Yahoo! News: Iraq

---

• Ex-CIA chief Petraeus fined, gets probation for info leak
• Ex-general, CIA chief Petraeus gets probation, $100,000 fine in leak case
• Petraeus sentenced to 2 years' probation for military leak
• Ex-adviser says U.N. Syria envoy 'out of his depth': report
• Switzerland, Scandinavia top global 'happy' index
• An inglorious postscript to the career of Gen. David Petraeus
• Congress Lets Obama Go It Alone to Fight ISIS
• The Mediterranean: key route for EU-bound migrants
• Experts tell U.N. council: Feeling left out drives youth to Islamic State
• US mulling training Iraqis to call in air strikes
• NATO voices doubt over IS link in fatal Afghan bombing
• Jordan's crown prince at UN takes on jihadist 'dark world'
• US returns smuggled Egyptian artifacts
• U.S.-led forces conduct 21 air strikes in Iraq, Syria: U.S. military
• France hunts for accomplices in foiled church attack
• UK boy, 14, charged with inciting Australian ANZAC day attack
• Rebel seizure of Syrian border post hits exporters across region
• Saudi policy in Yemen: Sign of an inferiority complex?
• Thousands gather to remember the fallen at Gallipoli centenary
• For asylum seekers, a novel (and odd) solution: Cambodia
• Somali PM sees risk to his country in Yemen strife
• Iraq expects new US-made F-16s in July to boost IS fight
• Some officers looking to body cameras on their own
• Islam finds a place in Germany's classrooms
• France seeks possible accomplice to planned church attack
• Sid Ahmed Ghlam: scholarship student 'drawn to jihad'
• U.S.-led strikes have killed 2,079 people in Syria monitor
• Soccer-Taiwan FA head accused of betting on his side to lose
• Afghan museum seeks to remember anti-Soviet war
• Australian Islamic center linked to Gallipoli centenary plot shuts down
• Islamic centre tied to Australian terror accused shuts down
• Arms experts warn of 'Faustian bargain' with Iran

Ex-CIA chief Petraeus fined, gets probation for info leak Posted: 23 Apr 2015 04:33 PM PDT Former CIA chief David Petraeus was given two years' probation and fined $100,000 on Thursday for providing classified secrets to his mistress, capping a dramatic fall from grace for the man feted for changing the course of the Iraq war. The Justice Department had previously said that Petraeus, 62, had acknowledged giving eight "black books" -- logs he kept as the US commander in Afghanistan -- to his lover and biographer, Paula Broadwell. In a statement following sentencing, acting US Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose said that Petraeus "admitted to the unauthorized removal and retention of classified information and lying to the FBI and CIA about his possession and handling of classified information.

Ex-general, CIA chief Petraeus gets probation, $100,000 fine in leak case Posted: 23 Apr 2015 04:02 PM PDT By Colleen Jenkins CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Reuters) - Former U.S. military commander and CIA director David Petraeus was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay a$100,000 fine but was spared prison time on Thursday after pleading guilty to mishandling classified information. He agreed under a plea deal to a misdemeanor charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material. U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler raised the fine from the $40,000 that had been recommended to the maximum possible financial penalty for that charge, noting it needed to be higher to be punitive and reflect the gravity of the offense. He resigned from the CIA in 2012 after it was revealed that he was having an affair with the biographer, Army Reserve officer Paula Broadwell.

Petraeus sentenced to 2 years' probation for military leak Posted: 23 Apr 2015 03:21 PM PDT CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Former CIA Director David Petraeus, whose career was destroyed by an extramarital affair with his biographer, was sentenced Thursday to two years' probation and fined $100,000 for giving her classified material while she was working on the book.

Ex-adviser says U.N. Syria envoy 'out of his depth': report Posted: 23 Apr 2015 02:38 PM PDT A former political adviser to U.N. peace mediator for Syria Staffan de Mistura sharply criticized his former boss on Thursday for his failed efforts at securing local ceasefires in the four-year-old civil war. The United Nations, however, vigorously defended the Italian-Swedish diplomat, saying he had decades of experience and that frustration over the world's in ability to get Syria's warring parties to stop the bloodshed was being misdirected. Former adviser Mouin Rabbani told Al Jazeera television that de Mistura was "out of his depth" and "wasn't up to the task." His comments follow U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's public demand that de Mistura "focus much more to re-launch a political process" to try an end a war that has killed 220,000 people and displaced millions. As part of his consultations, the U.N. envoy met U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department.

