| Bradley Cooper says surprised by 'American Sniper' controversy Posted: 02 Feb 2015 04:33 PM PST  By Mary Milliken BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (Reuters) - Bradley Cooper, who earned a best actor Oscar nomination for his performance as a deadly marksman in Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper," said on Monday that he did not foresee how the Iraq war biopic could become a charged political conversation. "You never know when you make a movie if anybody's going to see it, so to have the audacity to think that it would cause any sort of effect at all would be pretty presumptuous," Cooper told reporters at the Academy Awards nominees luncheon. "American Sniper," which tops the U.S. box office and has so far grossed nearly $250 million, tells the real-life story of late U.S. Navy SEAL sharpshooter Chris Kyle, whose 160 kills in Iraq is considered the highest count ever in U.S. military history. Oscar-winning Eastwood, who is a staunch supporter of veterans, has said "American Sniper" has nothing to do with party politics.
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| As U.S. faces new threats, Pentagon seeks bigger defense budget Posted: 02 Feb 2015 04:29 PM PST  By David Alexander and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facing new security challenges in the Middle East and Ukraine, the Obama administration on Monday proposed an increased $534 billion Pentagon base budget plus $51 billion in war funds as it urged Congress to end cuts it says erode U.S. military power. Defense officials said the higher spending level was necessary to carry out President Barack Obama's national security strategy, including the planned stationing of more forces in the Asia-Pacific in response to the rise of China. The proposed base budget exceeded the $499 billion federal spending cap for fiscal year 2016, forcing a debate with Congress over whether to continue deep cuts to federal discretionary spending or to amend the limits set in a 2011 law that sought to narrow the U.S. budget deficit.
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| Hostage killings highlight threat, meager options for Japan Posted: 02 Feb 2015 04:22 PM PST  TOKYO (AP) — The killing of two Japanese taken hostage by the Islamic State group has savagely driven home the high stakes Japan faces and limited options it can muster in such circumstances.
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| APNewsBreak: Defense nominee would reconsider Afghan plan Posted: 02 Feb 2015 03:39 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The president's nominee to be the next Pentagon chief says he would consider changing the current plans for withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year if security conditions worsen.
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| Texas establishes 'Chris Kyle Day' 2 years after his death Posted: 02 Feb 2015 03:20 PM PST  AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Two years after Chris Kyle's death, and days before the man accused of killing him goes to trial, the retired Navy SEAL depicted in the blockbuster movie "American Sniper" received a state day Monday in his honor.
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| 'American Sniper' peerless at top of box office Posted: 02 Feb 2015 03:15 PM PST  Los Angeles (AFP) - "American Sniper" remained firmly atop the North American box office this weekend to cement its status as the highest-grossing war movie of all time, industry data showed Monday. The Clint Eastwood-directed drama has shrugged off rumbling controversies to surpass Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" as the most successful war film ever made, inching past the 1998 movie's record haul of $216.5 million. Eastwood's movie, loosely based on the life of Chris Kyle, the deadliest sniper in US military history, has divided critics who have accused it of presenting a simplistic black-and-white view of the Iraq War. "American Sniper" -- which has been nominated for six Academy Awards -- has now set its sights on another box-office record, aiming to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.
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| Syria air strikes kill 44 Posted: 02 Feb 2015 02:43 PM PST  Syrian government air strikes on opposition-held towns across the country killed at least 44 people on Monday and wounded more than 100, a monitoring group said. In Jassem in the southern province of Daraa, 16 civilians were killed in four air strikes, while 25 were wounded, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The strikes came in response to a major rebel offensive that has been under way in southern Syria for months. "As usual, the regime is striking populated areas in order to make civilian supporters of opposition fighters turn against them," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
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| US asks for $8.8 billion to fund fight against IS Posted: 02 Feb 2015 02:40 PM PST  US President Barack Obama has requested $8.8 billion to fund the fight against the Islamic State group in his 2016 budget unveiled Monday. A total of $5.3 billion would go to the Pentagon to finance Operation Inherent Resolve, which was launched in August with a series of airstrikes against militants in Iraq and Syria. The State Department, which has been leading efforts to build a multinational coalition against the IS group, has requested a further $3.5 billion. The money would "strengthen regional partners... provide humanitarian assistance and strengthen Syria's moderate opposition," Deputy Secretary of State for Management Heather Higginbottom said.
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| How Obama would spend your money in 2016, agency by agency Posted: 02 Feb 2015 02:28 PM PST  Sure, $4 trillion sounds like a lot. But it goes fast when your budget stretches from aging highways to medical care to space travel and more. Here's an agency-by-agency look at how President Barack Obama ...
