Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• 4 protesters awarded $185K over 2004 RNC arrests
• With one eye on Washington, China plots its own Asia 'pivot'
• Dow tops 17,000 after strong jobs report
• US teen charged with trying to help jihadists
• Syria aid access talks widen to full U.N. Security Council
• Freed Turkish truck drivers back home after Iraq ordeal
• Iraq forces likely need help to regain territory: US
• Dempsey: No assault on Iraq unless US threatened
• Iraqi Kurdish leader urges independence referendum
• Caliphate declaration 'heresy', say Islamists
• Oil prices drop as Libyan supplies to return
• Iraqi Kurdish president asks parliament to prepare for independence vote
• IRAQ SYRIA ISIL
• What's behind the new airport security measures
• Militants free 32 Turkish truck drivers seized in Iraq
• Crude oil futures slip as Iraq risks recede
• Army issues 'worst-case' scenarios for reductions
• US-bound airport security tightens amid worry about one bombmaker
• ECB seeks transparency, vows support to economy
• THINK REFORM, NOT REVOLUTION, THIS FOURTH OF JULY
• Bangladeshis beaten by troops in Iraq, say co-workers
• Iraqi Kurds say will sue Baghdad if it blocks oil sales
• HRW condemns torture, abuse of women in Syria conflict
• FBI agents tried to stop US woman bent on jihad
• Some 50 Indian nurses taken from hospital in Iraqi ISIL stronghold
• Iraq risks 'Syria-like chaos', says UN envoy
• US opposes independence referendum for Iraqi Kurds
• ECB seeks transparency it vows support to economy
• Faith at issue in Senate race in Arkansas
• Dempsey: Iraqi forces can defend Baghdad
• Can Iraqi forces recapture lost ground alone? U.S. says 'probably not'
• The Kurdish push for independence is a big problem for Baghdad
• Iraqi Kurds: Time is ripe for Kurdish independence
• Kurdish leader calls for independence referendum
• Jihadist IS seizes key Syria oil field
• Former Blackwater guard testifies against friends
• Spotlight on Qaeda master bombmaker over flight security
• Romance, jihad led American woman to jail and terrorism charge
• Airport security ramped up over US bomb fears
• ECB keeps rates on hold, cuts down on meetings

4 protesters awarded $185K over 2004 RNC arrests Posted: 03 Jul 2014 04:51 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — Four people arrested at an anti-war march during the 2004 Republican National Convention have been awarded $185,000 in the first trial stemming from lawsuits over protest arrests surrounding the GOP gathering.

With one eye on Washington, China plots its own Asia 'pivot' Posted: 03 Jul 2014 04:12 PM PDT By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - The Silk Road, an obscure Kazakh-inspired security forum and a $50 billion Asian infrastructure bank are just some of the disparate elements in an evolving Chinese strategy to try to counter Washington's "pivot" to the region. While Chinese leaders have not given the government's growing list of initiatives a label or said they had an overall purpose, Chinese experts and diplomats said Beijing appeared set on shaping Asia's security and financial architecture more to its liking. "China is trying to work out its own counterbalance strategy," said Sun Zhe, director of the Centre for U.S.-China Relations at Beijing's Tsinghua University and who has advised China's government on its foreign policy. Added one Beijing-based Western diplomat who follows China's international relations: "This is all clearly aimed at the United States." President Barack Obama's pivot - as the White House initially dubbed it - represented a strategy to refocus on Asia's dynamic economies as the United States disentangled itself from costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dow tops 17,000 after strong jobs report Posted: 03 Jul 2014 03:26 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average topped 17,000 for the first time Thursday, another in a string of records for the index that has lifted portfolios in a five-year bull market for stocks.

US teen charged with trying to help jihadists Posted: 03 Jul 2014 03:07 PM PDT A US teenager who agreed to marry a fighter from the militant network that is threatening to overrun Iraq has been arrested and charged with trying to help a foreign terror group. Shannon Maureen Conley, 19, was arrested in April as she prepared to fly to Turkey to join the jihadist, who was fighting in Syria, according to court documents unsealed this week. Conley, a registered nurse, allegedly agreed to get engaged to him and join him in Syria, where she offered to provide any help she could, whether as a nurse or otherwise. "Y.M." was with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has captured swathes of Iraq in its drive to create an "Islamic caliphate."

