2014年4月22日星期二

Yahoo! News: Iraq

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yahoo! News: Iraq


What Is a Sherpa?

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 04:15 PM PDT

What Is a Sherpa?The deaths last week of 16 guides in an avalanche on Mount Everest has increased global awareness of the region's close-knit Sherpa community and the risks some of these individuals take when helping climbers ascend the world's tallest peaks. It's worth noting that the term "Sherpa" does not actually mean "mountain guide," as many people believe, but instead refers to an ancient ethnic community of some 154,000 members. Most — but not all — of the guides who were killed in the recent Everest avalanche were Sherpas. The Sherpas, whose name translates roughly to "Easterners," are settled primarily in the mountainous Solukhumbu region of eastern Nepal, which is also home to Sagarmatha National Park and Mount Everest.


German rapper-turned-jihadist reported dead in Syria

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 12:24 PM PDT

A member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) speaks into a microphone urging people to join their fight against the regime, in Aleppo on November 13, 2013A German former rapper who joined jihadists fighting in Syria was reported dead on Tuesday by jihadist sources, but hours later some retracted the claim, saying he was still alive. Denis Mamadou Cuspert, who rapped under the name Deso Dogg but took on the name Abu Talha al-Almani in Syria, was initially reported to have been killed in a suicide attack Sunday in an eastern province. He was a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and was reportedly killed in a double suicide bombing carried out by Al-Nusra Front, a rival jihadist group that is Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate.


The Daily Fix: Juicy Day in Court, Nasty Student Loan Collections, and How Things in Iraq Wound Up

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 10:44 AM PDT

What's red, tart, and the subject of a lawsuit that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court? Juice maker Pom Wonderful is suing Coca-Cola for false advertising, saying the soda giant's Pomegranate Blueberry Flavored Blend of Five Juices hardly has any of those two fruits in it, according to The Washington Post. In arguments Monday, Pom lawyer Seth Waxman said consumers "have no way on God's green earth of telling that the total amount of blueberry and pomegranate juice in this product can be dispensed with a single eyedropper." Coca-Cola's lawyer said its product labeling meets Food and Drug Administration standards, and "we don't think that consumers are quite as unintelligent as Pom must think they are."

Media Advisory: National Council Joins Veterans and Mental Health Leaders to Launch Mental Health First Aid for Veterans

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 10:29 AM PDT

WASHINGTON, April 22, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Council for Behavioral Health will launch Mental Health First Aid for Veterans with leaders from veteran service organizations and fellow mental health leaders.Mental Health First Aid for Veterans builds on the evidence-based training program for educators, community leaders, law enforcement and public safety officials. ...

Militants attack balloting center in Iraq, kill 10

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 10:26 AM PDT

Civilians inspect damage in the aftermath of a Monday car bomb attack in a crowded commercial street in Baghdad's eastern neighborhood of Sadr City, Iraq, Tuesday, April 22, 2014. Suicide bombings and other attacks across Iraq killed and wounded dozens on Monday, officials said, the latest in an uptick in violence as the country counts down to crucial parliamentary elections later this month. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)BAGHDAD (AP) — Militants wearing military uniforms carried out an overnight attack against a balloting center in a remote area of the country's north and killed 10 guards, a senior police official said on Tuesday.


7 Days, 4 Countries, 5 Things to Watch As Obama Returns to Asia

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 07:49 AM PDT

7 Days, 4 Countries, 5 Things to Watch As Obama Returns to AsiaWith Eye on China, Obama to Reaffirm Ties With Asian Allies


France to unveil plan to fight Syrian jihadist threat

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 07:28 AM PDT

French President Hollande inaugurates an exhibition on the Haj, the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, at the Institut du Monde Arabe in ParisFrance is to unveil policies to stop its citizens joining the Syrian civil war, a government source said on Tuesday, aiming to prevent young French Muslims becoming radicalized and posing a threat to their home country. The Interior Ministry will present some 20 measures on Wednesday, including a plan to stop minors leaving France without parental consent, increased surveillance of Islamist websites that recruit fighters and a system to encourage parents to signal suspicious behavior in their children. "France will take all measures to dissuade, prevent and punish those who are tempted to fight where they have no reason to be," President Francois Hollande told reporters on Tuesday. With radical Sunni Muslims from outside Syria fighting alongside Syrians against President Bashar al-Assad, Western countries are concerned of the security risk at home.


