Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• White House upset with House defense bill
• Bombings kill at least 118 in Nigerian city of Jos
• Nigeria asks U.N. al Qaeda committee to blacklist Boko Haram
• Novelist Sam Greenlee dies in Chicago
• Attacks kill 13 people in Iraq
• 11 soldiers killed in Iraq attacks
• Post-9/11 Heroes to be honored on National Mall this weekend
• Eight Iraq soldiers killed in gun attack
• Iran says Kuwait's emir to visit, turn 'new page' in ties
• Primary Super Tuesday: Kentucky, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Arkansas, and Idaho
• Quick fixes unlikely for Iraq after election: experts
• Amid Egypt rights abuses, U.S. stalls over more military aid
• Iraqi PM's bloc wins most parliamentary seats

White House upset with House defense bill Posted: 20 May 2014 03:02 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is escalating an election-year dispute with Congress over military spending as lawmakers bucked the Pentagon and spared favorite ships and aircraft despite diminishing budgets.

Bombings kill at least 118 in Nigerian city of Jos Posted: 20 May 2014 04:57 PM PDT By Adamu Jonah and Anamesere Igboeroteonwu JOS (Reuters) - Back-to-back bomb blasts killed at least 118 people and wounded 45 in the crowded business district of the central Nigerian city of Jos on Tuesday, emergency services said, in an attack that appeared to bear the hallmarks of the Boko Haram insurgents. But the militant group Boko Haram, which has set off bombs across the north and center of Nigeria in an increasingly bloody campaign for an Islamic state, was likely to be the prime suspect in what would rank among their deadliest single attacks in five years of insurrection. Boko Haram grabbed world headlines by abducting more than 200 schoolgirls on April 14 from the northeastern village of Chibok. If the Jos attack was the handiwork of Boko Haram, it would show their growing reach in Africa's top oil producing and most populous country, striking out beyond their heartland in Nigeria's semi-arid and weakly governed northeast.

Nigeria asks U.N. al Qaeda committee to blacklist Boko Haram Posted: 20 May 2014 12:27 PM PDT By Michelle Nichols and Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Nigeria has formally asked the U.N. Security Council al Qaeda sanctions committee to blacklist the Islamist militant group Boko Haram after the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls, according to a confidential document obtained by Reuters. If there is no objection by the 15-member council committee, which operates by consensus, Boko Haram will be sanctioned as of 3:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday. Until recently, Nigeria had been reluctant to seek international assistance to combat Boko Haram. Boko Haram kidnapped more than 250 girls from a secondary school in Chibok in remote northeastern Nigeria on April 14 and has threatened to sell them into slavery.

Novelist Sam Greenlee dies in Chicago Posted: 20 May 2014 10:59 AM PDT CHICAGO (AP) — Poet and novelist Sam Greenlee has died in Chicago at the age of 83.

Attacks kill 13 people in Iraq Posted: 20 May 2014 10:34 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Attacks in Iraq killed 13 people on Tuesday, including off-duty soldiers on their way home, officials said.

11 soldiers killed in Iraq attacks Posted: 20 May 2014 10:10 AM PDT Attacks north of Baghdad killed 11 Iraqi soldiers on Tuesday, the latest in a protracted surge in bloodshed just a day after officials announced results from April's parliamentary election. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is seeking a third term in office, has been held responsible by critics for the deterioration in security but he has blamed external factors such as the civil war in neighbouring Syria. In Tuesday's deadliest attack, gunmen opened fire on a bus transporting soldiers from the restive northern town of Suleiman Bek, according to local official Talib Mohammed al-Bayati. The authorities have trumpeted wide-ranging operations against militants and say that external factors are responsible for the surge in bloodshed.

Post-9/11 Heroes to be honored on National Mall this weekend Posted: 20 May 2014 09:59 AM PDT WASHINGTON, May 20, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- For the first time, the names of the nearly 7,000 American service members who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty since the attack on 9/11 will be read on the National Mall. Americans from across the nation will join together on Saturday, May 24, 2014 to read the names of these heroes in the order they were taken from us.  The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund (VVMF), in partnership with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), will host the ceremony. The reading of the names will begin at 9 a.m. with a brief introductory ceremony at the East Knoll of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and will continue until each of the names is read aloud. The ceremony will include remarks from: The Honorable Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense;

Eight Iraq soldiers killed in gun attack Posted: 20 May 2014 09:36 AM PDT Kirkuk (Iraq) (AFP) - Militants killed eight Iraqi soldiers travelling on a bus in a restive area of north Iraq on Tuesday, a town official said a day after officials announced parliamentary election results. The soldiers were leaving the town of Suleiman Bek to go on leave, but were stopped by militants who killed them, official Talib Mohammed al-Bayati said. No one immediately claimed the attack, but Sunni militants, including those linked to the powerful Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have in the past targeted the security forces. Iraq is experiencing a protracted surge in unrest with violence at its worst since 2008.

Iran says Kuwait's emir to visit, turn 'new page' in ties Posted: 20 May 2014 05:47 AM PDT Kuwait's ruling emir will visit Iran at the end of the month to help turn a "new page" in bilateral ties, Iran's foreign ministry said on Tuesday, in the latest sign that Tehran seeks to improve relations with its Arab neighbors. Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah will visit Iran on May 31-June 1 at the invitation of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said. The trip will be his first to Iran since becoming emir in 2006.

Primary Super Tuesday: Kentucky, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Arkansas, and Idaho Posted: 20 May 2014 05:30 AM PDT Today is the big one, the Super Tuesday of the primary season, with six states holding primaries across the country, including Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Oregon,and Pennsylvania.  WHO'S ON THE BALLOT?Today's key race features the senate minority leader pummeling a tea party challenger in Kentucky,...

Quick fixes unlikely for Iraq after election: experts Posted: 20 May 2014 04:54 AM PDT Strong election results may deliver a third term for incumbent premier Nuri al-Maliki, but few of Iraq's intractable problems, from brutal violence to fragile sectarian ties, appear closer to resolution, experts say. Iraq's security forces are mired in near-daily clashes with militants in western Iraq, to say nothing of regular attacks elsewhere in the country, while corruption has run rampant and unemployment remains high. Meanwhile, a lack of electoral success for secular cross-sectarian alliances could further contribute to worsening communal relations, fuelling fears Iraq may slip back into the all-out conflict that plagued it years ago. "It is a positive that the elections actually took place, especially given the difficult conditions Iraq is going through," said Fanar Haddad, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore's Middle East Institute.

Amid Egypt rights abuses, U.S. stalls over more military aid Posted: 20 May 2014 02:26 AM PDT By Missy Ryan and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite resuming some military aid, the United States appears unlikely to quickly restore the close ties with Egypt that framed U.S. Middle East policy for decades, as concerns persist over the authoritarian crackdown since last year's military takeover. Even as Egypt prepares for elections this month that could give new legitimacy to the country's military-backed leaders, many Obama administration officials question the need to restore Egypt to its place as the premier U.S. partner in the Arab world. Washington's caution reflects a desire to help Egypt nip a mounting insurgency in the bud without being seen as sanctioning the interim government's repression of political opponents and the media. The focus of bilateral aid, at least for the time being, is on confronting the militant threat and other security issues while U.S. officials assess how the country's next government responds to demands to halt the harsh treatment of dissent.

Iraqi PM's bloc wins most parliamentary seats Posted: 19 May 2014 11:36 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki moved closer to winning a third term Monday as his Shiite-dominated political bloc emerged firmly in first place in the country's first parliamentary elections since the U.S. military withdrawal in 2011. The challenge now for al-Maliki is to build a ruling coalition as violence rages and instability grows.

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