Syria aid access talks widen to full U.N. Security Council Posted: 03 Jul 2014 02:50 PM PDT By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Australia, Luxembourg and Jordan circulated a draft resolution to the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Thursday that seeks to boost cross-border humanitarian access in Syria but it was not immediately clear if Russia and China would support the move. After more than a month of negotiations with the permanent veto-wielding council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - the draft text will now be discussed with the remaining elected members next week, diplomats said. Western members have tried to reach a compromise with Russia - a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - and China by using language in the draft similar to that used in a unanimously adopted resolution on Syria's chemical weapons.

Freed Turkish truck drivers back home after Iraq ordeal Posted: 03 Jul 2014 02:13 PM PDT Thirty-two Turkish truck drivers held hostage by Islamic militants in Iraq flew back home to Turkey on Thursday following their release after three weeks in captivity, local officials said. A Turkish plane carrying the truck drivers from the northern Iraqi city of Arbil landed in Turkey's southeastern province of Sanliurfa near the Syrian border late on Thursday. "We were not subjected to ill treatment but we had lived with the fear of uncertainty and death for 23 days," Okkes Sen, one of the truck drivers, told Turkish television.

Iraq forces likely need help to regain territory: US Posted: 03 Jul 2014 02:08 PM PDT The US military's top officer said Thursday that Iraqi forces had shored up their defenses against Sunni militants but would be hard-pressed to regain territory without outside help. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said American advisers were still evaluating the state of the Iraqi army, and he suggested US military action was not imminent. Dempsey told a news conference that Iraqi forces were not yet in a position to stage a major counter-offensive after being driven back by Sunni extremists in recent weeks. US military advisers in the capital found that Iraqi security forces are "stiffening, that they're capable of defending Baghdad," Dempsey said.

Dempsey: No assault on Iraq unless US threatened Posted: 03 Jul 2014 02:06 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is not close to launching a military assault against an Iraqi insurgent group but "may get to that point" if the militants become a threat to the American homeland, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Thursday.

Iraqi Kurdish leader urges independence referendum Posted: 03 Jul 2014 01:59 PM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — With large parts of Iraq in militant hands, a top Kurdish leader called on regional lawmakers Thursday to lay the groundwork for a referendum on independence, a vote that would likely spell the end of a unified Iraq.

Caliphate declaration 'heresy', say Islamists Posted: 03 Jul 2014 01:57 PM PDT The surprise declaration of a "caliphate" by jihadists accused of committing atrocities in Syria and Iraq has provoked an outcry even among Islamists who dream of a state under Sharia law. "All Islamist groups want the caliphate," said Mathieu Guidere, who teaches Islamic studies at France's University of Toulouse.

Oil prices drop as Libyan supplies to return Posted: 03 Jul 2014 01:18 PM PDT Oil extended losses on Thursday on prospects that Libya will begin exporting more crude and as concerns eased about the Iraqi crisis. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for August fell 42 cents to finish at $104.06 a barrel, its sixth consecutive session of losses. Brent North Sea crude for delivery in August dropped 24 cents to $111.00 a barrel in London trade. Prices dropped after Libya's interim Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thani on Wednesday declared that authorities had regained control of export terminals blockaded by rebels.

Iraqi Kurdish president asks parliament to prepare for independence vote Posted: 03 Jul 2014 01:16 PM PDT By Isabel Coles ARBIL Iraq (Reuters) - The president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region asked its parliament on Thursday to plan a referendum on Kurdish independence, signaling his impatience with Baghdad, which is fighting to repel Sunni insurgents and struggling to form a new government. The move came despite U.S. pressure for Kurds to stand with Baghdad as Iraq faces an onslaught by Sunni Muslim militants, led by an al Qaeda offshoot, which has seized large parts of the north and west and is threatening to march on the capital. Iraq's 5 million Kurds, who have governed themselves in relative peace since the 1990s, have expanded their territory by as much as 40 percent in recent weeks as the sectarian insurgency has threatened to split the country. Kurdish President Massoud Barzani asked lawmakers to form a committee to organize a referendum on independence and pick a date for the vote.

IRAQ SYRIA ISIL Posted: 03 Jul 2014 01:10 PM PDT Map shows areas of militant activity, ethnic divisions and militant's goals; 3c x 7 inches; 146 mm x 177 mm;

What's behind the new airport security measures Posted: 03 Jul 2014 01:08 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is implementing tighter security measures at foreign airports that have direct flights to the U.S. out of concern that al-Qaida is trying to develop a new and improved bomb that could go undetected through airport security.

