| Libya Is Turning Into Iraq Posted: 16 Feb 2015 04:38 PM PST  On Sunday, the Islamic State released a video showing the beheadings of 21 Christian Egyptians in a stretch of land near Tripoli, Libya. One is that ISIS' reach now extends thousands of miles from its base in Iraq and Syria. Sunday's massacre occurred four years to the month after anti-government protests in Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, sparked a nationwide uprising that brought down Qaddafi. Recommended: What ISIS Really Wants Four years after the first hopeful protests against Qaddafi, Libya is now divided, lawless, a haven for extremists, and a country unable to capitalize on its vast oil wealth.
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| Video confession shown at trial over 'American Sniper' death Posted: 16 Feb 2015 04:36 PM PST  STEPHENVILLE, Texas (AP) — A videotaped confession by the former Marine accused in the fatal shootings of "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle and his friend was shown to jurors Monday as the trial resumed in Texas.
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| IS expansion in chaotic Libya prompts intervention calls Posted: 16 Feb 2015 03:21 PM PST  The chaos in Libya since Moamer Kadhafi's downfall has proven fertile ground for the Islamic State group, prompting calls for foreign intervention to uproot the jihadists. It comes three weeks after IS opened a new front on Western targets in Libya when it claimed an attack on the luxurious Corinthia hotel in central Tripoli that killed nine people, including five foreigners. Islamist militants have thrived in Libya since Kadhafi was toppled and killed in the NATO-backed 2011 uprising, with authorities struggling to contain dozens of militant groups with diverse motivations and ideologies. The first is led by Khalifa Haftar, a former general who is backed by Libya's internationally recognised government and whose forces are fighting to drive Islamist fighters out of the country's east.
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| Egypt strikes IS in Libya, pushes for international action Posted: 16 Feb 2015 02:29 PM PST CAIRO (AP) — Egypt bombed Islamic State militants in neighboring Libya on Monday and called on the United States and Europe to join an international military intervention in the chaotic North African state after extremists beheaded a group of Egyptian Christians. |
| Copenhagen shooter's neighborhood no stranger to tension Posted: 16 Feb 2015 12:50 PM PST By Sabina Zawadzki and Alexander Tange COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Every Dane knows of Norrebro, the Copenhagen neighborhood where police shot dead the gunman suspected of carrying out attacks on a synagogue and a free speech event that shocked the country. Blighted by protests and gang warfare, the area is a cauldron of cultures and ethnicities in sharp contrast to more homogenous regions of Copenhagen and has suffered from a bad, some residents would say overblown, reputation. The suspect, named by media on Sunday as Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, was shot right by the Norrebro train station on the corner of a busy intersection marked by brightly lit shawarma grilled meat cafes, currency exchanges and other shops. In Norrebro however, there was a sense of a community under siege -- the media descended on the place where the suspect was killed in a shootout with police and residents passed by quickly, avoiding the cameras. |
| Kurds say Baghdad has failed to respect oil deal Posted: 16 Feb 2015 12:42 PM PST  Iraqi Kurdish premier Nechirvan Barzani on Monday accused the Baghdad government of failing to give his autonomous Kurdish region its share of oil revenues despite a deal signed in December. Under the deal that should have taken effect from the start of the year, 250,000 barrels per day of oil are to be exported from the autonomous region and another 300,000 bpd from the disputed province of Kirkuk. Oil from the Kurdish region or claimed by its leadership would be shipped out via Kurdish pipelines but through the federal oil company. In return, Baghdad would release the regional government's share of national revenue, which had been frozen for more than a year in retaliation for Arbil's efforts to export oil unilaterally.
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| Hezbollah says it is fighting IS in Iraq Posted: 16 Feb 2015 12:15 PM PST  Lebanon's Shiite movement Hezbollah is fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq, its chief Hassan Nasrallah revealed for the first time Monday in a speech beamed to supporters. "We may not have spoken about Iraq before, but we have a limited presence because of the sensitive phase that Iraq is going through," Nasrallah said, referring to ongoing clashes between Iraq's army, militias and Kurdish forces against the IS jihadists. Hezbollah is already fighting in Syria, alongside President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
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| A look at earlier cases of Islamic terrorism in Denmark Posted: 16 Feb 2015 12:13 PM PST  COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark has been in the cross-hairs of Islamic terrorists since the 2005 publication by newspaper Jyllands-Posten of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that triggered riots in many Muslim countries. Yet, this weekend's attack in Copenhagen was the first fatal terrorism attack in the Scandinavian country in 30 years.
