Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Top Asian News at 12:00 a.m. GMT
• Saudis give UN $100 million to fight terrorism
• 52 dead as jihadists make gains in northern Syria: monitor
• U.S. evacuation of Yazidis from Iraq's Mount Sinjar unlikely: Pentagon
• Plan 'under way' to rescue refugees on Iraq mountain: Cameron
• US forces assess Iraq mountain refugees' needs
• UN says Iraq humanitarian crisis at highest level
• Obama weighing options for rescuing Iraqi refugees
• Hagel: Far fewer Iraqi refugees now on Sinjar Mt.
• U.S. team lands on Iraqi mountain where Yazidis are trapped
• Clinton and White House try to shrug off split
• Clinton's Obama balancing act as 2016 looms
• U.S. team landed on Mount Sinjar to assess possible evacuation
• Maliki refuses to go as Iraqis turn to new leader
• Iraqi religious persecution hits home in Nebraska
• US troops meet refugees on besieged Iraq mountain: Pentagon
• Obama's new Iraq plan: A slippery slope to combat troops?
• Biotechs lift Wall Street; Dow back in black for 2014
• Obama on vacation! What all the carping is really about
• US Military Team Lands on Mt. Sinjar in Iraq to Assess Yazidi Crisis
• AP video journalist, translator killed in Gaza
• The Pentagon Gave the Ferguson Police Department Military-Grade Weapons
• US drones strike jihadist target in northern Iraq
• Stocks rise, led by Wall St rebound; copper slides
• US urges Maliki to respect Iraqi political process
• US indexes move higher; Amazon gains, Macy's drops
• Maliki's Dawa Party backs his replacement as Iraq PM
• US sending troops to assess Iraq crisis: why more may be needed
• US drone attacks, destroys armed truck in Iraq
• How the Dow Jones industrial average did Wednesday
• AP video journalist Simone Camilli killed in Gaza
• Germany ready to arm Kurds in fight against Islamic State militants
• U.N. Security Council urges swift creation of inclusive Iraqi government

Top Asian News at 12:00 a.m. GMT Posted: 13 Aug 2014 05:02 PM PDT HONOLULU (AP) — Improving U.S. cooperation with China is critical to maintaining stability and security in the Asia-Pacific as well as combating the effects climate change, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday. Wrapping up an eight-day, around-the-world diplomatic trip and his sixth visit to Asia as America's top diplomat, Kerry outlined renewed priorities for much of the Obama administration's much-touted "pivot to Asia" during its final 2 ½ years, including a focus on strengthening U.S.-Chinese partnership in areas of agreement and bridging gaps in areas of contention.

Saudis give UN $100 million to fight terrorism Posted: 13 Aug 2014 05:01 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Saudi Arabia handed over a check for $100 million to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday to help finance the U.N.'s center to combat global terrorism.

52 dead as jihadists make gains in northern Syria: monitor Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:58 PM PDT Jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group seized a string of villages in northern Syria on Wednesday in fighting that left 52 people dead, a monitoring group said. The jihadists captured eight villages between second city Aleppo and the Turkish border, buoyed by their successes in neighbouring Iraq, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. They killed at least 40 fighters of rival rebel groups and captured at least 50 more for the loss of 12 of their own men, the Britain-based group said. IS already controls almost all of the Euphrates valley provinces of Raqa and Deir Ezzor and has been making gains further west at the expense of rival rebel groups which it has been fighting since December.

U.S. evacuation of Yazidis from Iraq's Mount Sinjar unlikely: Pentagon Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:48 PM PDT A possible U.S. mission to evacuate Yazidis trapped on Iraq's Mount Sinjar after they fled Islamic State fighters is now unlikely to take place, following the assessment of a U.S. team, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. "The team has assessed that there are far fewer Yazidis on Mt. Sinjar than previously feared," the Pentagon said in a statement. "The Yazidis who remain are in better condition than previously believed and continue to have access to the food and water that we have dropped.

Plan 'under way' to rescue refugees on Iraq mountain: Cameron Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:47 PM PDT An international plan is under way to rescue civilians trapped by Islamic State fighters on a mountain in northern Iraq, British Prime Minister David Cameron said Wednesday. Cameron declined to give details of the operation but said Britain would play a role, just as it had worked alongside the United States in conducting humanitarian aid drops to thousands of Yazidis and other minorities who have fled to Mount Sinjar. "Clearly there is an absolutely desperate situation in Iraq, particularly on this mountainside," Cameron said after chairing a meeting of the government's emergency Cobra committee. "I can confirm that detailed plans are now being put in place and are underway and that Britain will play a role in delivering them."