Militants free 32 Turkish truck drivers seized in Iraq Posted: 03 Jul 2014 12:55 PM PDT By Tulay Karadeniz ANKARA (Reuters) - Thirty-two truck drivers abducted by Islamist militants in Iraq three weeks ago arrived home in Turkey on Thursday, and Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said efforts to secure the release of 49 more abductees were continuing. "They first read verses from the Quran and told us that we are free this morning and that we can call our families," one truck driver who was released said as he held his son in his arms. "We ate bread, cucumbers and slept in our trucks." Drivers declined to answer questions on the 49 Turks still held in Iraq, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and children, who were seized in the northern city of Mosul by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants on June 11.

Crude oil futures slip as Iraq risks recede Posted: 03 Jul 2014 12:52 PM PDT The price of oil slipped Thursday as the risk of supply disruptions in Iraq faded and key export terminals in Libya were expected to reopen.

Army issues 'worst-case' scenarios for reductions Posted: 03 Jul 2014 12:47 PM PDT LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Army bases and surrounding communities across the country would lose up to 80 percent of their military and civilian workforces if maximum cuts in both budget and force size go into effect at the end of the decade, according to worst-case scenario projections.

US-bound airport security tightens amid worry about one bombmaker Posted: 03 Jul 2014 12:37 PM PDT The individual the US is worried about is Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, a Saudi-born Al Qaeda follower in Yemen whose particular talent is building hard-to-detect bombs – or perhaps even undetectable bombs. The information that has the US ramping up security around US-bound flights is that Mr. Asiri may have established a working relationship with Jabhat al-Nusra, an Al Qaeda affiliate operating in Syria, according to some US counterterrorism officials. Jabhat al-Nusra is known to have welcomed hundreds of Westerners, and in particular Western European Muslims, into its ranks. The combination of Asiri's bombs and terrorists with Western European passports boarding flights to the US could be devastating, American counterterrorism officials and experts say.

ECB seeks transparency, vows support to economy Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:56 AM PDT The European Central Bank is overhauling the way it sets monetary policy, saying it will hold fewer meetings and publish minutes on its deliberations — a bid to be more transparent as it vows to keep supporting ...

THINK REFORM, NOT REVOLUTION, THIS FOURTH OF JULY Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:31 AM PDT I admit to a slight depression this week before the Glorious Fourth -- what my beloved mother used to call "the blues" (no relation to New Orleans or Chicago) -- whenever I read the newspapers. It's a ways from there to Ukraine, where pugilist Putin behaves more like a guy from Joey's Gym in Brooklyn than a Russian czar. I believed former NATO secretary-general Javier Solana when he used to tell me bravely in Brussels, "The European Union means that we will never have war in Europe again!" But the Europeans are stuck in a bureaucratic hassle about who should be E.U. Bureaucrat No. 1. And here in America, "the land of the free and the home of the brave," we seem to be becoming "the land of the egocentrist and the home of the envious." It is not only in the hallowed halls of Congress that one sees the selfish twits we now call members of the House and Senate illustrate their incapacity, but in so much of America, where we cannot decide whether "I" or "me" is the more beautiful word.

Bangladeshis beaten by troops in Iraq, say co-workers Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:27 AM PDT Hundreds of Bangladeshi construction workers have been beaten and humiliated by soldiers in Iraq after becoming dragged into their host country's sectarian conflict, two of their colleagues said Thursday. Some had their beards shaved off by the mainly Shiite Muslim troops after being accused of sympathising with Sunni insurgents while one of them was stripped naked, according to the men after they returned home. "They abducted the Bangladeshi cleric from our camp mosque last Thursday and when he was released on Saturday, you could see torture marks all over his body," Raqibul Islam told AFP in an interview in Dhaka. Mofidul Islam, another of the group of 21 workers who managed to return to Bangladesh on Tuesday, said abuses had been widespread.

Iraqi Kurds say will sue Baghdad if it blocks oil sales Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:22 AM PDT By Julia Payne and David Sheppard LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has hit back at Baghdad over independent oil exports, a letter from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) showed, threatening to counter sue the central government for trying to block its sales. The strongly worded letter shows growing confidence from the Kurdish capital Arbil in the long-running oil sales dispute, as Baghdad struggles to regain control of swathes of territory lost to a Sunni Islamic militant insurgency. The letter, addressed to Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Karim Luaibi from KRG Natural Resource Minister Ashti Hawrami, said the Kurds would pursue legal action by the middle of this month if Baghdad does not stop its "interference". The autonomous Kurdish region has been trying to establish greater financial independence from Baghdad by selling its own oil production directly on international markets.

