Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Why U.S. Spies Get Putin Wrong
• New violence shatters truce in Syria's Yarmuk
• Spanish journalist kidnapped in Syria released
• Crisis in Ukraine: As Russia surges, is US still a 'superpower'?
• The ivory police
• Suspected Kurdish rebels abduct local official in southeast Turkey
• Will Sgt. Bergdahl be left behind in Afghanistan?
• 10 million children in Mideast to get polio vaccine: UN
• NATO meets on Ukraine, says Russia risks destabilizing Europe
• Al Qaeda splinter group denies killing Islamist rival in Syria
• Six members of security forces killed in Iraq
• Abducted Spanish journalist released in Syria
• Kuwait's 84-year old Emir undergoes minor surgery: KUNA
• Odd couple at center of Russian helicopter inquiry
• How to Take Action on This Year's Oscar-Movie Issues
• Iraq official says oil exports jump in February

Why U.S. Spies Get Putin Wrong Posted: 02 Mar 2014 01:40 PM PST Blame a myopic mindset—and an intelligence corps focused on terrorism, not Moscow.

New violence shatters truce in Syria's Yarmuk Posted: 02 Mar 2014 12:20 PM PST Firefights and shelling on Sunday shattered a weeks-old truce at the Yarmuk Palestinian camp in Damascus, but a ceasefire allowed residents to return to another besieged area near Syria's capital. Syria's three-year conflict is estimated to have killed more than 140,000 people, forced millions to flee the homes, and taken a brutal toll on children increasingly threatened by disease. On Sunday the United Nations said millions of children across the Middle East were to be vaccinated against polio after the crippling illness resurfaced in Syria for the first time in 15 years. Meanwhile some good news emerged with Spanish journalist Marc Marginedas released by jihadists in Syria after six months in captivity, said his employer El Periodico newspaper.

Spanish journalist kidnapped in Syria released Posted: 02 Mar 2014 11:43 AM PST DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — A Spanish journalist kidnapped by militants from a breakaway al-Qaida group in Syria crossed the border into Turkey on Sunday, his newspaper reported.

Crisis in Ukraine: As Russia surges, is US still a 'superpower'? Posted: 02 Mar 2014 10:49 AM PST More immediately, does the Obama administration have any effective options to influence behavior in Ukraine as Russian military forces surge there, taking over its Crimea region, and amounting to what interim Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk calls "a declaration of war"? As hundreds of armed men in trucks and armored vehicles surrounded a Ukrainian military base in Crimea Sunday, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk said, "We are on the brink of disaster." US Secretary of State John Kerry was the point man for the Obama administration as he made the rounds of the Sunday morning television news programs. It is really a stunning willful choice by [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin to invade another country," Secretary Kerry said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

The ivory police Posted: 02 Mar 2014 09:50 AM PST The driver, Damien Mander, a no-nonsense Australian who is a former elite soldier and gun for hire, quietly calls over his colleague, Chelepele Phiri, a mild, composed Zimbabwean with a quick smile who nonetheless handles his rifle with meaningful menace. The sanctuary sits on largely flat land covered with dense, low bushes that radiate the heat back into the air.

Suspected Kurdish rebels abduct local official in southeast Turkey Posted: 02 Mar 2014 09:04 AM PST Gunmen have abducted the top elected official of a village in southeastern Turkey, security sources said on Sunday, stirring concerns that violence could mount in the region before municipal polls on March 30. Abdurrahman Ecer, 50, is head of the village of Cigli, near the Iraqi border in the remote province of Hakkari, the sources said. He belongs to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party. The sources said blamed the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), saying Ecer was taken at gunpoint and had not been heard from since Friday.

Will Sgt. Bergdahl be left behind in Afghanistan? Posted: 02 Mar 2014 07:51 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The case of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, held by the Taliban since 2009, has arisen again as the U.S. and other countries engage in diplomatic efforts to free him.