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| Defiant Danes march after gunman attacks Copenhagen Posted: 16 Feb 2015 11:59 AM PST  By Ole Mikkelsen and Sabina Zawadzki COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Danes gathered at torch-lit memorials around the country on Monday, commemorating victims of deadly attacks on a synagogue and an event promoting free speech that shocked a nation proud of its record of safety and openness. Singing John Lennon's Imagine, defiant Danes promised to uphold their trademark open society and showed solidarity with the country's Muslim minority after reports the gunman was a Dane with Palestinian roots and a passion for Islamist issues. The 22-year-old gunman opened fire on a cafe in hosting a free speech debate on Saturday, killing one, and attacked a synagogue, killing a guard. He was later killed in a shootout with police in his neighborhood of Norrebro, a largely immigrant part of the city with a reputation for gang violence.
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| Why ISIS' Deadly Attacks Could Backfire Posted: 16 Feb 2015 11:46 AM PST  Egyptian warplanes bombed ISIS positions in Libya early today, a day after the militant group posted a video online showing the apparent beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian hostages. The beheadings in Libya are the most recent strikes carried out by ISIS in countries once thought to be beyond their reach.
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| Egyptian Airstrikes in Libya Were Not Coordinated With US: Sources Posted: 16 Feb 2015 11:44 AM PST  The strikes come after ISIS posted a new online video purporting to show the execution of 21 Egyptian Christians. Although Egypt is considered a member of the coalition, officials say these strikes in Libya were not in any way coordinated with coalition leadership and Operation Inherent Resolve. The U.S. is operating under strict guidelines set forth by President Obama last year that authorizes strikes against ISIS only within the boundaries of Iraq and Syria, meaning that these airstrikes targeting ISIS in Libya are the first of their kind. Senior officials say they were also unaware of any prior warning the Egyptians may have given to the U.S. before striking ISIS targets in Libya.
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| "Timbuktu," an Oscar nominee, explores Islamic extremism Posted: 16 Feb 2015 11:30 AM PST  JOHANNESBURG (AP) — An Islamic extremist can't summon the necessary fervor while making a video hailing the jihadi cause in a scene from "Timbuktu," an Oscar nominee for best foreign language film that is based on the militant takeover of the ancient city in Mali in 2012.
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| Watch These F-22 Raptors Refuel In Midair During An Airstrike Against ISIS Posted: 16 Feb 2015 11:02 AM PST F-22 Raptors from Tyndall Air Force Base took part in airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq late last month, and while en route, refueled in midair above the Persian Gulf in this video captured aboard a U.S. Air Force KC-135. |
| Oil industry see opportunities after collapse of prices Posted: 16 Feb 2015 10:38 AM PST  The oil sector is restructuring after the collapse of oil prices and opportunities may emerge for larger players wishing to snap up distressed companies and expand into crisis-hit producer countries, according to key industry players. An oversupply of oil in the market, caused by the boom in crude extracted from US shale rock, has contributed heavily to crude prices crashing 60 percent in value in the six months to January. "There is an enormous (cash) liquidity squeeze in the US as we speak and it will come to a crescendo in the middle of this year," said Anthony Hayward, chief executive of Anglo-Turkish producer Genel Energy. Opportunities are also emerging globally, including in OPEC producers Iraq and Venezuela, which will need funding to bridge the shortfall in their revenues from collapsing oil prices.
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| A look at the Islamic State group's reach into North Africa Posted: 16 Feb 2015 10:30 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — The mass beheadings of Egyptian Christians by militants in Libya linked to the Islamic State group have thrown a spotlight on the threat the extremists pose beyond their heartland in Syria and Iraq, where they have established a self-declared proto-state. Militants in several countries — including Libya, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen and Saudi Arabia — have pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, although the degree of coordination and operational planning between IS leadership and the group's affiliates remains unclear.
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| The Islamic State group's catalogue of killings Posted: 16 Feb 2015 10:16 AM PST  Cairo (AFP) - Here is a list of known killings by militants or movements linked to the jihadist Islamic State group, which announced Sunday it had beheaded 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya.
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| UAE says renewed air strikes hit IS oil refineries Posted: 16 Feb 2015 10:11 AM PST  Renewed air strikes by the United Arab Emirates against the Islamic State group have hit oil refineries run by the jihadists, the state news agency reported on Monday. F-16 fighter jets based in Jordan "targeted oil refineries controled by the Daesh (Islamic State) organisation, with the aim of drying up its sources of finance," the WAM agency said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. A US-led coalition of Western and Arab nations launched air strikes against IS last year after the jihadist group seized control of large parts of Iraq and Syria. The UAE had suspended its strikes after the jihadists captured a Jordanian pilot whose plane went down in December.
