Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Russians study Islamic video threatening Olympics
• MESSAGE OF NONVIOLENCE WAS KING'S GREATEST GIFT
• George W. Bush library archives open to public
• Iran invite to Syria talks withdrawn after boycott threat
• Resurgent Afghanistan drug trade threatening US goals, Pentagon warns
• 7 Insights from a Sadder but Wiser President Obama
• Car bombs on Syria-Turkey border post kill 16
• Iraq warns militants possess major firepower
• Qaeda gunmen tighten Fallujah grip as Iraq bombs kill 21
• Al Qaeda offshoot imposes strict Islamic rules in north Syria
• Russian Islamists threaten 'presents' at Sochi Games
• Sixteen killed by twin bombs at Syria-Turkey border post
• Syria's Assad expects to run again, rejects power deal
• Syrian opposition gives UN ultimatum on revoking Iran's peace talks invite
• Baghdad bomb blasts kill 26, Iraqi troops fight Sunni rebels
• Briefing: What's behind Iraq violence?
• Militant Islamist video threatens Winter Olympics
• Bombings kill 28 in Iraq as offensive continues
• Russian anti-terrorism agency studies video
• Bombings kill 21 people in Iraq
• Official: Al-Qaida has enough arms to take Baghdad
• A look at key events in Syria's uprising
• Analysis: Old Europe vs. New Europe in race for Commission chief
• 10 Things to Know for Monday
• UN invites Iran to Syrian peace conference

Russians study Islamic video threatening Olympics Posted: 20 Jan 2014 04:03 PM PST MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's counter-terrorism agency says it's studying a video posted by an Islamic militant group that asserted responsibility for suicide bombings that killed 34 people last month and is threatening to strike the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

MESSAGE OF NONVIOLENCE WAS KING'S GREATEST GIFT Posted: 20 Jan 2014 03:30 PM PST WASHINGTON -- As we commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week, I think back to my interview with him in 1961. We sat at a picnic table, and I can even today picture Dr. King's beatific face. Besides seeing Dr. King, this was the best part of the day for me because I found an alley behind the jailhouse, located my friends' faces in the windows, and soon was the recipient of more than 50 notes with details for my article! We went back home the next day, but Dr. King had to spend his life in that treacherous world.

George W. Bush library archives open to public Posted: 20 Jan 2014 02:46 PM PST DALLAS (AP) — The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on Monday began accepting Freedom of Information Act requests for records from Bush's presidency.

Iran invite to Syria talks withdrawn after boycott threat Posted: 20 Jan 2014 02:39 PM PST By Louis Charbonneau and Parisa Hafezi UNITED NATIONS/ANKARA (Reuters) - U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon withdrew a last-minute invitation to Iran to attend peace talks on Syria on Monday after the Syrian opposition threatened to boycott this week's conference if President Bashar al-Assad's main sponsor took part. Ending nearly 24 hours of confusion that dismayed diplomats who have spent months cajoling Assad's opponents to negotiate, Ban's spokesman said Iran was no longer welcome at the initial day of talks at Montreux, Switzerland on Wednesday. But the uproar over Iran, which has provided Assad with money, arms and men, underlined the difficulties of negotiating an end to a bloody, three-year civil war that has divided the Middle East and world powers. Ban, his spokesman said, made the invitation to Iran after Iranian officials assured him they supported the conclusion of a U.N. conference in 2012, known as Geneva-1, which called for a transitional administration to take over power in Syria - something neither Assad nor Tehran have been willing to embrace.

Resurgent Afghanistan drug trade threatening US goals, Pentagon warns Posted: 20 Jan 2014 01:06 PM PST The drug problem in Afghanistan is growing, and it threatens to undermine the US war effort of building a stable country there, top Pentagon officials say in some of the sharpest warnings they have ever issued on the topic. Just how to take on Afghanistan's opium poppy trade, however, has long been a tricky proposition for the US military.

7 Insights from a Sadder but Wiser President Obama Posted: 20 Jan 2014 12:45 PM PST A sadder but wiser President Obama began his sixth full year in the White House on Monday still clinging to the shards of a once ambitious political agenda while acknowledging the limits of his power in Washington. With another State of the Union address just around the corner, the President still has a substantial to-do list to tout, including additional economic measures to help the middle class, "reversing the trend toward economic bifurcation in this society," and improved diplomatic relations with Iran that might somehow bring a semblance of stability to an explosive Middle East. Beyond that, however, the president is under no illusion that he and a politically divided Congress will be able to negotiate anything resembling a "Grand Bargain" of reforms or a "Marshall Plan" for inner cities before he leaves office. With his own approval ratings at record lows, Obama has relatively little leverage on Capitol Hill – even among Democrats.

