Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Iraqi Kurd urges regional rule for Iraqi Sunnis
• Gulf Arab states close ranks with navy, police
• Kerry: New flexible war powers needed to fight IS
• Obama thanks Afghans for approving treaty
• Obama thanks Afghans for OKing bilateral treaty
• Kerry urges flexibility in U.S. war powers against Islamic State
• Obama Wants Congress to Let Him Hunt ISIS Anywhere
• Police protests draw old, young, white and black
• Britain, Turkey work 'closely' to stop foreign fighters flow
• Qatar emir urges Gulf Arab solidarity amid regional turmoil
• Kerry to Congress: Don’t rule out U.S. ground war against Islamic State
• Factbox: U.S. Senate panel's findings on CIA torture
• UN resumes food aid for Syrian refugees
• Oil up after five-year low in Brent; traders wary of more downside
• Britain and Turkey vow closer cooperation on foreign fighters
• The Senate report proves once and for all that torture didn't lead us to Osama bin Laden
• Clint Eastwood: "I Was Against Going Into the War in Iraq"
• The ‘Draft Elizabeth Warren’ Effort Gets $1M Boost
• UN says rich nations pledge to take 100,000 Syrian refugees
• Policy snags hold up $1.1 trillion spending bill
• Iran, Iraq, Syria to continue cooperation against IS
• Oscars: Why 'American Sniper' Opens With an Unusually Suspenseful Moment
• Man accused of impersonating agent to plead guilty
• Senate torture report: What you have to believe to think it will endanger lives
• Top Asian News at 5:30 p.m. GMT
• WWE pays annual holiday tribute to US troops
• As US defense chief visits Iraq, attacks kill 7
• How Yemen's Houthis control Sanaa and alarm the West
• Iraq presses Hagel for more U.S. air strikes, weapons
• Iraqi leader asks US for more air power, weaponry
• Turkey rebuffs EU criticism on waning foreign policy alignment
• Shaky grip on northern road as Iraq pushes advance against IS
• WFP restarts food aid for Syrian refugees after campaign
• Islamic State in Syria beheads man for blasphemy
• Despite failures, U.S. likely to continue raids to free hostages
• Australia: IS using Westerners as 'cannon fodder'
• Danny Glover: Ferguson Part of "Historic" Violence Against Black Men

Iraqi Kurd urges regional rule for Iraqi Sunnis Posted: 09 Dec 2014 04:51 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Iraq's central government in Baghdad must give up much of its authority to local power centers — and potentially permit the creation of an autonomous Sunni Muslim region — if the nation is to survive the fight against Islamic State militants, a senior Iraqi Kurdish official said Tuesday.

Gulf Arab states close ranks with navy, police Posted: 09 Dec 2014 04:02 PM PST DOHA, Qatar (AP) — The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, which is concerned about Shiite Iran's regional influence and the rise of Sunni extremist groups, agreed on Tuesday to create a joint naval force based out of Bahrain and announced a police force based out of the United Arab Emirates' capital of Abu Dhabi.

Kerry: New flexible war powers needed to fight IS Posted: 09 Dec 2014 03:39 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry asked Congress on Tuesday for new war powers in the fight against the Islamic State, but said lawmakers should not limit U.S. military action to Iraq and Syria or prevent President Barack Obama from deploying ground troops if he later deems them necessary.

Obama thanks Afghans for approving treaty Posted: 09 Dec 2014 03:09 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has thanked Afghanistan's leaders for ratifying a bilateral security agreement allowing U.S. troops to stay in the country after this year.

Obama thanks Afghans for OKing bilateral treaty Posted: 09 Dec 2014 03:06 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has thanked Afghanistan's leaders for ratifying a bilateral security agreement allowing U.S. troops to stay in the country after this year.

Kerry urges flexibility in U.S. war powers against Islamic State Posted: 09 Dec 2014 02:56 PM PST By Lesley Wroughton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Any congressional authorization of U.S. military force against Islamic State should be flexible and not limit the fight to Iraq and Syria, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday. The authorization should also not restrict U.S. President Barack Obama in deploying combat troops against the militant group if needed, Kerry told a Senate committee debating the need for an Authorization for the Use of Military Force, or AUMF. ...