10 million children in Mideast to get polio vaccine: UN Posted: 02 Mar 2014 06:54 AM PST Millions of children in the Middle East will be vaccinated against polio this month after the crippling disease resurfaced in conflict-hit Syria, the United Nations said Sunday. Mass vaccinations have already been launched in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Syria, while a similar campaign in Lebanon will start on March 9, the UN Children's Fund Unicef said in a statement. "Polio does not respect borders," said Ala Alwan, World Health Organisation regional director for the eastern Mediterranean. "The detection of polio in Syria is not Syria's problem alone, but one requiring a regional response.

NATO meets on Ukraine, says Russia risks destabilizing Europe Posted: 02 Mar 2014 06:38 AM PST By Luke Baker and Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO's secretary-general warned Moscow on Sunday it was threatening peace in Europe with its seizure of Crimea and should "de-escalate tensions", but diplomats said the alliance was unlikely to agree on major steps to rein Russia in. Speaking moments before chairing an emergency meeting of NATO ambassadors, Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned that Russia's actions in Ukraine could destabilize the continent. "What Russia is doing now in Ukraine violates the principles of the United Nations charter," Rasmussen told reporters before a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, made up of the permanent representatives to the 28-nation military alliance.

Al Qaeda splinter group denies killing Islamist rival in Syria Posted: 02 Mar 2014 05:40 AM PST By Dominic Evans BEIRUT (Reuters) - An al Qaeda splinter group in Syria has denied it was behind the killing of a prominent al Qaeda figure last week and appeared to reject an ultimatum from rival fighters to accept mediation or face all-out assault. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) was responding to the killing last Sunday of Abu Khaled al-Soury, who was close to both al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri and his predecessor Osama bin Laden. Rival Islamist fighters blamed ISIL, locked in conflict for more than a year with other rebels battling to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, for Soury's death. Two days after his killing, the head of al Qaeda's Syria branch, the Nusra Front, warned ISIL militants to accept the arbitration of Muslim scholars within five days to end their infighting or face a war which would wipe them out.

Six members of security forces killed in Iraq Posted: 02 Mar 2014 03:39 AM PST Attacks in predominantly Sunni Arab areas north and west of Baghdad on Sunday killed six people, all members of the security forces, the latest in a year-long surge in bloodshed. Less than two months before parliamentary elections, Iraq is mired in its worst violence since 2008, when it was emerging from a period of brutal sectarian bloodletting that killed tens of thousands of people. Sunday's violence mostly targeting security forces in Sunni-majority areas killed six people, security and medical officials said. Among the dead were three soldiers, a police officer and an anti-Qaeda militiaman in attacks in Hawijah, Balad, Baiji and on Baghdad's western outskirts.

Abducted Spanish journalist released in Syria Posted: 02 Mar 2014 03:35 AM PST MADRID (AP) — A Spanish newspaper says that a correspondent who was kidnapped in Syria by an organization linked to al-Qaida has been released by his captors.

Kuwait's 84-year old Emir undergoes minor surgery: KUNA Posted: 02 Mar 2014 03:24 AM PST Kuwait's 84-year-old ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah has undergone a "successful minor surgery" at a hospital in the United States, state news agency KUNA reported on Sunday. Sheikh Sabah, who has ruled the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab oil exporter since 2006, earned respect in the Middle East for rebuilding ties in the region after Iraq's 1990 invasion of his country. KUNA gave no details on the surgery, but said Sheikh Sabah would remain in hospital for "the normal period of recuperation". Illness at the top of the ruling family left Sheikh Sabah as the de facto policymaker for years before he became emir, chosen as an experienced pair of hands.

Odd couple at center of Russian helicopter inquiry Posted: 01 Mar 2014 11:24 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Yuri Borisov's performance on a lucrative U.S. military contract was dismal — cost overruns, blown deadlines, forged paperwork.

How to Take Action on This Year's Oscar-Movie Issues Posted: 01 Mar 2014 10:59 AM PST From the Egyptian Revolution to LGBT rights, we've paired issues with actions you can take to make the world a little better. Organizations that provide responsible micro-loans can remedy this, from funding a small business in the Philippines to a door completing a home in El Salvador.

Iraq official says oil exports jump in February Posted: 01 Mar 2014 05:38 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's daily oil exports surged to 2.8 million barrels per day in February, some half million barrels more than in the previous month, as international oil companies developed fields and export infrastructure, a senior official said on Saturday.

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