Switzerland, Scandinavia top global 'happy' index Posted: 23 Apr 2015 02:07 PM PDT Switzerland is the happiest country in the world, closely followed by Iceland, Denmark, Norway and Canada, according to a global ranking of happiness unveiled in New York on Thursday. The United Nations published the first study in 2012. Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and one of the editors, said the top 13 countries were the same a second year running although their order had shifted. Afghanistan and war-torn Syria joined eight sub-Saharan countries in Africa -- Togo, Burundi, Benin, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Chad -- as the 10 least happy of 158 countries.

An inglorious postscript to the career of Gen. David Petraeus Posted: 23 Apr 2015 12:46 PM PDT At the height of his career, David Petraeus was seen by many as the greatest US military leader since Omar Bradley – the last officer to wear five stars as "General of the Army." Adding that fifth star, which many pundits recommended, would have made him equal in rank with such World War II military leaders as Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, George Marshall, Chester Nimitz, and William Halsey. "Like these great leaders, Gen. Petraeus's breadth of experience and outstanding results deserve to be recognized and honored," Iraq War veterans Pete Hegseth and Wade Zirkle wrote in The Wall Street Journal. Instead, retired four-star US Army general and former CIA director David Petraeus appeared in a federal court in North Carolina Thursday to learn his punishment for having provided highly classified documents to his biographer, with whom he was having an adulterous affair.

Congress Lets Obama Go It Alone to Fight ISIS Posted: 23 Apr 2015 11:50 AM PDT While Congress appears on track to review and even block a final deal to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon, it now looks as if Republicans and Democrats have abandoned efforts to rewrite President Obama's powers and timetable for waging war against ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria.

The Mediterranean: key route for EU-bound migrants Posted: 23 Apr 2015 11:44 AM PDT Out of the 283,000 migrants caught illegally entering the European Union in 2014, more than 220,000 arrived via the Mediterranean Sea, according to EU officials. The Mediterranean has largely replaced land borders as the favoured point of passage, with nearly 171,000 arriving via that route in EU member Italy alone last year. This route, from North Africa to Italy and Malta, has since 2013 become the main path of illegal immigration to the EU. Most of the would-be immigrants have arrived in North Africa from Sub-Saharan Africa and from the Middle East, notably Syria and Iraq.

Experts tell U.N. council: Feeling left out drives youth to Islamic State Posted: 23 Apr 2015 11:38 AM PDT By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Most European youth who travel to Iraq and Syria to fight with Islamic State militants do so because they do not feel at home in Europe, academics told a United Nations Security Council meeting chaired Thursday by Jordan's 20-year-old crown prince. Crown Prince Al Hussein Bin Abdullah II is the youngest person to chair the 15-member Security Council, said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Peter Neumann, a professor at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King's College London, said that his center had tracked 700 young Europeans fighting with Islamic State on social media and had spoken to nearly 100 of them to find out their stories. They often felt that ... they weren't European, they didn't belong, that they'd never succeed however hard they tried." He said this had opened their minds to an ideology that "you can't be European and Muslim at the same time." Anthropologist Scott Atran of the University of Michigan and the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, said that countries needed to focus on the "inherent energy and idealism" of their youth.

US mulling training Iraqis to call in air strikes Posted: 23 Apr 2015 11:29 AM PDT Washington is working with Iraqi leaders to hone military operations against Islamic militants and is mulling whether to train Iraqis to directly call in US air strikes, a US official said Thursday. "The one thing they want is to cut down the time from a request for a strike to a strike," a senior State Department official told reporters. The US-led coalition has carried out about 3,000 air strikes over Iraq since September in the fight against extremist Islamic State (IS) militants who seized a swath of Iraqi and Syrian territory in a lightning move last June. While deferring to the Pentagon, the senior State Department official said the administration was looking at how to strengthen coordination with the Iraqis such as training joint terminal attack controllers (JTACs) who designate targets in air operations.