US forces assess Iraq mountain refugees' needs Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:45 PM PDT US troops assessed the situation Wednesday of thousands of civilian refugees trapped by jihadists on a northern Iraqi mountain, after the United States carried out air strikes against Islamic State militants. A US military official said the small party of special forces soldiers returned safely to base. A Kurdish spokesman earlier said US military advisors would study means of evacuating the besieged civilians left with little food or water on Mount Sinjar. The United States, which has a consulate and other facilities in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, deployed around 130 troops on the assessment mission.

UN says Iraq humanitarian crisis at highest level Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:41 PM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — The United Nations on Wednesday announced its highest level of emergency for the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, where hundreds of thousands have been driven from their homes and tens of thousands had been trapped on a desert mountain by the advance of Islamic militants across the north of the country.

Obama weighing options for rescuing Iraqi refugees Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:36 PM PDT EDGARTOWN, Massachusetts (AP) — President Barack Obama is considering a range of military options, including airlifts and creating safe passages, for rescuing thousands of Iraqi refugees trapped on a mountain, the White House said. A small team of U.S. troops secretly scouted the site Wednesday.

Hagel: Far fewer Iraqi refugees now on Sinjar Mt. Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:33 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says far fewer refugees are stranded on Iraq's Sinjar Mountain and that it's far less likely that the U.S. will undertake a rescue mission there.

U.S. team lands on Iraqi mountain where Yazidis are trapped Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:27 PM PDT The United States has not ruled out using American ground forces in an operation to extract thousands of desperate civilians trapped on a mountain by Islamist militants, but they will not engage in combat, a senior White House official said on Wednesday. A team of 130 U.S. military personnel is in the Kurdistan capital of Arbil, urgently drawing up options ranging from creating a safe corridor to an airlift to rescue those besieged on Mount Sinjar for over a week, most of them members of the Yazidi religious minority. "These 130 personnel are not going to be in a combat role in Iraq," White House deputy spokesman Ben Rhodes told reporters traveling with President Barack Obama, who is on vacation on Martha's Vineyard island in Massachusetts. Rhodes noted that Obama had repeatedly ruled out "reintroducing U.S. forces into combat on the ground in Iraq." But he added: "There are a variety of ways in which we can support the safe removal of those people from the mountain." Rhodes said the intention was to work with Kurdish forces already operating in the region and with the Iraqi military.

Clinton and White House try to shrug off split Posted: 13 Aug 2014 04:21 PM PDT VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. (AP) — In yet another twist in their complex and heavily scrutinized relationship, Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Barack Obama did their best to shrug off their differences Wednesday as they gathered on Martha's Vineyard following a foreign policy split.

Clinton's Obama balancing act as 2016 looms Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:48 PM PDT Hillary Clinton's relationship with President Barack Obama is entering a potentially awkward new era as the former US secretary of state eyes a possible 2016 bid for the White House. After a ferociously bitter battle with Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential ticket, Clinton was a loyal lieutenant in the president's first administration before she stepped down in 2013. The first sign of discord emerged this week when, in an interview with the magazine The Atlantic, Clinton blamed failures of US policy under Obama for the rise of Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria. Clinton, who as Obama's chief diplomat was an unsuccessful advocate of arming moderate Syrian rebels, said the failure to do so had "left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled."

U.S. team landed on Mount Sinjar to assess possible evacuation Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:43 PM PDT A team including personnel from the U.S. military and the U.S. Agency for International Development landed on Iraq's Mount Sinjar early on Wednesday to assess how to evacuate civilians, a U.S. official said.

Maliki refuses to go as Iraqis turn to new leader Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:43 PM PDT By Alexander Dziadosz and Raheem Salman BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An increasingly isolated Nuri al-Maliki again protested his removal as Iraqi prime minister on Wednesday, as his own political party and his former sponsor in Iran publicly endorsed a successor who many in Baghdad hope can halt advancing Sunni jihadists. Although abandoned by former backers in the United States and Iraq's Shi'ite political and religious establishment, Maliki pressed his legal claim on power. Premier-designate Haider al-Abadi, meanwhile, held consultations on forming a coalition government that can unite warring factions after eight years that drove Sunnis to revolt over what they say was Maliki's sectarian bias. Shi'ite-led government forces and their allies among the ethnic Kurdish militias of northern Iraq were in action on the frontlines against the Sunni fighters of the Islamic State as European Union states began to follow the U.S. lead and provide arms directly to the Kurds and step up efforts to help tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the advancing hard-line Islamists.