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| On Chris Kyle Day, Texas celebrates 'American Sniper' amid simmering tensions Posted: 02 Feb 2015 02:15 PM PST Now the man synonymous with "American Sniper" has been honored with a day of commemoration in his home state. "I have declared Feb. 2 to be Chris Kyle Day in Texas," the governor proclaimed of the date that marks the two-year anniversary of Mr. Kyle's death. The decision met with much fanfare in Texas, with his supporters generally invoking military heroism as they rallied round the Iraq war veteran's memory. |
| After defeating Islamic State in Kobane, what next for Syria’s Kurds? Posted: 02 Feb 2015 02:02 PM PST The defeat of Islamic State jihadists in the Syrian border town of Kobane after a months-long siege is a major victory, first and foremost, for the Syrian Kurds' militia, the People's Protection Units, analysts say. Islamic State (IS) fighters set sights on Kobane in September to solidify their hold on northern Syria, seizing more than half the city and hundreds of surrounding villages in a flash. More than 250,000 Syrian Kurds fled to neighboring Turkey. A small core of dedicated People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters decided to brave the odds. To those watching events unfold, a Kurdish defeat appeared inevitable, a scenario that galvanized Kurds across the region, particularly in Turkey. |
| 'American Sniper' box office revised down to $30.7M Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:23 PM PST NEW YORK (AP) — It turned out Monday that "American Sniper" was also stopped on the goal line, just short of a box-office record. |
| Slain hostage's 4-year-old tweet embraced on social media Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:59 PM PST  TOKYO (AP) — Kenji Goto's words, now more than four years old, have taken on a new poignancy.
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| AP names Rebecca Santana as Deep South correspondent Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:55 PM PST  ATLANTA (AP) — Rebecca Santana, a journalist who has excelled at reporting and leading The Associated Press' coverage from two of the most challenging places in the world, Iraq and Pakistan, has been hired as the news cooperative's correspondent for the Deep South.
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| Snow delays vote on Senate bill to address veterans' suicide Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:51 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — An expected vote on a Senate bill aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic among military veterans was delayed Monday by a winter storm that walloped the Midwest and Northeast.
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| Obama Would Slash Overseas War Budget by 21 Percent Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:44 PM PST President Obama has vowed to lead the charge to defeat ISIS and other terrorists – and has included $5.3 billion in his proposed fiscal 2016 budget to continue airstrikes in the Middle East and to train and equip so-called moderate Syrian rebels to wage ground war against jihadist terrorists. Yet the $51 billion he requested Monday for waging war overseas in the coming year marks a substantial decline in spending for ongoing missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the administration's budget document. The new request for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funding is $13 billion less that what was enacted in 2015 – or a 21 percent reduction. The substantial decrease in requested war spending is part of a long-term trend to curtail overseas military spending as the U.S. pulled back most of its ground troops in Afghanistan and downsized a residual force of combat troops in Iraq in the ongoing fight against ISIS and the effort to prop up the Iraqi government. |
| World's nations pay tribute to late Saudi King Abdullah Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:11 PM PST UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The world's nations paid tribute Monday to Saudi Arabia's late King Abdullah, praising his development of the oil-rich nation, his generosity to the needy and his promotion of peace in the Middle East. |
| Norway banishes 'hate preacher' to remote village Posted: 02 Feb 2015 11:16 AM PST  A court in Oslo on Monday authorised police to banish Iraqi Kurd "hate preacher" Mullah Krekar to a remote Norwegian village. The mullah, 58, who has been living in Norway since 1991, founded the radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam. He was released from prison at the end of January after serving a two-year, 10-month sentence for making threats against Prime Minister Erna Solberg, before she came to office, and three Kurds. The police had invoked special measures to order Krekar, whose real name is Najmeddine Faraj Ahmad, to live in a refugee centre in Kyrksaeteroera, a village of 2,500 people situated 500 kilometres (300 miles) from the capital.
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| Spain proposes life in prison for deadly terror attacks Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:49 AM PST MADRID (AP) — Those who commit deadly terror attacks in Spain could face possible life sentences under a new anti-terror law announced Monday by the country's two main political parties. |
| Obama proposes $3.99 trillion budget, draws scorn from Republicans Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:44 AM PST  By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday proposed a $3.99 trillion budget that drew scorn from Republicans and set up battles over tax reform, infrastructure spending, and the quest to prove which party best represents the middle class. In his fiscal year 2016 budget blueprint, a political document that must be approved by Congress to take effect, Obama proposed a series of programs to help middle-income Americans that he would pay for with higher taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals. Obama's budget fleshes out proposals from his State of the Union address last month and helps highlight Democratic priorities for the last two years of his presidency and the beginning of the 2016 presidential campaign. "I know there are Republicans who disagree with my approach.