Obama Wants Congress to Let Him Hunt ISIS Anywhere Posted: 09 Dec 2014 02:28 PM PST As the release of a report on the CIA's use of torture in a previous war against terrorists consumed Capitol Hill on Tuesday, a key Senate committee began debate on a resolution authorizing a much newer counter-terror campaign: President Obama's military offensive against the Islamic State.

Police protests draw old, young, white and black Posted: 09 Dec 2014 02:19 PM PST The mostly white crowd that gathered outside Salt Lake City's federal building hoisted signs reading "Black Lives Matter," and chanted for justice before wading into downtown traffic. In the historic Boston suburb of Lexington, Massachusetts, protesters with children in tow stood alongside others in their 80s.

Britain, Turkey work 'closely' to stop foreign fighters flow Posted: 09 Dec 2014 01:19 PM PST Ankara (AFP) - Britain and Turkey are working "as closely as possible" to stop foreign fighters joining Islamic State insurgents in Iraq and Syria, British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday.

Qatar emir urges Gulf Arab solidarity amid regional turmoil Posted: 09 Dec 2014 01:19 PM PST By Angus McDowall DOHA (Reuters) - Qatar's emir urged Gulf Arab leaders on Tuesday to shake off a damaging rift over Islamist politics and work together to tackle common threats across the region. The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) -- Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman -- face chaos in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, political turmoil in Egypt, sectarian tensions and a falling oil price. ...

Kerry to Congress: Don’t rule out U.S. ground war against Islamic State Posted: 09 Dec 2014 01:18 PM PST President Barack Obama has no plans to send U.S. ground troops into combat against the so-called Islamic State, or to widen the conflict beyond Iraq and Syria — but he wants Congress to leave both doors open in any authorization for use of military force, Secretary of State John Kerry told Congress.

Factbox: U.S. Senate panel's findings on CIA torture Posted: 09 Dec 2014 12:38 PM PST (Reuters) - The CIA's interrogation of al Qaeda terrorism suspects in secret prisons was more brutal than policymakers were told and in some cases amounted to torture that failed to generate effective intelligence, a U.S. Senate panel said in a report Tuesday. The following are some of the main findings: * The use of "enhanced interrogation" was ineffective and never produced intelligence that helped to foil an imminent threat. The CIA's 20 most frequently cited examples of successes are wrong in many details and information gained played little or no role in the counter terrorism success. ...

UN resumes food aid for Syrian refugees Posted: 09 Dec 2014 12:33 PM PST GENEVA (AP) — After a social media campaign brought in a significant cash infusion, the U.N. food agency said Tuesday it has reinstated a food aid program that helps feed more than 1.7 million Syrian refugees.

Oil up after five-year low in Brent; traders wary of more downside Posted: 09 Dec 2014 12:15 PM PST By Barani Krishnan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Brent prices ended higher on Tuesday after a 5-year low and five straight days of losses and U.S. crude also rose as players sought a sustainable price for oil in a market haunted by oversupply concerns. Sentiment in oil was aided somewhat by a weaker dollar that boosted the value of commodities denominated in the currency, traders said. Lower capital expenditure for next year planned by oil companies such as ConocoPhillips also helped as they indicated less drilling and production. ...

Britain and Turkey vow closer cooperation on foreign fighters Posted: 09 Dec 2014 12:13 PM PST By Jonny Hogg and Tulay Karadeniz ANKARA (Reuters) - Britain and Turkey will share more information on foreign fighters among the ranks of Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq to try to prevent them posing a threat when they return home, Prime Minister David Cameron said on Tuesday. After meeting his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara, Cameron said Britain and Turkey were fighting a "common enemy of extremist terrorism". ...