NATO voices doubt over IS link in fatal Afghan bombing Posted: 23 Apr 2015 11:07 AM PDT NATO officials have voiced doubt over claims that the Islamic State group was behind a fatal bombing last week billed as the first major attack by the jihadists in Afghanistan. The bombing on Saturday ripped through a crowd of government officials waiting to draw their salaries outside the Kabul Bank in the eastern city of Jalalabad, killing at least 34 people and wounding more than 100. It was the most lethal bombing in the country to be claimed by insurgents allegedly allied with the IS group, which has captured swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq but has never formally acknowledged having a presence in Afghanistan. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani repeated the claim by the attackers in a speech on Saturday, intensifying fears that the IS's brutal reign of terror was creeping into Afghanistan, already in the grip of a fierce Taliban insurgency.

Jordan's crown prince at UN takes on jihadist 'dark world' Posted: 23 Apr 2015 10:37 AM PDT Jordan's 20-year-old crown prince on Thursday called for measures to prevent the world's youth from being "lured into the dark world" of Islamic extremists as he became the youngest person ever to chair a Security Council meeting. Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah presided over the debate on the role of youth in countering violent extremism during Jordan's monthly presidency of the 15-member council. Jordan will host an international conference in August to encourage young peacemakers to confront extremism and terrorism, he said. "Swift measures should be taken to stop feeding the fires of terrorism with the blood of our youth," said the crown prince.

US returns smuggled Egyptian artifacts Posted: 23 Apr 2015 10:24 AM PDT The United States returned Wednesday dozens of ancient artifacts that had been smuggled out of Egypt by an international criminal network, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said. The items -- including a Greco-Roman style Egyptian sarcophagus discovered in a Brooklyn garage in 2009 -- were handed back to the Egyptian government at a ceremony in Washington. "To think that some of these treasured artifacts were recovered from garages, exposed to the elements, is unimaginable," said ICE director Sarah Saldana in a statement. "The ongoing investigation has identified a criminal network of smugglers, importers, money launderers, restorers and purchasers who used illegal methods to avoid detection as these items entered the United States," ICE said.

U.S.-led forces conduct 21 air strikes in Iraq, Syria: U.S. military Posted: 23 Apr 2015 10:04 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and coalition forces conducted 16 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and five in Syria since Wednesday, the American military said. The strikes in Iraq targeted Islamic State tactical units, buildings, sniper positions and vehicles around seven cities including Falluja, Mosul, Ramadi and Sinjar, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement on Thursday. The strikes in Syria were near Kobani and al Hasaka, it said. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Susan Heavey)

France hunts for accomplices in foiled church attack Posted: 23 Apr 2015 09:42 AM PDT French police were hunting Thursday for possible accomplices to an Algerian student whose plan to attack churches was foiled when his arsenal of weapons was uncovered purely by chance. Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the planned attack on one or more churches in the town of Villejuif just south of Paris was the fifth to be thwarted since 2013. It was exposed less than four months after a jihadist killing spree in and around Paris that left 17 people dead. We have never had to face this kind of terrorism in our history," Valls told France Inter radio.

UK boy, 14, charged with inciting Australian ANZAC day attack Posted: 23 Apr 2015 09:41 AM PDT A 14-year-old British boy has been charged with encouraging a beheading and inciting a terrorism attack on an ANZAC Day parade in Australia, thousands of miles from his home, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said on Thursday. Police said the boy was arrested on April 2 in Blackburn, northern England, after counter-terrorism officers examined "a number of electronic devices" which revealed communication with a man in Australia. This sparked an operation which culminated in hundreds of Australian police carrying out raids in Melbourne on Saturday and the arrest of five teenagers who Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said were planning an Islamic State-inspired attack on a World War One commemorative event this week. Deborah Walsh, CPS deputy head of counter-terrorism, said the boy would face two charges of inciting terrorism overseas.

Rebel seizure of Syrian border post hits exporters across region Posted: 23 Apr 2015 09:34 AM PDT By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels' seizure of the main frontier crossing with Jordan has dealt a heavy blow to the Damascus government's efforts to revive a once thriving export trade crippled by civil war, and is also hurting businesses across the region. Along with Syrian and Jordanian firms involved in the border trade, Lebanese exporters are also feeling the pain as they are no longer able send goods by truck through Syria and Jordan to their major markets in the Gulf. Exporters are being forced to turn to a far more costly sea and land route via Egypt to reach consumers in the wealthy oil producing states. "Nasib in particular is a catastrophe for us and for our products and also for the Jordanian side too because it also handled cargo and commercial exchanges," Muhanad al-Asfar, a senior member of the Syrian Exporters' Union told state television this week.