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| Obama budget: Higher US spending, tax hike for rich Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:42 AM PST  President Barack Obama's 2016 budget unveiled Monday sets priorities for the middle class and proposes major infrastructure improvements, to be paid for largely through increased contributions by the wealthy and corporate America. Obama's budget for fiscal year 2016, which begins October 1, comes in at $3.999 trillion -- about 21.3 percent of gross domestic product, up from the current year's 20.9 percent. The "discretionary spending" is $1.168 trillion, divided about evenly between defense and non-defense programs. Pledging new help for America's struggling middle class, Obama wants to expand affordable child care, in part by tripling the child care tax credit, making it eligible for families making up to $120,000 annually.
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| ISIS Hostages Likely Faced Mock Executions Before Beheadings, Officials Say Posted: 02 Feb 2015 10:23 AM PST  After scrutinizing intelligence and every frame of videos featuring high-profile ISIS hostages, many counter-terrorism analysts and experts have concluded that some captives appeared compliant before being killed because they had already faced repeated mock executions on camera, current and former counter-terrorism officials told ABC News. Since ISIS slaughtered Japanese journalist Kenji Goto in a video released Saturday -- its seventh high-profile hostage beheaded -- government analysts have been looking for clues in the images about the location of other hostages and the British spokesman called "Jihadi John," who has presented himself as each victim's executioner wielding a notched blade, officials said. But if Jihadi John did kill any hostages it may not have been on camera, as ISIS would have the public believe, according to the current and former officials familiar with the long investigation of the group's complex kidnapping and ransom operations. Many analysts and investigators have assessed, based in part on some freed hostages' debriefings and also on intelligence collection, that the seven ISIS killings were likely perpetrated off camera, after hostages were subjected to repeated staged executions before lights and cameras set up in the desert just south of the ISIS stronghold in the city of Raqqa.
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| AP Interview: Iraq's al-Maliki denies seeking comeback Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:56 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday denied he is seeking a political comeback, despite frequent appearances in local media and a recent visit to the country's influential neighbor Iran.
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| Female Iraqi militant held by Jordan is heroine to jihadists Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:47 AM PST By Suleiman Al-Khalidi and Stephen Kalin AMMAN/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - When her husband blew himself up in a luxury hotel during a wedding in Amman a decade ago, Sajida al-Rishawi was meant to die too, but her suicide bomb belt did not go off. Today, as a death-row prisoner in Jordan, she is a heroine to jihadists in the region, who may be willing to swap a Jordanian pilot for her. Rishawi, now in her mid-40s, has an influential background in militant circles: she hails from a powerful Sunni clan in Western Iraq, and her brother was a top lieutenant of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the founder of al Qaeda's Iraq branch. Today, that group has since transformed itself into Islamic State, breaking off from al Qaeda and controlling swathes of Iraq and Syria. |
| Syrian Kurds push back Islamic State around Kobani: monitor, Kurds Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:29 AM PST By Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - Kurdish militia backed by U.S.-led air strikes are making rapid advances against Islamic State forces in rural areas around Kobani after driving the group from the Syrian border town last week, the Kurdish militia and a monitoring group said on Monday. A spokesman for the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia said Islamic State forces were collapsing around Kobani. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the monitoring organization, said Islamic State fighters were putting up little resistance in the face of the Kurdish advance and may be pushed back even further. "The fighting organization of Daesh ... is in a state of complete collapse at present and cannot hold ground," Redur Xelil, spokesman for the YPG, told Reuters by telephone, using a pejorative Arabic acronym for Islamic State. |
| USFSP To Host 3rd Annual World Affairs Conference Posted: 02 Feb 2015 09:00 AM PST ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Feb. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An impressive group of diplomats, military and intelligence officials, and media and academic experts will address topics of international concern when the University of South Florida St. Petersburg (USFSP) hosts its 3rd annual St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs on February 26-28, 2015. "This year's conference, as always, will focus on the most timely issues of the day," said Dr. Thomas Smith, director of the USFSP Honors Program and a conference founder. ... |
| Remains of 25 Yazidis found in Iraq mass grave Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:56 AM PST  Kurdish forces have found the remains of about 25 members of the Yazidi minority killed by the Islamic State jihadist group in a mass grave in northwest Iraq, officials said Monday. "Peshmerga forces discovered a mass grave yesterday (Sunday) containing the remains of about 25 people -- men, children and women -- from the Yazidi (sect) who were killed by" IS jihadists, local official Myaser Haji Saleh told AFP. IS spearheaded a June offensive that began in the northern province of Nineveh, where the mass grave was discovered, and overran large areas north and west of the Iraqi capital. After sweeping south towards Baghdad, the militants again turned their attention to the north in August, driving Kurdish forces back toward their regional capital and seizing areas including Sinuni.