The Senate report proves once and for all that torture didn't lead us to Osama bin Laden Posted: 09 Dec 2014 12:10 PM PST The Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's torture program is very, very clear: torture didn't lead the CIA to Osama bin Laden. Citing a wealth of internal CIA documentation, the Senate report shows pretty conclusively that the most important intelligence about bin Laden was acquired by other means. "Information that CIA obtained from detainees played a role, along with other streams of intelligence, in finding Usama bin Laden," the agency's "fact sheet" on the Senate report reads.

Clint Eastwood: "I Was Against Going Into the War in Iraq" Posted: 09 Dec 2014 11:06 AM PST The director of 'American Sniper' says he also had "a big question" about America going into Afghanistan

The ‘Draft Elizabeth Warren’ Effort Gets $1M Boost Posted: 09 Dec 2014 11:00 AM PST Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) insists she won't challenge former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination – but her liberal admirers aren't taking no for an answer. ...

UN says rich nations pledge to take 100,000 Syrian refugees Posted: 09 Dec 2014 10:59 AM PST By Katie Nguyen GENEVA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday that Western governments had heeded a call to take in more Syrian refugees from neighboring countries and estimated that, in all, more than 100,000 places would be offered in the coming months. UNHCR, which wants to resettle 130,000 Syrians outside the region by the end of 2016, said the figure includes 62,000 places that have already been pledged by countries such as Germany and Sweden. The outcome was criticized by aid agency Oxfam, which said Western states could have done more. ...

Policy snags hold up $1.1 trillion spending bill Posted: 09 Dec 2014 10:30 AM PST Negotiators inched closer to agreement on a $1.1 trillion government-wide spending bill on Tuesday, as House Republicans indicated they would advance several controversial policy provisions on a separate ...

Iran, Iraq, Syria to continue cooperation against IS Posted: 09 Dec 2014 10:05 AM PST ANKARA (Reuters) - The foreign ministers of Iran, Syria and Iraq met in Tehran on Tuesday, saying that they would carry on working together to battle radical Sunni Muslim militants, Syrian and Iranian state media reported. Iran has thrown its weight behind Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during Syria's three-year-old civil war and has also acknowledged sending military advisers to Iraq to help the Iraqi army in its battle against Islamic State fighters. However, it is not part of a U. ...

Oscars: Why 'American Sniper' Opens With an Unusually Suspenseful Moment Posted: 09 Dec 2014 10:00 AM PST Clint Eastwood's editors, Joel Cox and Gary Roach, shaped a highly unusual opening sequence involving a 10-year-old

Man accused of impersonating agent to plead guilty Posted: 09 Dec 2014 09:55 AM PST FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A convicted con man who tried to pass himself off as an FBI agent to get perks in the North Dakota oil patch will plead guilty to an illegal weapons charge under an agreement filed in federal court.

Senate torture report: What you have to believe to think it will endanger lives Posted: 09 Dec 2014 09:50 AM PST Finally, it appears that the US will have some formal accounting – albeit with plenty of redactions – of the CIA's use of torture following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.

Top Asian News at 5:30 p.m. GMT Posted: 09 Dec 2014 09:32 AM PST HONG KONG (AP) — Police warned Hong Kong pro-democracy activists that they have until Thursday to leave a sprawling protest camp which has blocked traffic in the Chinese financial hub for more than two months. Authorities are set to move in after a court order authorized the removal of barricades, tents and other obstructions from the protesters' main camp in the downtown Admiralty district, setting the stage for a possible last showdown with activists demanding greater democracy.

WWE pays annual holiday tribute to US troops Posted: 09 Dec 2014 09:21 AM PST Hulk Hogan was a one-man armed forces branch inside the ring, disposing the latest lumbering threats from Cold War Russia, Iran and even an Iraqi sympathizer with nothing more than a big boot to the face and a legdrop.

As US defense chief visits Iraq, attacks kill 7 Posted: 09 Dec 2014 08:59 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say a bomb blast and mortar fire targeting Shiites have killed seven people in Baghdad.