Iraqi religious persecution hits home in Nebraska Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:25 PM PDT LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Iekhan Safar moved from Iraq to Lincoln for the same reason that hundreds of Yazidis, a Kurdish religious minority, came to Nebraska's capital city: to live near family, far from the dangers they've long faced as a persecuted group.

US troops meet refugees on besieged Iraq mountain: Pentagon Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:18 PM PDT A small party of US troops was flown onto Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq on Wednesday for the first time to assess the situation of thousands of civilian refugees besieged by Islamist militants, the Pentagon said. A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the special forces soldiers had returned safely to base. They went back to Arbil," he said. The United States has a consulate and other facilities in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, and earlier Wednesday had deployed around 130 troops on an assessment mission.

Obama's new Iraq plan: A slippery slope to combat troops? Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:15 PM PDT White House officials were anxious Wednesday to calm rising concerns about a "slippery slope" to a US combat role in Iraq, as the Pentagon announced it was sending 130 additional personnel to Iraq to assess the humanitarian crisis in the north on and around Mt. Sinjar. Mr. Obama, in dispatching the additional assessment teams, says he wants to know what else needs to be done and what role the US can play. Recommendations are expected "in a matter of days," White House officials say. "What [Obama] has ruled out is reintroducing forces into combat on the ground in Iraq," said Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, speaking with reporters in Edgartown, Mass., on Wednesday.

Biotechs lift Wall Street; Dow back in black for 2014 Posted: 13 Aug 2014 03:07 PM PDT By Akane Otani NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks ended higher on Wednesday, with the Dow Jones industrial average returning to positive territory for the year, as surging biotech shares helped investors shrug off disappointing retail sales data. Retail stocks capped the market's gains after Commerce Department data showed that U.S. retail sales unexpectedly stalled in July, marking the weakest report since January. Macy's Inc reported quarterly earnings that missed analysts' estimates and slashed its full-year same-store sales forecast, driving the stock down 5.5 percent to $56.47. The selloff in Macy's stock, a bellwether for department stores, gave investors a reason to unload some shares of Kohl's Corp , down 1.5 percent at $55.11;

Obama on vacation! What all the carping is really about Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:57 PM PDT It was liberal Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank who gave voice to the usual Republican carping about President Obama taking his vacation at a time of upheaval.   "Obama stood on the South Lawn on Saturday updating Americans on the new bombing campaign in Iraq – and then he boarded Marine One for a two-week trip to Martha's Vineyard," Mr. Milbank wrote Monday.

US Military Team Lands on Mt. Sinjar in Iraq to Assess Yazidi Crisis Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:46 PM PDT Members of the Yazidi Minority Group Were Forced onto the Mountain

AP video journalist, translator killed in Gaza Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:40 PM PDT GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Six people — including an Associated Press video journalist — were killed Wednesday when leftover ordnance believed to have been dropped in an Israeli airstrike blew up in the Gaza Strip.

The Pentagon Gave the Ferguson Police Department Military-Grade Weapons Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:29 PM PDT The local community of Ferguson, Missouri, may not look like a war zone, but the Pentagon has helped the police treat it like one. According to Michelle McCaskill, media relations chief at the Defense Logistics Agency, the Ferguson Police Department is part of a federal program called 1033, in which the Department of Defense distributes hundreds of millions of dollars of surplus military equipment to civilian police forces across the U.S.  All in all, it's meant armored vehicles rolling down streets in Ferguson and police officers armed with short-barreled 5.56-mm rifles that can accurately it a target out to 500 meters hovering near the citizens they're meant to protect.

US drones strike jihadist target in northern Iraq Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:27 PM PDT Washington (AFP) - The US air campaign in Iraq against jihadist militants from the so-called Islamic State continued Wednesday with a drone strike on an armed truck west of the Yazidi town of Sinjar, the military said.