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| Egypt bombs Islamic State targets in Libya after 21 Egyptians beheaded Posted: 16 Feb 2015 10:01 AM PST  By Ahmed Tolba and Yara Bayoumy CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian jets bombed Islamic State targets in Libya on Monday, a day after the group there released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, drawing Cairo directly into the conflict across its border. Egypt said the pre-dawn strike hit militant camps, training sites and weapons storage areas in the neighbouring oil-producing country, where factional fighting has unleashed virtual anarchy and created havens for jihadi Islamists. While Cairo is believed to have provided clandestine support to a Libyan general fighting a rogue government in Tripoli, the 21 decapitations pushed President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi into open action, expanding his battle against Islamist militancy. Egyptian state television aired footage of fighter planes leaving a hangar with "Long live Egypt" emblazoned on their tails, followed by night-vision aerial footage showing bomb explosions and the aircraft returning in early daylight.
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| Jim Carrey Jokes About Brian Williams on NBC's 'SNL' Pre-Show Posted: 16 Feb 2015 09:57 AM PST "I just want to say something in his defense, if the helicopter in front of me gets hit, I'm taking the story," Carrey said as Tina Fey and 'Today' show co-hosts Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie laughed awkwardly. |
| Beheadings Show ISIS Has Formed a New Power Center Posted: 16 Feb 2015 09:53 AM PST  On Friday, ISIS militants broke into the city council and ordered all its members to leave. Other ISIS militants took over two radio stations in the city and did the same to their staff. Then they started broadcasting ISIS chants in addition to the words of a man named Abu Mohammed al-Baghdadi, who claimed he is a spokesman for the group and called people to declare allegiance to ISIS. These developments in Sirte come as ISIS in Libya released a grisly video showing the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were kidnapped last month in the city.
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| Thousands mourn Egyptian victims of Islamic State in disbelief Posted: 16 Feb 2015 09:16 AM PST By Treza Kamal AL-OUR, Egypt (Reuters) - Thousands of traumatized mourners gathered on Monday at the Coptic church in al-Our village south of Cairo, struggling to come to terms with the fate of compatriots who paid a gruesome price for simply seeking work in Libya. Thirteen of 21 Egyptians beheaded by Islamic State came from the impoverished dirt lanes of al-Our, violence that prompted the Egyptian military to launch an air strike on Islamic State militant targets in Libya. |
| Footballer Ibrahimovic raises funds for hungry with chest 'tattoos' Posted: 16 Feb 2015 09:14 AM PST  By Chris Arsenault ROME (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Recruiting Zlatan Ibrahimovic to draw attention to world hunger paid off for the U.N. World Food Programme when a video of the footballer with the names of people who don't get enough to eat inked on his torso went viral on Monday. After scoring a goal just 72 seconds into a French league match on Saturday, the Paris St Germain striker stripped off his shirt to reveal the names of 50 hungry people on his torso, kicking off a WFP campaign and earning himself a yellow card in the process. "I have supporters all over the world," Ibrahimovic said in the slick online video produced by a Swedish ad agency. The WFP is feeding about 80 million of them in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, the Ebola-hit countries of West Africa and elsewhere.
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| A history of the Islamic State group's atrocities, gains Posted: 16 Feb 2015 08:17 AM PST  CAIRO (AP) — The extremist Islamic State group, which now controls a third of both Iraq and Syria in its self-declared caliphate, has inspired militants in Libya to behead Coptic Christians they held.
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| Iraq's KRG PM threatens to withhold oil exports without budget share Posted: 16 Feb 2015 07:51 AM PST  Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government may withhold crude oil exports if Baghdad does not send its share of the budget, Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said on Monday following talks aimed at resolving the dispute. He said the KRG remained "fully committed" to the temporary oil export agreement reached in December, but that Baghdad had only offered to send $300 million, "less than half of what we agreed on earlier". The KRG agreed in December to export 550,000 barrels per day of oil from its own fields and Kirkuk via Baghdad's state marketer SOMO. In return, Baghdad would reinstate budget payments to the Kurds, which it cut in 2014 as punishment for the region's moves to export oil independently.