Saudi policy in Yemen: Sign of an inferiority complex? Posted: 23 Apr 2015 09:28 AM PDT Rarely does the slow-burn regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran erupt into violence as it has in Yemen, and rarely with such a lack of strategic impact. After a month of airstrikes against Iranian-allied Houthi rebels that have left nearly 1,000 people dead, Saudi leaders – under pressure from their US and Yemen allies – abruptly declared victory Tuesday and said the thrust of their ongoing efforts would be political, not military.

Thousands gather to remember the fallen at Gallipoli centenary Posted: 23 Apr 2015 09:16 AM PDT A century ago, thousands of soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) struggled ashore on a narrow beach at Gallipoli during an ill-fated campaign that would claim more than 130,000 lives. The centenary is expected to see the largest ever commemoration, with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Britain's Prince Charles leading the ceremonies.

For asylum seekers, a novel (and odd) solution: Cambodia Posted: 23 Apr 2015 08:16 AM PDT BANGKOK (AP) — Still haunted by the Vietnam War next door and the 1970s genocide that followed, Cambodia is not exactly the place that the world's refugees dream of reaching.

Somali PM sees risk to his country in Yemen strife Posted: 23 Apr 2015 07:25 AM PDT Somalia's prime minister warned Thursday that the conflict in Yemen poses dangers across the Gulf of Aden where an influx of refugees is stretching scarce resources and Al-Qaeda militants are eager for support. "Our economy cannot support this influx of refugees," Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke told AFP during a visit to the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday. In the south of Somalia Al-Qaeda-aligned Shebab militants still hold sway in much of the countryside, despite being pushed out of most towns by a coalition of African Union and Somali troops. Sharmarke said "there's a debate" within Shebab over whether to switch allegiance to Islamic State.

Iraq expects new US-made F-16s in July to boost IS fight Posted: 23 Apr 2015 06:08 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq will at long last be getting the first batch of F-16 fighter jets it ordered four years ago, its air force commander said Thursday, a shipment that is expected to boost Iraq's capabilities in battling the extremist Islamic State group.

Some officers looking to body cameras on their own Posted: 23 Apr 2015 05:28 AM PDT The dramatic body camera video shows the slaying suspect charging at the officer, screaming — pleading, even — for him to open fire. "Shoot me!" yells Michael Wilcox to the backpedaling officer, ...

Islam finds a place in Germany's classrooms Posted: 23 Apr 2015 05:07 AM PDT A half hour away from the shimmering banks of the Main river, Timur Kumlu has just read 20-odd second-graders a chapter from the Quran, about Abraham looking for Allah, but finding him neither in the sun, the wind, nor the moon. A €20 million government initiative led to the creation of today's four Islam theology centers at some of Germany's most respected public universities, making Germany ahead of most Western countries in incorporating Islam as an academic discipline, experts say.

France seeks possible accomplice to planned church attack Posted: 23 Apr 2015 04:15 AM PDT PARIS (AP) — Investigators are searching for possible accomplices in the planned attack on a church uncovered when the suspect apparently shot himself by accident, France's prime minister said Thursday

Sid Ahmed Ghlam: scholarship student 'drawn to jihad' Posted: 23 Apr 2015 02:36 AM PDT Would-be jihadist Sid Ahmed Ghlam is a scholarship student who spent his adolescence shuttling between France and Algeria, drawing the attention of the French security services with social network postings expressing his desire to join Islamist militants in Syria. He stands accused of planning an attack on a church in the suburbs of Paris after police uncovered detailed plans at his student residence in the capital, along with a stash of weapons and documents full of references to militant groups. Ghlam moved to France in 2001 with his mother to join his father in the small eastern town of Saint-Dizier, but had to return to Algeria two years later aged 11, lacking the legal documents needed to remain in France. He would return aged 19 to take up his studies in the northern city of Reims, and later in Paris, where he lived in an ultra-modern student apartment building and attracted little attention from neighbours.

