Yahoo! News: Iraq

In response to 'army of fanatics', Hollande vows 'more songs'
Russia didn't give downed jet's flight plan to U.S.: U.S. officials
The Latest: French court keeps 2 suspects under house arrest
Drowned Syrian boy's aunt says family will settle in Canada
EU turns to Turkey to help manage its migration woes
Voice of Paris attacks; Did he have bigger role?
Tunisia, targeted anew, faces intelligence challenge
UK photographer McCullin says wars now harder to cover
Suicide bomber hits Shi'ite procession in Nigeria's Kano state
Refugee crisis tests Sweden's lofty aim of 'equality for all'
Strikes on IS city, focus of international campaign, kill 8
France can only work with Syrian army as part of a power transition: Fabius
U.S. targets Islamic State with 18 air strikes in Iraq: U.S. military
Widows: Railroad knew of defect before veterans killed
Tunisia bus bomber arrested, freed before attack
Tunisia puts suspected returning jihadists under house arrest
Three Wounded Syrian War Veterans Flee to Europe
Britain's Labour in disarray over Syria air strikes vote
China calls for calm amid tensions over Russian jet downing
Niger says Boko Haram gunmen kill 18 in village bordering Nigeria
Global landmine casualties increase, Afghanistan largely to blame: study
Sirens ring out as air strikes hit IS Syria stronghold
The Latest: Putin: Russia to cooperate with US-led coalition

In response to 'army of fanatics', Hollande vows 'more songs'

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 03:51 PM PST

President Francois Hollande vowed Friday to destroy the "army of fanatics" behind the Paris attacks but also said France would respond with more songs, concerts and shows, as the nation paused to honour the 130 killed. "On November 13, a day we will never forget, France was hit at its very heart," Hollande told a sombre commemoration in the Invalides, the 17th-century complex housing Napoleon's tomb. "To all of you, I solemnly promise that France will do everything to destroy the army of fanatics that committed these crimes," he said.

Russia didn't give downed jet's flight plan to U.S.: U.S. officials

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 03:02 PM PST

By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia did not inform the U.S. military of its jet's flight plan before Turkey shot it down on Tuesday, despite assertions to the contrary by Russian President Vladimir Putin, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Putin has suggested some degree of U.S. culpability in the aftermath of the incident, even hinting that the United States might have given detailed Russian operational plans to Turkey ahead of time. Addressing reporters in Moscow on Thursday, Putin said "we informed our American partners" about when and where Russian aircraft would be operating.

The Latest: French court keeps 2 suspects under house arrest

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 01:02 PM PST

PARIS (AP) — The latest on the attacks in Paris and security alert in Brussels. All times local:

Drowned Syrian boy's aunt says family will settle in Canada

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 12:10 PM PST

TORONTO (AP) — The aunt of a Syrian boy whose lifeless body was photographed on a Turkish beach, sparking worldwide outrage at the refugee crisis, said Friday that she hopes her family members will be in Canada by Christmas.

EU turns to Turkey to help manage its migration woes

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 12:03 PM PST

BRUSSELS (AP) — Five years ago, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi warned that millions of Africans wanted to come to the European Union and offered to make the continent's immigration problem disappear in exchange for billions of euros.

Voice of Paris attacks; Did he have bigger role?

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 11:54 AM PST

By Chine Labbé and Marie-Louise Gumuchian PARIS/ALENCON, France (Reuters) - The voice that claimed Islamic State was responsible for the deadly Paris attacks is known to many in the small French provincial town of Alencon. To family, Fabien Clain was a "big teddy bear", to neighbors he was polite and at the local mosque he was a fellow worshipper who came to pray. To the French authorities, he was a veteran jihadi jailed once in the past for recruiting militant fighters and believed by them to have fled to Syria this year.

Tunisia, targeted anew, faces intelligence challenge

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 10:47 AM PST

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — An attack by Islamic State militants on Tunisia's presidential guard has left this North African country, its economy and its democracy even more vulnerable just days before four Tunisians head to collect the Nobel Peace Prize.