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| Britain's GCHQ spy agency deploys armed guards for first time Posted: 16 Feb 2015 07:48 AM PST  Britain's GCHQ eavesdropping agency has for the first time deployed armed police guards in front of its headquarters outside London, a spokeswoman said on Monday, citing the heightened risk of an attack by militants. Britain raised its terrorism alert last August to the second-highest level with Prime Minister David Cameron saying the Islamic State group operating in Syria and Iraq posed the country's greatest security risk. "The security posture of our sites, including the safety of our staff, is under constant review," a GCHQ spokeswoman said. "Our enhanced security arrangements are not in response to any specific threat but related to the raising of the UK threat level from international terrorism from substantial to severe last year." With more than 6,000 employees, GCHQ -- the equivalent of America's National Security Agency (NSA) -- is based in a futuristic building in Cheltenham, about 100 miles from London, named the doughnut because of its shape.
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| Iran denies that Khamenei replied to Obama letter on Islamic State Posted: 16 Feb 2015 07:43 AM PST  Iran has denied a Wall Street Journal report that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently responded to a letter sent in October by U.S. President Barack Obama suggesting cooperation with Iran in fighting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. "There has been no new letter from Iran's side," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said, according to a report carried late on Sunday by the official IRNA news agency. "The claim made by the Wall Street Journal is an unprofessional media game." The Journal cited an unnamed Iranian diplomat as saying Khamenei's letter had been "respectful" but noncommittal. Although enemies for decades, the United States and Iran share a strategic interest in pushing back an Islamic State advance that has threatened the survival of the Iraqi state.
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| Things to know about the Boston Marathon bombing trial Posted: 16 Feb 2015 07:35 AM PST BOSTON (AP) — Picking a jury in a high-profile death penalty trial takes time, especially when a succession of powerful snowstorms forces repeated delays. So it goes in the trial of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Since a judge began questioning prospective jurors Jan. 15, six days of jury selection have been canceled because of weather. The expected start date for testimony in the trial has come and gone. Here is the latest in the halting effort to put Tsarnaev on trial: |
| Battle against Islamic State expands as Egypt bombs Libyan affiliate Posted: 16 Feb 2015 07:03 AM PST Egypt claims to have launched airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Libya, in retaliation for the gruesome execution of 21 Egyptian Christians shown in a video released Sunday. The mass murder threatens to open a new front in the greater battle against the self-declared Islamic State, potentially drawing Western powers once more into military intervention in Libya. Egyptian state television declared that government warplanes struck targets in the eastern Libyan city of Darna, a militant stronghold on the coast about 150 miles from the Egyptian border. The BBC reports that the strikes, made in coordination with the military of the recognized Libyan government based in Tobruk, targeted "camps, training sites and weapons storage areas" of the IS affiliate in Libya. |
| U.S. says 15 more air strikes launched against Islamic State Posted: 16 Feb 2015 06:55 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its coalition partners launched two air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria and 13 strikes against targets in Iraq on Sunday and Monday, according to the U.S. military. In Syria, fighter planes and drones destroyed multiple oil dumps near Dayr az Zawr and struck "a large tactical unit" near Kobani, according to the Combined Joint Task Force, which is leading the air operations. In Iraq, coalition forces launched 13 air strikes near Al Asad, Al Qaim, Bayji, Fallujah, Haditha, Mosul, Rawah and Tal Afar, the Combined Joint Task Force said. ... |
| Denmark charges two as Europe on edge after fresh attacks Posted: 16 Feb 2015 03:40 AM PST  Two men were charged in Copenhagen on Monday with helping the gunman who killed two people in twin weekend attacks that have stoked renewed fears of Islamist and anti-Semitic violence in Europe. Flags were flying at half-mast across Denmark after the shootings that stunned one of the world's most peaceful nations. Danish intelligence said the gunman, who killed two people in attacks just hours apart at a cultural centre and a synagogue may have been inspired by last month's Islamist attacks in Paris. Two suspects were charged Monday with helping the Copenhagen attacker get rid of his weapon and giving him somewhere to hide, according to the lawyer of one of the men, Michael Juul Eriksen, told AFP.
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| Libya prime minister calls for international strikes on Islamists Posted: 16 Feb 2015 03:35 AM PST  By Ulf Laessing BAYDA, Libya (Reuters) - Libya's internationally recognised prime minister called for the West to launch air strikes to defeat Islamist militants who control Tripoli and have driven his government out of the capital. Speaking hours before Egypt bombed Islamic State targets in Libya in retaliation after militants said they had beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians, Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni made a plea for Western military intervention in a country rapidly slipping into chaos. "I ask world powers stand by Libya and launch military strikes against these groups," he said. "This threat will move to European countries, especially Italy." Thinni, the internationally recognised premier, has been based in the east of the country since an armed group called Libya Dawn seized the capital in August.