Car bombs on Syria-Turkey border post kill 16 Posted: 20 Jan 2014 11:54 AM PST A double suicide car bombing at the Bab al-Hawa border post between Syria and Turkey on Monday killed at least 16 people, including six rebels, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, updating an earlier toll, said 20 people were wounded as one car detonated at a checkpoint just outside the crossing and another inside the post. The border crossing in Idlib province of northwest Syria is held by Islamist and moderate rebels who have been locked in fierce fighting with jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in recent weeks. ISIL fighters on Monday took control of the Jarrah military airport in the northern province of Aleppo that had been in rebel hands since February 2013.

Iraq warns militants possess major firepower Posted: 20 Jan 2014 11:24 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Islamic militants controlling a mainly Sunni area west of Baghdad are so well-armed that they could occupy the capital, a top Iraqi official warned Monday, a frank and bleak assessment of the challenge posed in routing the insurgents as a new wave of bombings killed at least 31 people.

Qaeda gunmen tighten Fallujah grip as Iraq bombs kill 21 Posted: 20 Jan 2014 10:20 AM PST Al-Qaeda-linked militants tightened their grip on Fallujah, a city on Baghdad's doorstep that has been outside of government control for weeks, as bombings in the capital killed 21 people Monday. The latest violence came as security forces pressed a massive assault on anti-government fighters in Ramadi, another predominantly Sunni Arab city where swathes of territory have been outside of the authorities' control. And a top official warned that militants had enough weaponry to "occupy Baghdad". After days of tense calm in Fallujah, a former insurgent bastion a short drive from Baghdad, tribal chiefs and witnesses said Al-Qaeda-linked militants were increasingly exerting their authority in the city on Monday.

Al Qaeda offshoot imposes strict Islamic rules in north Syria Posted: 20 Jan 2014 10:08 AM PST By Stephen Kalin BEIRUT (Reuters) - A group linked to al Qaeda, emboldened by its recent victory over rival rebels in Syria, has imposed sweeping restrictions on personal freedoms in the northern province of Raqqa as it seeks to consolidate control over the region. Reuters obtained copies of four statements issued on Sunday by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) prohibiting music from being played in public and photographs of people being posted in shop windows. ISIL is widely considered the most radical of the rebel groups fighting forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, and increasingly each other, in Syria's civil war. The first and only city to have fallen completely under rebel control, Raqqa has been held up by many ordinary Syrians as an example of what Syria might look like in a post-Assad era.

Russian Islamists threaten 'presents' at Sochi Games Posted: 20 Jan 2014 10:03 AM PST Russian Islamist militants have promised to deliver "a present" to President Vladimir Putin at the Sochi Olympic Games in a video which identifies them as suicide bombers killed in attacks last month. In the video posted on well-known North Caucasus Islamist website VDagestan.com, two men sitting in front of a jihadist flag warn the Russian authorities of planned attacks in Sochi. "There is a real threat for Sochi, and the desire to spoil the Games is also real," said analyst Pavel Felgenhauer.

Sixteen killed by twin bombs at Syria-Turkey border post Posted: 20 Jan 2014 09:45 AM PST Two car bombs hit a rebel-held post on the Syrian border with Turkey on Monday, killing at least 16 people and closing the frontier, opposition activists and fighters said. The Bab al-Hawa crossing is held by a rebel alliance called the Islamic Front, which has been fighting with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a small but powerful affiliate of al Qaeda with a core of foreign fighters. The anti-Assad Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group, said at least six of the dead from Monday's bombing were Islamist fighters. A Syrian activist at Bab al-Hawa said the two car bombs exploded within 10 minutes of each other.

Syria's Assad expects to run again, rejects power deal Posted: 20 Jan 2014 09:08 AM PST Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said there is a "significant" chance he will seek a new term and ruled out sharing power with the opposition seeking his ouster, in an exclusive interview with AFP before the Geneva II peace talks. Speaking on Sunday at his presidential palace in Damascus, Assad said he expected Syria's war to grind on. Assad appeared at ease, wearing a navy blue suit and smiling regularly throughout the 45-minute interview. Assad, 48, came to power in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez, who ruled for nearly 30 years.

Syrian opposition gives UN ultimatum on revoking Iran's peace talks invite Posted: 20 Jan 2014 08:37 AM PST The Syrian opposition has given the United Nations an ultimatum: Revoke Iran's invitation to the Syria peace talks this week, or they will boycott the talks. Getting the Syrian opposition to the table was a tremendous challenge, and they only voted Saturday to attend the talks in Geneva, known as Geneva II. The opposition gave the UN a deadline of 2 p.m. today to take back Iran's invitation. If not met, the Syrian National Coalition has said it will not attend the talks, the first direct talks between the government and opposition. "We cannot attend if Iran is there, and the coalition is united on this point," coalition member Hadi al-Bahra said, according to the Washington Post.