UK photographer McCullin says wars now harder to cover

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 09:51 AM PST

Award-winning British war photographer Don McCullin, who will be celebrated at next year's Photo London festival with a special exhibition, spoke Friday about the growing difficulties in covering conflicts. The 80-year-old photographer, who has covered many of the biggest conflicts of the 20th century, took some of his most famous photos during the Vietnam conflict and is still at it -- travelling to Iraq just a month ago. It's difficult," McCullin told AFP at a press preview of the international fair, which runs May 16-22 next year.

Suicide bomber hits Shi'ite procession in Nigeria's Kano state

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 09:14 AM PST

A male suicide bomber hit a procession of Shi'ite Muslims in Nigeria's Kano state as they walked to the city of Zaria to pay homage to their founder in the country, security sources and a Shi'ite leader said. Muhammad Turi said that 21 people had been killed and more wounded. The blast went off at around 2 p.m. local time (1300 GMT) near the village of Dakozoye outside the town of Garum Mallam, south of Nigeria's second city Kano.

Refugee crisis tests Sweden's lofty aim of 'equality for all'

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 08:35 AM PST

Malmö (Sweden) (AFP) - Aneta Moura, who emigrated to Sweden from Greece 43 years ago, says the last ethnic Swede has moved off her street in Malmo's Rosengard neighbourhood and youths with nothing to do hang out on the streets at all hours. Growing segregation between ethnic Swedes and immigrants is emerging as a major concern in Sweden, a country that has for decades prided itself on its egalitarian ideals and where most low-skilled jobs have been eliminated in a bid to do away with much of the "class society" that went with them. The country's inability to integrate immigrants is pre-occupying the Swedish public and policymakers now that Sweden is taking in record numbers of refugees who will eventually need to find work to become fully-fledged active members of society.

Strikes on IS city, focus of international campaign, kill 8

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 08:31 AM PST

BEIRUT (AP) — A new wave of airstrikes targeting the Syrian city of Raqqa, the headquarters of the extremist Islamic State group and the focus of an international military campaign, killed at least eight people, including five children, Syrian opposition groups said Friday.

France can only work with Syrian army as part of a power transition: Fabius

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 08:22 AM PST

Working with Syrian government forces to combat Islamic State can only happen within the framework of a credible political transition for Syria, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Friday. Earlier Fabius had appeared to suggest President Bashar al Assad's forces could be used to battle the Islamic State militants, which would mark a departure in the Western position that the Syrian leader must step down. Syria's Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem cautiously welcomed Fabius' earlier comments.

U.S. targets Islamic State with 18 air strikes in Iraq: U.S. military

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 07:42 AM PST

The United States and its allies staged 18 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq on Thursday, according to the U.S.-led coalition leading the military operations. The strikes near five cities included seven near Ramadi that hit two of the militant group's tactical units and destroyed four of its buildings, among other targets, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement released on Friday. Near Sinjar, five strikes hit three Islamic State tactical units and destroyed one of the group's vehicles and fighting positions, the task force said.

Widows: Railroad knew of defect before veterans killed

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 07:38 AM PST

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Intensive care nurse Angie Boivin had just tended to a woman whose leg was severed near the hip when she saw her husband Larry lying nearby under an American flag blanket. She says that she was with him when he took his last breath.

Tunisia bus bomber arrested, freed before attack

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 07:33 AM PST

By Tarek Amara and Mohamed Argoubi TUNIS (Reuters) - The suicide bomber in Tunisia who blew himself up in a bus packed with presidential guards on Tuesday had been arrested by police before on suspicion of jihadist ties but was released for lack of evidence, a security official said. Tunisia, one of the Arab world's most secular nations, is struggling to counter Islamist militancy since becoming a beacon of democratic change in the region after its 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Zine Abidine Ben Ali. Houssem Abdelli, a street vendor from an impoverished neighbourhood of Tunis, detonated his explosives as presidential guards boarded a bus on Tuesday afternoon on one of the capital's main boulevards, killing 12 people.

