted: 10 Mar 2014 02:08 PM PDT A Saudi court sentenced a man to 10 years in jail and a 100,000 riyal ($26,700) fine for joining protests against the kingdom's rulers and using Twitter to urge people to do the same, state news agency SPA said on Monday. SPA quoted Justice Ministry spokesman Fahd al-Bakran as saying the unidentified defendant had also retweeted messages against the monarchy, Muslim scholars and security services. "(He was) convicted of entering an Internet site hostile to the state that encourages fighting and promotes deviant thought," Bakran said, referring to al Qaeda ideology. The verdict was announced two days after Saudi Arabia designated the Muslim Brotherhood, the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant as terrorist organizations.

Israel displays rockets seized in Red Sea raid Posted: 10 Mar 2014 01:59 PM PDT EILAT, Israel (AP) — Israel's prime minister on Monday triumphantly toured a display of dozens of rockets that navy commandos intercepted in the Red Sea last week, alleged to be on their way from Iran to the Gaza Strip, and accused the international community of ignoring Iranian support for militant groups and falling victim to a charm offensive by the new leadership in Tehran.

A list of prominent people missing in Syria Posted: 10 Mar 2014 01:27 PM PDT BEIRUT (AP) — With the release of 13 Greek Orthodox nuns held hostage by the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front in Syria for over three months, here's a list of some other prominent people, including clerics, journalists and activists still missing in Syria and believed in the captivity of rebels. Many are thought to have taken by radical factions, in particular the al-Qaida breakaway group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Iraq suicide bombing death toll rises to 50 Posted: 10 Mar 2014 11:21 AM PDT Hilla (Iraq) (AFP) - A suicide bombing at a crowded checkpoint south of the Iraqi capital killed 50 people and wounded more than 150, police and a doctor said Monday, raising the toll from the day before. The bomber detonated an explosives-rigged vehicle during rush hour on Sunday, the first day of the working week in Iraq, at a checkpoint at the northern entrance to the city of Hilla. Iraq has been hit by a year-long surge in violence that has reached levels not seen since 2008, driven principally by widespread discontent among its Sunni Arab minority and by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.

Spain says still a target 10 years after train bombs Posted: 10 Mar 2014 10:50 AM PDT A decade after Al-Qaeda-inspired bombers blew apart four Madrid commuter trains, killing 191 people, Spain's government warned the country remains a target. On the eve of the 10th anniversary of Spain's worst terrorist attack, Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz said Islamist extremists were still a threat. Al-Qaeda's leaders and its affiliates, including north African group Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and armed fighters battling the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, referred frequently in their statements to "Al Andalus", or Spain, the minister told Onda Cero radio. We are not the only ones but we are in their sights obviously," Fernandez Diaz said.

Saudi slams 'irresponsible' terror charges by Iraq PM Posted: 10 Mar 2014 10:31 AM PDT Saudi Arabia on Monday slammed as "aggressive and irresponsible" accusations by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that the kingdom was supporting global terrorism. "The kingdom condemns the aggressive and irresponsible statements made by the Iraqi prime minister," an unidentified official told the SPA state news agency. In an interview aired on Saturday, Maliki charged that Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Qatar were supporting militant groups in Iraq and across the Middle East as well as terrorism worldwide. "Nuri al-Maliki knows very well, more than anyone else, the clear and categoric position of the kingdom against terrorism... and is aware of the kingdom's efforts to combat this phenomenon locally and globally," the official said.

Saudi Arabia rejects Maliki's charges on funding Iraqi militants Posted: 10 Mar 2014 10:31 AM PDT Saudi Arabia on Monday rejected accusations by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Riyadh and Qatar are funding Sunni Muslim insurgents his troops are battling in Iraq's western Anbar province. Maliki's remarks to France 24 television late on Saturday appeared to play to Iraqi fears of meddling by Sunni Arab states as he tries to burnish his image as a defender of Shi'ite-majority Iraq before elections next month. Iraqi forces have been fighting insurgents of the al Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Anbar's two main cities since January 1.

Israel open to joint missile defense with Jordan, Egypt Posted: 10 Mar 2014 08:55 AM PDT By Dan Williams TEL AVIV (Reuters) - A U.S. general proposed on Monday that Israel upgrade its anti-missile systems to include neighboring Jordan and possibly Egypt, and an Israeli official cautiously welcomed the idea. The two Arab countries that have full peace treaties with the Jewish state share some of its concern regarding the disputed nuclear program of Iran and the civil war wracking Syria - both states with long-range missile arsenals. Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba is also under threat from short-range rockets fired by Islamist militants in the largely lawless Egyptian Sinai - though they have more regularly targeted the next-door Israeli resort of Eilat. Brigadier-General John Shapland, chief defense attache for the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, raised the idea of extending Israel's anti-missile umbrella in comments to a security conference in the city.

Syrian forces committing war crimes in Yarmouk siege: Amnesty Posted: 10 Mar 2014 08:46 AM PDT Amnesty International accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces on Monday of perpetrating war crimes as part of a siege in southern Damascus which has killed nearly 200 people, mostly by starvation. Yarmouk, once home to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and Syrian nationals, is one of several districts on the edge of the Syrian capital which the army has surrounded to choke off rebel forces seeking Assad's overthrow. "The Syrian government has committed numerous war crimes as part of the siege of Yarmouk," Amnesty said in a report released on Monday.

Release of Syrian nuns belies persecution of Christians in rebel areas Posted: 10 Mar 2014 08:37 AM PDT The overnight release of 13 Syrian nuns kidnapped by Islamist rebels provides a rare bright spot for the country's beleaguered Christians, who have faced increasing persecution lately.

To build the Death Star, we’ll need this space elevator Posted: 10 Mar 2014 04:40 AM PDT OK, I was kind of joking — I chose the Death Star as my example because it was the biggest and most absurd-sounding space technology project that I thought readers would generally be aware of. Total costs are estimated at just $20 billion.

Japan, U.S. differ on China in talks on 'grey zone' military threats Posted: 09 Mar 2014 10:11 PM PDT By Nobuhiro Kubo, Linda Sieg and Phil Stewart TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Japan and the United States start talks on how to respond to armed incidents that fall short of a full-scale attack on Japan, officials in Tokyo worry that their ally is reluctant to send China a strong message of deterrence. Tokyo hopes to zero in on specific perceived threats, notably China's claims to Japanese-held islands in the East China Sea, while Washington is emphasizing broader discussions, officials on both sides say. Washington takes no position on the sovereignty of the islands, called the Senkaku by Japan and the Diaoyu by China, but recognizes that Japan administers them and says they fall under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, which obligates America to come to Japan's defense.

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