Stocks rise, led by Wall St rebound; copper slides Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:20 PM PDT By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) - A global stock gauge rose on Wednesday, boosted by a technology-led rebound on Wall Street, while Brazilian markets were shaken by the death of presidential candidate Eduardo Campos in a plane crash. Investors were optimistic about a possible de-escalation of the conflict on the Russia-Ukraine border, giving stocks support, while copper, a barometer for global economic growth, fell more than 1 percent to a seven-week low. Investor anxiety over the standoff between Russia and Ukraine ebbed slightly after Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said late on Tuesday that the possibility of Russia's military invading eastern Ukraine had receded after Moscow agreed to send in humanitarian aid under Red Cross auspices.

US urges Maliki to respect Iraqi political process Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:17 PM PDT Martha's Vineyard (United States) (AFP) - The White House on Wednesday urged Iraqi leader Nuri al-Maliki to step aside and allow the man nominated to become his successor as prime minister to form a government. "He needs to respect that process," US national security spokesman Ben Rhodes told reporters. President Barack Obama on Monday threw his weight behind the choice of Haidar al-Abadi to form a new government, appealing to Maliki, without directly naming him, to peacefully turn over power. "The White House will be very glad to see a new government in place with prime minister Abadi at the lead of that government," Rhodes said.

US indexes move higher; Amazon gains, Macy's drops Posted: 13 Aug 2014 02:06 PM PDT NEW YORK (AP) — A modest gain for the stock market on Wednesday tugged the Dow Jones industrial average back into the black for the year as investors set aside concerns about Ukraine, Iraq and earnings, at least for a day.

Maliki's Dawa Party backs his replacement as Iraq PM Posted: 13 Aug 2014 01:55 PM PDT The Dawa Party of Iraq's Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday called on Iraqi politicians to work with his replacement as prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, to form a new government. In a statement, the Dawa Party said it "called on political blocs to cooperate with the constitutionally designated prime minister, Mr. Abadi, and accelerate the formation of a government in the defined time period." Maliki has refused to stand aside.

US sending troops to assess Iraq crisis: why more may be needed Posted: 13 Aug 2014 01:54 PM PDT President Obama has green-lighted the deployment of an additional 130 US troops – made of up Marines and Special Operations Forces – to Iraq.  These US troops are not there to fight, insist Pentagon officials, who hasten to add that the influx of troops is also temporary. More US service members have been sent to northern Iraq "to assess the scope of the humanitarian mission," a senior defense official explained. Rather, these forces are being sent there "to assess the scope of the humanitarian mission and develop additional humanitarian assistance operations beyond the current airdrop effort in support of displaced Iraqi civilians trapped on Sinjar Mountain by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," now known as the Islamic State, or IS.

US drone attacks, destroys armed truck in Iraq Posted: 13 Aug 2014 01:40 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. military officials say a drone aircraft attacked and destroyed an armed truck operated by Islamic militants west of the village of Sinjar in northern Iraq.

How the Dow Jones industrial average did Wednesday Posted: 13 Aug 2014 01:35 PM PDT A modest gain for the stock market on Wednesday tugged the Dow Jones industrial average back into the black for the year as investors set aside concerns about Ukraine, Iraq and earnings, at least for a ...

AP video journalist Simone Camilli killed in Gaza Posted: 13 Aug 2014 01:30 PM PDT BEIRUT (AP) — Simone Camilli was a consummate storyteller — a passionate, talented newsman with an eye for detail and the ability to convey events with powerful video images that touched people around the world.

Germany ready to arm Kurds in fight against Islamic State militants Posted: 13 Aug 2014 01:24 PM PDT Germany is prepared to bend its restrictive policies on weapons exports and arm Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State militants in northern Iraq, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Wednesday. The comments to German public broadcaster ZDF are the strongest yet by a senior German official and represent a wholesale shift in Berlin's stance since the beginning of the week. On Monday Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said Germany was committed to upholding its position of not sending arms to conflict zones. "We cannot just leave Kurdistan on its own and watch as people are slaughtered there," said Steinmeier, a Social Democrat (SPD) whose party shares power with Merkel's conservatives.

U.N. Security Council urges swift creation of inclusive Iraqi government Posted: 13 Aug 2014 01:09 PM PDT The U.N. Security Council said on Wednesday it was encouraged by the nomination of Iraq's Prime Minister-designate Haider al-Abadi as it was an important step toward creating an inclusive government representing all parts of the country's society. In a statement, the 15-member council urged al-Abadi "to work swiftly to form such a government as quickly as possible and within the constitutional time-frame" and called on "all political parties and their supporters to remain calm and respect the political process governed by the Constitution." (Reporting by Michelle Nichols;

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