Baghdad bomb blasts kill 26, Iraqi troops fight Sunni rebels Posted: 20 Jan 2014 06:56 AM PST Seven bomb explosions killed 26 people and wounded 67 in the Iraqi capital on Monday, police and medics said, as security forces battled Sunni Muslim militants around the western cities of Falluja and Ramadi. The bloodiest attack occurred in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim Abu Dsheer district in southern Baghdad, where a car bomb near a crowded market killed seven people and wounded 18. But Sunni insurgents, some of them linked to al Qaeda, are widely blamed for a surge in violence in the past year apparently aimed at undermining the Shi'ite-led government and provoking a return to all-out sectarian strife. Al Qaeda militants and their local allies seized control of Falluja and parts of Ramadi on January 1, exploiting resentment among minority Sunnis against the government for policies perceived as unfairly penalizing their once-dominant community.

Briefing: What's behind Iraq violence? Posted: 20 Jan 2014 06:55 AM PST The last U.S. combat troops left Iraq in 2011, "having succeeded in the mission of giving to the Iraqis ... a chance for a successful future," said President Obama at the time. In the past month, that future has dimmed, with the Sunni Arab insurgency flaring anew, particularly in Anbar Province. No. The very day the last US troops left Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, from the Shiite-Islamist Dawa Party, turned the screws on senior Sunni Arab politicians in parliament, signaling his intention to crush his political enemies. Mr. Maliki called for a vote of no confidence against Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq and issued an arrest warrant for Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, the country's most senior elected Sunni Arab officials.

Militant Islamist video threatens Winter Olympics Posted: 20 Jan 2014 06:33 AM PST By Timothy Heritage MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two men said by Islamist militants to have carried out suicide attacks in south Russia appeared in a video donning explosive belts and warning Vladimir Putin to expect a "present" at the Sochi Winter Olympics from fighters following after them. The video was posted by a group identifying itself as Vilayat Dagestan and appeared on a website often used by militants from Russia's northern Caucasus region where Moscow has been battling insurgency for over a decade.

Bombings kill 28 in Iraq as offensive continues Posted: 20 Jan 2014 06:14 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A series of bombings in central Iraq killed 28 people on Monday, as a government official claimed that al-Qaida-linked fighters have dug in to a city they seized last month and possess enough heavy weapons to storm into the country's capital.

Russian anti-terrorism agency studies video Posted: 20 Jan 2014 06:11 AM PST MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's counter-terrorism agency says it is studying a video posted by an Islamic militant group asserting responsibility for suicide bombings last month that killed 34 people in Volgograd and threatening to strike the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Bombings kill 21 people in Iraq Posted: 20 Jan 2014 04:13 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi authorities say a series of bombings across Baghdad, targeting marketplaces and two court buildings, has killed 21 people.

Official: Al-Qaida has enough arms to take Baghdad Posted: 20 Jan 2014 02:19 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A senior Iraqi official claims al-Qaida fighters hunkered down in a city they seized late last month west of Baghdad have enough heavy weapons to allegedly take the country's capital.

A look at key events in Syria's uprising Posted: 19 Jan 2014 11:35 PM PST It began innocently enough in March 2011, with a short phrase spray-painted on a schoolyard wall by teenagers in the southern Syrian city of Daraa: "Your turn is coming, doctor." The doctor referred to President Bashar Assad, a trained ophthalmologist, and the implication was that he too would fall from power like his counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt who had recently been toppled in popular revolts.

Analysis: Old Europe vs. New Europe in race for Commission chief Posted: 19 Jan 2014 11:05 PM PST By Paul Taylor PARIS (Reuters) - Donald Rumsfeld sparked uproar among Europeans a decade ago when he depicted a split over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq as pitting "Old Europe" against "New Europe". The U.S. defense secretary was trumpeting the fact that central and east European countries that were about to join the European Union supported Washington's 2003 military action even though EU founders France and Germany opposed it. Wounds were still fresh the following year when EU leaders met to nominate a new president of the European Commission, the executive body that proposes and enforces EU laws. Britain, which fought alongside the United States in Iraq, marshaled enough allies to block anti-war Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, the Franco-German choice.

10 Things to Know for Monday Posted: 19 Jan 2014 07:14 PM PST Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Monday:

UN invites Iran to Syrian peace conference Posted: 19 Jan 2014 06:14 PM PST BEIRUT (AP) — The United Nations on Sunday invited Iran to attend an international meeting of foreign ministers in the Swiss city of Montreux ahead of the first direct peace talks between the warring Syrian sides in the nearly three-year conflict.

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