Tunisia puts suspected returning jihadists under house arrest

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 06:51 AM PST

Tunisian authorities arrested dozens of people raids and put scores more under house arrest on suspicion that they were militants returning from Syria and Iraq, the Interior Ministry said on Friday, three days after a bus attack which killed 12 presidential guards. The ministry said 40 people were arrested in the raids, and another 92 placed under house arrest. Islamic State has claimed the bombing, the third major militant attack in Tunisia this year following assaults on a beach resort at Sousse and the Bardo museum in the capital, both of which targeted foreign visitors.

Three Wounded Syrian War Veterans Flee to Europe

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 06:24 AM PST

The night they finally left for Europe, on October 4, Asem Hasna, Ahmad Orabi, and Deeb Al-Khateeb took a taxi from Izmir, Turkey, to a patch of forest overlooking the Aegean shore. The three men had each left $1000 in escrow with a middleman back in town, who'd told them to go to the woods after midnight. This broker, who like the three travelers was Syrian, was in contact with Turkish human traffickers who were coming to meet them at midnight. The traffickers, who knew the local coastline, would show the way to a cove where a boat would be waiting.

Britain's Labour in disarray over Syria air strikes vote

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 03:13 AM PST

Top figures in Britain's main opposition Labour Party heaped criticism on their leader Jeremy Corbyn on Friday after he ruled out voting for the Royal Air Force to join air strikes in Syria. "This is very complex, it is very difficult and each individual in the end will reach their own decision about what they think the right thing to do is," Benn told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Prime Minister David Cameron made his case for air strikes to parliament on Thursday ahead of a vote expected next week in which dozens of Labour MPs are expected to defy Corbyn and vote with the government.

China calls for calm amid tensions over Russian jet downing

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 01:02 AM PST

China's Foreign Ministry called for calm on Friday over growing tensions about Turkey's shooting down of a Russian warplane, urging the international community to coordinate in the fight against terror to avoid such incidents. In an escalating war of words, President Tayyip Erdogan responded to Russian accusations that Turkey has been buying oil and gas from Islamic State in Syria by accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his backers, which include Moscow, of being the real source of the group's financial and military power. The shooting down of the jet by the Turkish air force on Tuesday was one of the most serious clashes between a NATO member and Russia, and further complicated international efforts to battle Islamic State militants.

Niger says Boko Haram gunmen kill 18 in village bordering Nigeria

Posted: 27 Nov 2015 12:50 AM PST

Niger's government said on Thursday that Boko Haram militants killed 18 people, including a local religious leader, in an attack on a village in Niger's southern border area of Diffa on the Nigerian border. The Islamist militants rarely claim attacks but they are based in the north of Nigeria and often launch cross border attacks in Niger, Chad and Cameroon. The gunmen arrived in the village of Gogone near the shores of Lake Chad on foot and fired indiscriminately on residents and attacked their homes, security sources said.

Global landmine casualties increase, Afghanistan largely to blame: study

Posted: 26 Nov 2015 05:04 PM PST

By Joseph D'Urso LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Long-term progress in reducing the number of landmine casualties was reversed last year, and rebel groups used the mines in 10 countries, the largest number since 2006, researchers said on Thursday. Non-state groups were still using the deadly devices in the 12 months to October 2015 in Colombia, Libya, Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen, and in Afghanistan, where there was a sharp increase in casualties from improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Landmines were also used by rebels in three countries - Iraq, Tunisia and Ukraine - where they were not used last year, and by three states: Myanmar, Syria and North Korea.

Sirens ring out as air strikes hit IS Syria stronghold

Posted: 26 Nov 2015 04:45 PM PST

In the Islamic State group's Syrian stronghold of Raqa, sirens ring out whenever a warplane approaches as jihadists flee their posts and vehicles to hide, activists say. A US-led coalition and Russia have stepped up air strikes on the jihadists' de facto Syrian capital since IS claimed to have downed a Russian passenger plane over Egypt's Sinai in October and the deadly jihadist attacks in Paris two weeks later. "The sirens are on the roofs of high buildings, in the squares and in the streets," Taym Ramadan, a city resident and anti-IS activist, told AFP.