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| Egypt calls for anti-Islamic State coalition to confront militants in Libya Posted: 16 Feb 2015 02:22 AM PST Egypt called on the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria and Iraq to confront militants in Libya, a day after the group released a video showing the beheading of 21 Coptic Christian Egyptians there. Egypt and Libya said on Monday they launched air strikes against Islamic State targets in Libya. "Egypt renews its call for the international coalition against the Da'esh terrorist organization ... to take the necessary measures to confront the terrorist Da'esh organization and other similar terrorist organizations on Libyan territories," the foreign ministry said in a statement, using an Arabic acronym for the group. |
| Iraqi PM hails 'acceleration of support' against IS Posted: 16 Feb 2015 02:02 AM PST  Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said Monday there had been a recent "acceleration of support" from the US-led coalition in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) group. "I was a bit frustrated in my first three months of being a prime minister because of the slowness of this support but I've seen in the last probably four weeks, five weeks, there is an acceleration of the support," Abadi added. The IS group, a Sunni extremist group, has seized swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq and imposed an extreme interpretation of Islam in the areas under its control.
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| Report: Iran refutes claim supreme leader wrote US president Posted: 16 Feb 2015 01:53 AM PST  TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has denied a report that its supreme leader wrote a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, the Islamic Republic's official news agency reported, as the country negotiates with world powers over its contested nuclear program.
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| Bahrain deploys warplanes to Jordan for war against IS Posted: 16 Feb 2015 01:45 AM PST  Bahrain has deployed fighter jets to Jordan to support the US-led air campaign against the Islamic State (IS) group, Jordan's information minister said on Monday. The move comes a week after the United Arab Emirates deployed an F-16 squadron to Jordan to take part in the air strikes against the jihadists who control swathes of Iraq and Syria. "This move highlights the brotherly ties between Jordan and Bahrain, and comes in line with our belief in the importance of the war against terrorism," Information Minister Mohammad al-Momani told AFP.
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| Egypt says bombs Islamic State targets in Libya Posted: 16 Feb 2015 12:31 AM PST  By Omar Fahmy CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's air force bombed Islamic State targets inside Libya on Monday, a day after the group released a video appearing to show the beheading of 21 Egyptians there. It was the first time Egypt confirmed launching air strikes against the group in neighbouring Libya, suggesting President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is ready to escalate his battle against militants seeking to topple his government. The military said the dawn strike, in which Libya's air force also participated, hit Islamic State camps, training sites and weapons storage areas in Libya, where a civil conflict has plunged the country into near anarchy.
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| Egyptian Church confirms 21 killed in Libya after Islamic State issues video Posted: 15 Feb 2015 10:48 PM PST Islamic State released a video on Sunday purporting to show the beheading of a group of Egyptian Christians kidnapped in Libya, violence likely to deepen Cairo's concerns over security threats from militants thriving in the neighbouring country's chaos. Egypt's state news agency MENA quoted the spokesman for the Coptic Church as confirming that 21 Egyptian Christians believed to be held by Islamic State were dead. In the video, militants in black marched the captives, dressed in orange jump suits, to a beach that the group said was near Tripoli. |
| LA, Italia Awards: 'Imitation Game,' 'Last Days in Vietnam' Get Final Push at Fellini-esque Ceremony Posted: 15 Feb 2015 09:00 PM PST The annual gathering draws several hundred people, including a not inconsiderable number of Academy members, many with ties of some sort to Italy. |
| Long Island University Announces 66th Annual George Polk Awards In Journalism Posted: 15 Feb 2015 07:00 PM PST BROOKLYN, N.Y., Feb. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Reporters who risked their lives in 2014 to cover the Ebola epidemic, traced the rise of the Islamic State, and revealed secret ransoms paid for the release of hostages are winners of Long Island University's 66th annual George Polk Awards in Journalism. Additional honorees include reporters who uncovered systemic failure in two federal agencies, the Secret Service and the Veterans Administration, as well as journalists who exposed brutal treatment of prison and jail inmates. Awardees will be honored at a ceremony at The Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan on Friday, April 10. The George Polk Awards are conferred annually to honor special achievement in journalism. They were established in 1949 by Long Island University (LIU) to commemorate George Polk, a CBS correspondent murdered in 1948 while covering the Greek civil war. |
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