| Yes-We-Can president faces twilight of maybes Posted: 27 Dec 2014 01:24 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — It was supposed to be a joke. "Are you still president?" comedian Stephen Colbert asked Barack Obama earlier this month.
|
| Final goodbye: Roll call of some who died in 2014 Posted: 27 Dec 2014 10:32 AM PST  They each turned a moment of violence into a call to action. For James Brady, that moment was when he was shot and wounded by a would-be presidential assassin. For Chung Eun-yong, it was the killings of his two children during a Korean War massacre.
|
| Syria 'ready to participate' in Moscow peace talks Posted: 27 Dec 2014 09:21 AM PST  DAMASCUS (AP) — Syrian state-run TV said Saturday that the government is prepared to take part in peace talks hosted by Russia next month, but the unnamed foreign ministry official it cited suggested the scope of the negotiations would be limited to "preliminary" talks meant to pave the way for a conference in Syria itself.
|
| After turbulent 2014, next year may be no calmer Posted: 27 Dec 2014 07:08 AM PST  By Peter Apps NEW YORK (Reuters) - From financial crisis in Russia to cyber warfare with North Korea, 2014 has generated new flashpoints right into its final days, setting 2015 up to be just as turbulent. Almost all of the major confrontations, such as the battle with Islamic State militants, the West's stand-off with Russia over Ukraine and the fight against Ebola, will rumble on. Others could erupt at short notice. ...
|
| U.S., allies conduct 12 air strikes against Islamic State: Task Force Posted: 27 Dec 2014 06:44 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies carried out 12 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, the Combined Joint Task Force said. Six strikes near the Syrian town of Kobani on the Turkish border destroyed Islamic State buildings, fighting positions and vehicles, a task force statement said. In Iraq, targets including buildings, vehicles and an Islamic State refinery were hit in six strikes near Al Asad, Mosul, Falluja, Al Qaim and Baiji, it said. (Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Toby Chopra)
|
| US-led coalition hits IS jihadists with 39 air strikes Posted: 27 Dec 2014 01:58 AM PST  The US-led coalition pounded the Islamic State group with 39 air strikes Thursday and Friday, including more than a dozen near the flashpoint Syrian town of Kobane. On Friday four air strikes destroyed three IS buildings and two vehicles in the area, it added. The statement updated an earlier report by the US Defense Department, which had erroneously stated that all of the strikes occurred on Friday, and which had set the total number of strikes at 31. The US-led coalition launched air strikes against the Islamic State group in Syria on September 23.
|
| AP-Times Square poll: Most feeling good about 2015 Posted: 27 Dec 2014 12:26 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are closing out 2014 on an optimistic note, according to a new Associated Press-Times Square Alliance poll. Nearly half predict that 2015 will be a better year for them than 2014 was, while only 1 in 10 think it will be worse. There's room for improvement: Americans give the year gone by a resounding 'meh.'
|
| Today in History Posted: 26 Dec 2014 09:00 PM PST Today is Saturday, Dec. 27, the 361st day of 2014. There are four days left in the year. |
| US plagued by doubts as it exits Afghan war Posted: 26 Dec 2014 06:25 PM PST  After 13 years, the United States is winding down its war in Afghanistan, plagued by doubts about what was accomplished at such a high cost.
|
| Migrant baby named after Italian medics who delivered him Posted: 26 Dec 2014 04:22 PM PST  A baby born at sea on Christmas Day after his Nigerian mother was plucked from a floundering migrant boat by the Italian navy has been baptised Testimony Salvatore in honour of the medics who delivered him. Described as a trafficking "superboss" and named as Ahmed Mohamed Farrag Hanafi, the alleged trafficking overlord is now being pursued by the Egyptian authorities at Italy's request, Corriere della Sera reported. The broadsheet daily said he was based in the Kafr el-Sheikh Governorate in northern Egypt and had been identified as a result of intercepted mobile calls to traffickers working for him on boats leaving Libya. Little Testimony entered the world at 20 minutes before midnight on December 25, aboard the Italian navy vessel Etna as it headed to the Sicilian port of Messina.
|
| Indonesia arrests six for attempting to join IS militants Posted: 26 Dec 2014 04:07 PM PST  Indonesian police Saturday arrested six people attempting to fly to Syria to join the Islamic State group, officials said, the latest in a wave of potential sympathisers emerging from the world's most populous Muslim nation. Those arrested at Jakarta's Soekarno Hatta airport at dawn included a couple and their 10-year-old child, with police saying they were attempting to travel on fake passports. The number of IS supporters embarking from Indonesia soared to 264 in October from 86 in June, the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Saud Usman Nasution was quoted as saying in the Jakarta Post. In total, an estimated 514 Indonesians have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside IS -- around half of them students or migrant workers based in nearby countries, according to Nasution.
|