How Yemen's Houthis control Sanaa and alarm the West Posted: 09 Dec 2014 08:25 AM PST By Yara Bayoumy and Mohammed Ghobari SANAA (Reuters) - It was Waddah al-Hitari's beard that killed him. Militiamen on the streets of Yemen's capital shot him dead one Friday because he looked like a terrorist, colleagues of the young doctor said.     Hitari was killed by a member of the Houthis, an armed Shi'ite faction whose fighters had swept down from the north and stunningly captured Sanaa from the army about a month earlier. ...

Iraq presses Hagel for more U.S. air strikes, weapons Posted: 09 Dec 2014 06:51 AM PST By Phil Stewart BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi pressed outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday for more air strikes and weaponry to accelerate what he called the "descent" of Islamic State. The plea underscored tension in the U.S.-Iraqi relationship, with Baghdad pushing for more aggressive assistance than Washington has provided so far, four months after President Barack Obama launched air strikes against IS in Iraq. ...

Iraqi leader asks US for more air power, weaponry Posted: 09 Dec 2014 06:09 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday that his army is taking the offensive against the Islamic State group but needs more air power and heavy weaponry to prevail.

Turkey rebuffs EU criticism on waning foreign policy alignment Posted: 09 Dec 2014 04:49 AM PST By Tulay Karadeniz ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey hit back on Tuesday at European Union accusations that it has drifted apart from the bloc on foreign policy, saying Ankara had been kept out of decision-making despite making major contributions to EU defense. EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday that Turkey, an EU membership candidate, had signed up to less than a third of the bloc's recent foreign policy positions, compared to some 80 percent in the past. ...

Shaky grip on northern road as Iraq pushes advance against IS Posted: 09 Dec 2014 04:28 AM PST By Dominic Evans TIKRIT, Iraq (Reuters) - From somewhere, a sniper opened fire on the seven battle-scarred Humvees of Iraqi Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi's convoy as they rode on a crater-pocked highway. The convoy's gunners replied with volleys of fire. The drivers did not stop. Obeidi was proving a point by making his first visit to Iraq's biggest oil refinery, where a battle that broke a five month siege has been the main focus of the government's U.S.-backed fightback against Islamic State. ...

WFP restarts food aid for Syrian refugees after campaign Posted: 09 Dec 2014 03:52 AM PST BEIRUT (Reuters) - The U.N. World Food Program is restarting food aid for 1.7 million Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt after it received enough donations to fund the halted program. The WFP said on Dec. 1 it was suspending the aid because it had run out of money. This meant electronic vouchers allowing refugees to buy food in stores were not topped up for December, putting them at risk of hunger during the harsh winter period. ...

Islamic State in Syria beheads man for blasphemy Posted: 09 Dec 2014 03:01 AM PST BEIRUT (Reuters) - The militant Islamic State group beheaded a man in northern Syria after accusing him of blasphemy, a militant website and a rights group said on Tuesday. The man was killed in a public square in the town of Sulouk on Monday in front of a crowd that included children, the British-based Observatory for Human Rights said. Rights groups say Islamic State has beheaded and stoned to death many people in areas it controls in Syria and Iraq for actions they see as violating their interpretation of Islamic law, such as adultery, stealing and blasphemy. ...

Despite failures, U.S. likely to continue raids to free hostages Posted: 08 Dec 2014 10:48 PM PST By Warren Strobel and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON/KUWAIT CITY (Reuters) - Despite three failed raids to free U.S. hostages held by militants, the United States will continue to conduct such operations, administration officials indicated, as President Barack Obama grapples with a spate of kidnappings and killings of American citizens. The latest setback came in a remote area of Yemen early on Saturday, when al Qaeda militants shot and fatally wounded American photo journalist Luke Somers and South African teacher Pierre Korkie during a rescue attempt led by U.S. Special Forces. ...

Australia: IS using Westerners as 'cannon fodder' Posted: 08 Dec 2014 09:56 PM PST SYDNEY (AP) — Australia's government accused the Islamic State group of using foreign fighters as "cannon fodder," as the number of Australians killed while fighting alongside militants in Syria and Iraq rose to 20.

Danny Glover: Ferguson Part of "Historic" Violence Against Black Men Posted: 08 Dec 2014 06:24 PM PST The actor shares his advice for protesters

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