Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Risk-off, but no U.S. investor panic over Ukraine
• Ex-Blackwater contractors seek dismissal of case
• Vietnam veterans sue U.S. military for discharge upgrades over PTSD
• Ravens Coach Headlines The COMMIT Foundation Gala
• As China looks on, Putin poses risky dilemma for the West
• Poland requests more NATO consultations over Russia
• Bahrain bomb kills 3 police during protest
• UN deputy envoy to Syria wants to quit post: spokesman
• Iraq forces battle militants, other violence kills 10
• Sex crimes trial of Army general highlights U.S. military justice

Risk-off, but no U.S. investor panic over Ukraine Posted: 03 Mar 2014 03:00 PM PST By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) - Russia's military move on the Crimean peninsula has raised tensions between Moscow and the West to levels not seen since the Cold War ended, but U.S. investors are not yet ready to sell, duck or cover. While Russian markets were hammered after the country took control of the Crimean region of Ukraine, the moves were less frenetic in Europe and even more muted in the United States. If military action is involved or Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen as too aggressive in his demands, expect a further drop in Treasury yields and in global stocks, at least in the short term. Over a longer period, however, investors expect this issue to cause only a modest selloff in U.S. stocks, mostly because very little in the way of U.S. sales depends on Russian demand.

Ex-Blackwater contractors seek dismissal of case Posted: 03 Mar 2014 02:18 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Former security contractors charged in a deadly shooting in Iraq are asking a federal judge to dismiss the indictment against them as the case moves forward to trial.

Vietnam veterans sue U.S. military for discharge upgrades over PTSD Posted: 03 Mar 2014 01:49 PM PST (Please note name V Prentice in 11th paragraph is correct) By Scott Malone BOSTON (Reuters) - Five Vietnam War veterans sued the U.S. military on Monday, saying they were denied some veterans services after receiving other-than-honorable discharges for actions that resulted from post-traumatic stress disorder. The men, including one who was the victim of a poison gas attack on his first day in Vietnam and another whose duties included sorting through body parts of soldiers killed in combat, called on the military to upgrade the discharges of veterans of the conflict who suffer from PTSD. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, seeks class action status for what it estimates are tens of thousands of veterans who can now be shown to suffer from PTSD, a condition not recognized by the military in the 1960s and early 1970s at the time of the U.S. war in Southeast Asia. "The military gave these service members other than honorable discharges based on poor conduct such as unauthorized absence without leave, shirking, using drugs, or lashing out at comrades or superior officers," the lawsuit said.

Ravens Coach Headlines The COMMIT Foundation Gala Posted: 03 Mar 2014 01:35 PM PST BALTIMORE, March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Coach John Harbaugh, Head Coach of the Baltimore Ravens, gave an animated and entertaining speech about his troop visits with Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno on Saturday night in front of a capacity crowd at the American Visionary Arts Museum.  CBS reporter Jessica Kartalija emceed the black tie event, which drew 300 guests from across the nation to support The COMMIT Foundation's cause of assisting veterans in transition from the battlefield to their next mission out of uniform. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake enjoyed the pre-dinner cocktail hour with a host of leaders from General Dynamics C4 Systems, Robert Half, Sinclair Broadcasting Group, Reliable-Churchill, JP Morgan, Whiteford Taylor Preston, Goldman Sachs, Cassidy Turley and Oxpoint Holdings.

As China looks on, Putin poses risky dilemma for the West Posted: 03 Mar 2014 01:34 PM PST One senior Obama administration official called Vladimir Putin's actions in the Ukraine "outrageous." A second described them as an "outlaw act." A third said his brazen use of military force harked back to a past century. "What we see here are distinctly 19th and 20th century decisions made by President Putin," said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to a group of reporters. "But what he needs to understand is that in terms of his economy, he lives in the 21st century world, an interdependent world." James Jeffrey, a retired career U.S. diplomat, said that view of Putin's mindset cripples the United States' response to the Russian leader. "All of us that have been in the last four administrations have drunk the Kool-Aid," Jeffrey said, referring to the belief that they could talk Putin into seeing the western system as beneficial.

Poland requests more NATO consultations over Russia Posted: 03 Mar 2014 12:19 PM PST NATO allies will hold emergency talks on the crisis in Ukraine on Tuesday, for the second time in three days, following a request from Poland, the alliance said on Monday. In calling the meeting, Poland, a neighbor of Ukraine, invoked a NATO rule allowing any ally to consult with the others if it feels its security, territorial integrity or independence are under threat, the so-called Article 4. "The developments in and around Ukraine are seen to constitute a threat to neighboring Allied countries and having direct and serious implications for the security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area," the alliance said in a statement. NATO meetings under Article 4 are rare.

Bahrain bomb kills 3 police during protest Posted: 03 Mar 2014 12:19 PM PST MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — A bomb blast in Bahrain killed three policemen as they were dispersing "rioters and vandals" on the outskirts of the capital Manama, authorities said Monday in an escalation likely to increase tensions between security forces and hard-line protesters.

UN deputy envoy to Syria wants to quit post: spokesman Posted: 03 Mar 2014 09:01 AM PST The Damascus representative of UN-Arab League Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has asked to quit his post, a UN spokesman said Monday. Mokhtar Lamani, who heads Brahimi's Damascus office, "has submitted a request to the United Nations to be relieved of his duties, but he has not officially resigned," UN spokesman Khaled al-Masri told AFP. Lamani has held frequent meetings with both rebel and regime representatives, shuttling across battle lines in Syria, and has a very strong grasp of the situation on the ground. Brahimi took over from his predecessor, Kofi Annan, as UN-Arab League peace envoy to Syria in September 2012.

Iraq forces battle militants, other violence kills 10 Posted: 03 Mar 2014 08:25 AM PST Dozens of militants died in two days of fighting with counter-terrorism forces in a city west of Iraq's capital, a security spokesman said, while violence elsewhere Monday killed at least 10 people. Violence has surged to a level not seen since 2008, when Iraq was just emerging from a brutal period of sectarian killings in which tens of thousands died. And shifting parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi and all of the city of Fallujah, to its east, have been held by anti-government fighters for more than eight weeks. Sabah Noori, spokesman for Iraq's Counter-Terrorism Service, said its forces had killed 52 jihadist militants in fighting on Sunday and Monday in Ramadi.

Sex crimes trial of Army general highlights U.S. military justice Posted: 03 Mar 2014 05:01 AM PST By Colleen Jenkins WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (Reuters) - The rare court-martial of a U.S. Army general charged with sex crimes will delve into explicit details of his adulterous affair with a female captain in two war zones, and alleged inappropriate email exchanges with several other subordinates. The accusations led to Brigadier General Jeffrey Sinclair's removal from command in Afghanistan in 2012 and his trial, set to begin on Tuesday at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will shed light on how the military handles such complaints. Proponents of military justice reform say the case underscores broader problems with the U.S. armed forces' approach to sexual assault prosecutions and shows the need for an overhaul as such crime reports increase. Sinclair's attorneys argue that defense officials facing intense political pressure to curb sexual violence in the military have targeted an officer who has served five combat tours with sex charges that hang on weak evidence and an unreliable primary witness.

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