Five Best Tuesday Columns

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 07:17 AM PDT

Five Best Tuesday ColumnsMichael Daly at The Daily Beast on how Chicago became 'Chiraq'. "President Obama may have gotten our troops out of Iraq, but the gunfire in his hometown of Chicago is still earning it a searing nickname coined by young people who live there. "FBI Director James Comey happened to be in Chicago the following Monday, and he ascribed much of the violence to the gang culture so deeply ingrained in the city. But Comey had little to say about what Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy recognizes as the core problem. 'Until we do something about guns, don't expect things to change overnight,' McCarthy said." U.S. Naval War College professor John Schindler tweets, "There were more casualties in Chiraq (AKA Chicago) than in #Ukraine last (Easter) weekend.


Iraqi parliament hopeful Khazali fought in Syrian civil war

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 04:04 AM PDT

Iraqi parliamentary candidate Faleh al-Khazali poses for a picture in the southern port city of Basra, on April 21, 2014An Iraqi Shiite who proudly fought Sunni rebels in Syria's civil war is now running for parliament in his home country, where the conflict has raised already-high sectarian tensions. Faleh al-Khazali is one of an unknown number of Iraqi Shiites who have gone to fight on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against a Sunni-led rebellion. There are Iraqi Sunnis fighting on the other side of the war, including for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), one of two powerful jihadist groups in Syria with roots in Iraq. The civil war has destroyed swathes of Syrian cities and claimed over 150,000 lives, and in Iraq has sharpened sectarian tensions that have contributed to the worst surge in bloodshed since the height of the violence that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.


Groupon Government

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 02:45 AM PDT

Groupon GovernmentThese days only suckers pay retail for restaurants, clothes, and massages. And tanks, medicine, retirement, border patrol, and nearly every other thing the federal government provides.


How Chicago Became ‘Chiraq’

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 02:45 AM PDT

General view of city skyline in ChicagoThis Easter weekend, 45 people were shot in the city that's come to be known as 'Chiraq.' And until Obama can get the guns off the streets of his hometown, the bloodshed won't stop.


GOP’s Limp ‘Emasculate Obama’ Ploy

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 02:45 AM PDT

GOP's Limp 'Emasculate Obama' PloyRepublicans can mock Obama for having a 'manhood problem,' but they're woefully out of touch with the new masculinity.


Myanmar rebel leader urges US role in peace talks

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 01:52 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — A leader of ethnic Kachin rebels battling government forces in Myanmar has urged the U.S. to play a role in peace talks to quell decades of conflict in the country's lawless border regions.

Post-9/11 military build-up reversal hits officers

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 12:34 AM PDT

FILE - This Nov. 7, 2013 file photo shows Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington. In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, young men and women joined the military to fight through the rugged mountains of Afghanistan and the dusty deserts of Iraq. Less than 10 years later, many of these young officers are captains in the Army with multiple combat deployments under their belts. But now, as the wars wind down and Pentagon budgets shrink, many are being told they have to leave. The process is painful and frustrating. In quiet conversations across Fort Bragg, N.C., and at Fort Eustas in Virginia, captains talked about their frustrations and their fears. And they nervously wait as their fates rest in the hands of evaluation boards that may spend only a few minutes reading through each service record before making the decision that may end their careers. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — After the 9/11 attacks, tens of thousands of young men and women joined the military, heading for the rugged mountains of Afghanistan and dusty deserts of Iraq.


Nationalism, Not NATO, Is Our Great Ally

Posted: 22 Apr 2014 12:00 AM PDT

With Vladimir Putin having bloodlessly annexed Crimea and hinting that his army might cross the border to protect the Russians of East Ukraine, Washington is abuzz with talk of dispatching U.S. troops to Eastern Europe. But unless we have lost our minds, we are not going to fight Russia over territory no president ever regarded as vital to us. Indeed, should Putin annex Eastern and Southern Ukraine all the way to Odessa, he would simply be restoring to Russian rule what had belonged to her from Washington's inaugural in 1789 to George H. W. Bush's inaugural in 1989. This is not an argument for ignoring Russia's conduct.
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