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| Obama’s Budget: Good News for ISIS, Bad News for Taxpayers Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:30 AM PST  President Obama's Budget proposal, to be released on Monday, confirms that a sweeping, bipartisan compromise to tame exploding federal debt is not on the White House agenda for 2016. President Obama declared in an article for the Huffington Post that his Budget will bring "middle class economics into the 21st Century." Following on populist ideas laid out in his State of the Union Address, the Budget includes multi-billion dollar increases in education spending, paid workers' leave, and infrastructure programs. These are purported to benefit the middle class and will be financed by tax increase on banks and upper-income individuals. Although the Budget has practically no chance of being enacted by the newly-elected Republican Congress, it is disappointing that the president has abandoned the idea of deficit reduction, even though deficit is projected to steadily rise over the next decade, reaching almost $1 trillion in 2025.
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| Kurdish fighters in Iraq struggle to hold gains against IS Posted: 02 Feb 2015 08:03 AM PST  SNUNY, Iraq (AP) — Only stray dogs and a dozen armed fighters walk the streets of Snuny, a ghost town at the base of Mount Sinjar where rapid military changes of fortune are written on the walls.
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| 10 Things to Know for Today Posted: 02 Feb 2015 06:54 AM PST  Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:
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| 'American Sniper' shoots for more box office records Posted: 02 Feb 2015 01:07 AM PST  Record-breaking drama "American Sniper" remained firmly on top of the North American box office this weekend, shrugging off rumbling controversies to cement its status as the highest-grossing war movie of all time, estimated figures showed Sunday. The Clint Eastwood-directed drama surpassed Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" as the most successful war film ever made last Thursday, after inching past the 1998 movie's record haul of $216.5 million. Eastwood's movie, loosely based on the life of Chris Kyle, the deadliest sniper in US military history, has divided critics who have accused it of presenting a simplistic black-and-white view of the Iraq War. "American Sniper" -- which has been nominated for six Academy Awards -- has now set its sights on another box office record, aiming to become the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time.
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| Japan faces scrutiny over failed hostage negotiations Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:44 AM PST  Japan's failure to rescue two hostages beheaded by Islamic State militants has raised doubts about its ability to handle an international crisis, as the country reels from news of journalist Kenji Goto's killing. Analysts say the murders mark a "wake-up call" for Japan -- an officially pacifist country that has long avoided involvement in Middle East conflicts -- and that its response to the crisis, at times flat-footed, reveals the weakness of its diplomatic resources in the region. After this experience, they have to boost intelligence operations at home and overseas." The Islamic State group claimed in a video released Saturday that it had killed respected war correspondent Goto -- the second purported beheading of a Japanese hostage in a week after the death of his friend Haruna Yukawa. As the crisis unfolded, Tokyo's relative lack of contacts and know-how in the region became apparent.
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| Next defense secretary to face daunting challenges Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:36 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — As defense secretary, Ashton Carter would face a daunting pile of problems at home and abroad. And then there are the unforeseen crises, the ones that explode onto a Pentagon chief's agenda without warning.
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| Three women killed in clashes in Egypt's Sinai - security sources Posted: 02 Feb 2015 12:12 AM PST Two women were killed by a rocket-propelled grenade while another died in crossfire between militants and security forces in two separate incidents in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, security and medical sources said on Sunday. Security sources blamed the violence on Sinai Province, Egypt's most active militant network and the same group that claimed attacks on Thursday that killed at least 30 security personnel in the worst anti-government violence in months. |
| Australia aware of danger of IS in Afghanistan: FM Posted: 01 Feb 2015 11:56 PM PST  Australia's foreign minister said Monday there is a danger of Islamic State jihadists expanding operations to Afghanistan, even though there is little evidence of a presence there now. Julie Bishop, hosting Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon for annual security talks, said she was made aware of "some evidence of a connection" between IS and extreme elements of the Taliban on a recent visit to Afghanistan.
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