U.S.-led strikes have killed 2,079 people in Syria monitor Posted: 23 Apr 2015 02:16 AM PDT Air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition in Syria have killed 2,079 people, including 66 civilians, since the start of the aerial campaign against Islamic State militants last September, a group monitoring the war said on Thursday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a majority of the deaths, some 1,922, were Islamic State fighters. The hardline group has seized tracts of territory in Syria and neighboring Iraq, where it has also been targeted by U.S.-led forces since last July. Washington justified its action in Syria under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter, which covers an individual or collective right to self-defense against armed attack.

Soccer-Taiwan FA head accused of betting on his side to lose Posted: 22 Apr 2015 11:56 PM PDT The head of the Taiwan Football Association (CTFA) is being investigated by authorities after allegedly betting on his side to lose a World Cup qualifier against Brunei, local media reported on Thursday. CTFA chairman Lin Cheng-yi made over $1 million from a series of bets with underground gambling syndicates on the first leg of the first round tie which Brunei surprisingly won 1-0 in Kaohsiung, the Chinese-language Next Magazine reported. Brunei's March 12 victory came after a goalkeeper error allowed Adi Said to head the only goal from close range in the 36th minute. Taiwan, who dominated the first match but could not convert their chances, recovered in the second leg to win 2-0 and advance to the second round 2-1 on aggregate.

Afghan museum seeks to remember anti-Soviet war Posted: 22 Apr 2015 11:18 PM PDT HERAT, Afghanistan (AP) — The Jihad Museum in the Afghan city of Herat sits in a hillside garden, surrounded by blooming rose bushes and the detritus of the war against the Soviet Union — a war that claimed thousands of lives in this city alone.

Australian Islamic center linked to Gallipoli centenary plot shuts down Posted: 22 Apr 2015 07:41 PM PDT By Matt Siegel SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian Islamic community center linked to five men arrested for planning an attack at a World War One centenary event said on Thursday that it was closing immediately, citing harassment. Victorian state Premier Daniel Andrews said the men were "associates" of Abdul Numan Haider, an Islamic State sympathizer who was shot dead last year after he stabbed police officers, and who was known to have attended the Al-Furqan Islamic Centre in Melbourne. The run-up to this year's centenary of the landings at Gallipoli - a major holiday in Australia and New Zealand - has been has been marred by concerns that radicals may target the celebrations for a high-profile attack. The Australian newspaper reported that the most senior Australian recruiter for the Islamic State in Syria, Neil Prakash, was also a former member of Al-Furqan.

Islamic centre tied to Australian terror accused shuts down Posted: 22 Apr 2015 06:39 PM PDT An Islamic centre in Australia linked with several men accused of terrorism-related offences shut down Thursday, citing harassment and "insidious campaigns" against it. The Al-Furqan Islamic Centre in Melbourne came under increased scrutiny after five men were arrested last weekend over an alleged plot to attack Anzac Day commemorations on April 25 -- when Australia honours its war dead. Police said at the time that "Al-Furqan and a number of other centres around Australia have come to our attention". Two of the teenagers, Sevdet Besim and Harun Causevic, have been charged with conspiring to commit a terrorist act while another faces weapons offences.

Arms experts warn of 'Faustian bargain' with Iran Posted: 22 Apr 2015 04:47 PM PDT Arms experts Wednesday voiced concern about an emerging nuclear accord with Iran, with one labelling it a "Faustian deal" amid calls for America to push for a tough inspections regime. "At a fundamental level what the deal ... signifies is acceptance by the international community of Iran as a nuclear weapons threshold state," he told the House foreign affairs committee, only days after lawmakers reached a deal with the Obama administration to have a say on the final accord. Iran and global powers on Wednesday resumed difficult talks in Vienna to finalize the deal by June 30 aimed at putting a nuclear weapon out of Tehran's reach by dramatically scaling back, but not dismantling, its atomic program. If a ground-breaking deal is reached, the US administration says it will make the region and the world safer, ensuring that the Islamic Republic would need a year to acquire enough fissile material to make a nuclear bomb.

You are subscribed to email updates from Iraq News Headlines - Yahoo! News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States