HRW condemns torture, abuse of women in Syria conflict Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:20 AM PDT Women have been the victims of arbitrary arrest, torture, harassment and discrimination at the hands of government and rebel forces in Syria's three-year conflict, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. The New York-based global rights watchdog, in a report, urged the international community to "hold those responsible for such abuses to account". "Women have not been spared any aspect of the brutality of the Syrian conflict, but they are not merely passive victims," said Liesl Gerntholtz, women's rights director at HRW. The group: "Women have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, physically abused, harassed and tortured during Syria's conflict by government forces, pro-government militias and armed groups opposed to the government."

FBI agents tried to stop US woman bent on jihad Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:15 AM PDT DENVER (AP) — FBI agents tried more than once to discourage a 19-year-old suburban Denver woman who said she was intent on waging jihad in the Middle East before they arrested her in April as she boarded a flight at the start of a trip to Syria, newly unsealed court documents show.

Some 50 Indian nurses taken from hospital in Iraqi ISIL stronghold Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:13 AM PDT By Sruthi Gottipati NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Nearly 50 Indian nurses from the southern state of Kerala have been taken against their will from a hospital in the militant-controlled city of Tikrit in Iraq, India's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. At a briefing with reporters, Foreign Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin declined to say who had ordered the nurses to leave the hospital or where they were taken. "This is a situation where lives are at stake." A senior aide to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who spoke to the nurses on Thursday, told Reuters that militants had forced the nurses to vacate the hospital and board two buses. Most of the nurses are from the south Indian state of Kerala.

Iraq risks 'Syria-like chaos', says UN envoy Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:05 AM PDT Iraq risks descending into "Syria-like chaos" if its political class fails to unite and agree on a government, the United Nations envoy to Baghdad told AFP on Thursday. Nickolay Mladenov urged Iraq's leaders to press on with a political process that involves selecting a parliament speaker, a president and finally a prime minister, but admitted that tensions were worse than during the peak of the country's all-out sectarian war in 2006. "If Iraq does not follow its constitutional political process, what is the alternative?" Mladenov said in an interview from his Baghdad office.

US opposes independence referendum for Iraqi Kurds Posted: 03 Jul 2014 11:03 AM PDT The United States Thursday came out against a call by Iraq's Kurdish leader for an independence referendum, saying the only way the country could repel Islamic State radicals would be to stay united. Massud Barzani, leader of the autonomous region, earlier told parliament to make preparations for a "referendum on the right of self-determination." "The fact is that we continue to believe that Iraq is stronger if it is united," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

ECB seeks transparency it vows support to economy Posted: 03 Jul 2014 10:48 AM PDT The European Central Bank is overhauling the way it sets monetary policy, saying it will hold fewer meetings and publish minutes on its deliberations — a bid to be more transparent as it vows to keep supporting the economy by any means available.

Faith at issue in Senate race in Arkansas Posted: 03 Jul 2014 10:42 AM PDT LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Candidates in the closely watched Senate race in Arkansas sparred after Republican Rep. Tom Cotton said Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor believes "faith is something that only happens at 11 o'clock on Sunday mornings."

Dempsey: Iraqi forces can defend Baghdad Posted: 03 Jul 2014 10:41 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is not close to launching a military assault against an Iraqi insurgent group, but "may get to that point" if the militants become a threat to the American homeland, the U.S. military chief said Thursday.

Can Iraqi forces recapture lost ground alone? U.S. says 'probably not' Posted: 03 Jul 2014 10:37 AM PDT Iraqi security forces will probably not be able to recapture ground they have lost to Islamist militants without assistance, the top U.S. military officer said on Thursday. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that U.S. advisers now in Iraq were reporting that Iraq's military was "capable of defending Baghdad but it "would be challenged to go on the offense, mostly logistically challenged." "If you're asking me will the Iraqis at some point be able to go back on the offensive, to recapture the part of Iraq that they've lost, I think that's a really broad campaign quality question," Dempsey told reporters at the Pentagon. "Probably not by themselves." Iraq is grappling with an onslaught of Sunni Muslim militants from an al Qaeda offshoot who have seized large areas of northern and western Iraq and are threatening to march on the capital Baghdad.

The Kurdish push for independence is a big problem for Baghdad Posted: 03 Jul 2014 10:30 AM PDT The advertised hope was that some kind of political consensus would emerge on forming a new government that just might convince the Sunni minority to give Baghdad, which has favored Shiite Arabs for more than five years, another chance. On Tuesday, the unlikelihood of getting anywhere was underscored by Kurdish Regional Government President Masoud Barzani telling the BBC that he planned on calling an independence referendum for the Kurds within "months." While the Kurdish desire for independence is understandable – not least because Kurdish government regions have proven more stable and prosperous than the regions run by Iraq's Shiite Arab majority – it also shows one key facet of Iraq's political dysfunction. This cohesive Kurdish bloc at the national level is pretty much necessary for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to form a government;

Iraqi Kurds: Time is ripe for Kurdish independence Posted: 03 Jul 2014 10:14 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing an Iraq that is being ripped apart by sectarian violence and a divisive government, leaders of the country's Kurdish region said Thursday they now believe they have a better chance than ever to break away and create an independent nation.

Kurdish leader calls for independence referendum Posted: 03 Jul 2014 10:03 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — The leader of Iraq's Kurdish north called on lawmakers in the self-rule region's parliament to take the necessary steps toward holding a referendum on independence, a move that would likely spell the end of a unified Iraq.

Jihadist IS seizes key Syria oil field Posted: 03 Jul 2014 09:59 AM PDT The jihadist Islamic State seized control Thursday of a major Syrian oil field on the Iraqi border, as rival fighters withdrew, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. By seizing the Al-Omar oil field, IS now controls most oil and gas fields in the oil-rich Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, most of whose countryside is also under its control. "IS took control of the Al-Omar oil field," located north of the strategic town of Mayadeen, also under its control since dawn Thursday, said the Observatory. The capture "comes after (Al-Qaeda affiliate) Al-Nusra Front withdrew from the oil field without a fight", the Britain-based monitor added.

Former Blackwater guard testifies against friends Posted: 03 Jul 2014 09:48 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Blackwater security guard Matthew Murphy and now-indicted ex-colleague Paul Slough were friends, having survived the war in Iraq together, creating a bond that under different circumstances might have lasted a lifetime.

Spotlight on Qaeda master bombmaker over flight security Posted: 03 Jul 2014 09:40 AM PDT As fears rise over warnings of new explosives able to slip by standard airport security checks, eyes are turning to southern Yemen and one man in particular: master Al-Qaeda bombmaker Ibrahim al-Asiri. Washington has warned that travellers flying to the United States from Europe and the Middle East are to face tighter airport checks after intelligence pointed to the new threat. He is reported to have been involved in making a bomb for the failed 2009 Christmas Day plot to blow up a US-bound airliner and an attempt to send parcel bombs containing PETN hidden in printer ink cartridges from Yemen to Chicago in 2010. French criminologist Christophe Naudin, an expert on aviation security, said it was only intelligence, not traditional security checks, that prevented the Chicago-bound parcel bombs from reaching their targets.

Romance, jihad led American woman to jail and terrorism charge Posted: 03 Jul 2014 09:18 AM PDT Federal agents appear to have gone out of their way to persuade Shannon Conley of Arvada, Colo., to abandon plans join jihadists in Syria, but ultimately arrested her in April at Denver International Airport as she allegedly pursued her intent, according to court documents released Wednesday. Ms. Conley, a 19-year-old nurse's aide and a Muslim convert, planned to travel to Syria to join an online suitor, who told her he was affiliated with the militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the militant group that has recently overtaken parts of northern Iraq, the FBI affidavits allege. FBI agents arrested Conley on April 8 at the airport as she was boarding a plane to leave the US. During a series of interviews with Conley between November and March, FBI agents encouraged her to join humanitarian efforts to aid Muslim lands rather than supporting violence, but she reportedly insisted that such aid could not solve the problems she wanted to address.

Airport security ramped up over US bomb fears Posted: 03 Jul 2014 09:17 AM PDT US-bound travellers from Europe and the Middle East faced tighter airport security Thursday due to fears that Muslim extremists are developing new explosives that could be slipped onto planes undetected. The stepped-up security checks were ordered as the US embassy in Uganda warned of a "specific threat" to attack Kampala's Entebbe international airport on Thursday between 1800 and 2000 GMT. US Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced the extra security on direct flights to the United States from some overseas airports on Wednesday, without citing evidence of any specific plot. The move comes amid broader Western intelligence concerns that hundreds of Islamist radicals travelling from Europe to fight in the Middle East could pose a security risk on their return.

ECB keeps rates on hold, cuts down on meetings Posted: 03 Jul 2014 08:28 AM PDT The European Central Bank is taking a leaf out of the Federal Reserve's book and will, starting next year, set monetary policy every six weeks instead of every month and publish minutes to its deliberations.

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