| UK queen hails triumph over 'moments of darkness' in Christmas message Posted: 24 Dec 2015 04:04 PM PST  Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will use her Christmas address Friday to highlight the triumph of good over evil after a string of attacks in 2015 including in Paris. The queen will quote from the Bible's Gospel of St John while describing the Christmas period as "a time to remember all that we have to be thankful for," according to extracts released in advance by Buckingham Palace. "It is true that the world has had to confront moments of darkness this year, but the Gospel of John contains a verse of great hope, often read at Christmas carol services: 'The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it,'" she will say.
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| Some military discharges mean no benefits after service ends Posted: 24 Dec 2015 01:16 PM PST  ST. LOUIS (AP) — No medical or mental health care. No subsidized college or work training. For many who leave the U.S. military with less-than-honorable discharges, including thousands who suffered injuries and anguish in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, standard veterans benefits are off limits.
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| Syria says ready to enter new peace talks Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:33 PM PST  Syria's regime said Thursday it was ready to take part in new talks in Geneva aimed at ending the war but appeared to make its participation conditional on which opposition groups attend. On the ground, regime air raids killed seven children among 20 civilians in the rebel-held area of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus, said a monitor. Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Damascus "is ready to participate in the Syrian-Syrian dialogue in Geneva without any foreign interference".
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| Bethlehem pilgrims celebrate Christmas against backdrop of violence Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:14 PM PST  Pilgrims began celebrating Christmas Thursday in the birthplace of Jesus, but festivities were subdued against a backdrop of violence in the Holy Land and a growing jihadist threat across the Middle East. In other parts of the Middle East, and in the world beyond, Christians were fearful for their future, and some even prohibited from celebrating the holy day. In Bethlehem, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land arrived ahead of the traditional midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity, built over the site where Christians believe Jesus was born.
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| As Islamic State threat mounts on its doorstep, Indonesia scours a jungle Posted: 24 Dec 2015 11:51 AM PST  By Kanupriya Kapoor and Randy Fabi POSO, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesian forces are mobilizing for a manhunt in steamy jungles on the far-flung island of Sulawesi to flush the country's most-wanted man from his hideout and deal a pre-emptive blow to Islamic State. Militant leader Santoso, the first Indonesian to publicly pledge loyalty to the radical jihadist group that holds swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, has eluded capture for years. Raids by security forces across the populous island of Java last week netted several Islamic State supporters and foiled a string of attacks.
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| Arab League denounces Turkish troop deployment in Iraq Posted: 24 Dec 2015 11:42 AM PST  Arab foreign ministers condemned on Thursday a Turkish military deployment in Iraq as an "assault" on the country's sovereignty, demanding Ankara withdraw the forces. The Turkish deployment "is an assault on Iraqi sovereignty and a threat to Arab national security," they said in an Arab League statement after meeting at the pan-Arab bloc's Cairo headquarters. Turkey announced on Saturday that it had begun withdrawing troops in a bid to de-escalate a bitter row with Baghdad and following a call from US President Barack Obama.
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| Clashes persist in Turkey's southeast; PKK militants killed in attack on police Posted: 24 Dec 2015 09:02 AM PST  By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR (Reuters) - Three Kurdish rebels were killed in clashes with police in Turkey's southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Thursday, security sources said, and shots and shellfire could be heard around an area that has been focus of an army offensive against rebels. Turkish police fired tear gas and sprayed water on hundreds of people after they attempted to march toward the city center carrying the coffin of two Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants killed in another incident this week. The three were killed in clashes with special forces in Diyarbakir's Yenisehir district after the PKK launched an attack on security forces, security sources said.
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| Official: 200 al-Shabab fighters pledge allegiance to IS Posted: 24 Dec 2015 09:01 AM PST  NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — About 200 Islamic extremist fighters have split from Somalia's al-Shabab rebels, who are allied to al-Qaida, and have instead pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, Kenya's police chief said Thursday.
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| 'Chiraq' rapper King Louie shot Posted: 24 Dec 2015 08:57 AM PST  King Louie, the Chicago rapper credited with coining the term "Chiraq" to describe the city's sometimes violent streets, has been shot and wounded. The rapper was in a car Wednesday on Chicago's South Side when an unidentified assailant approached and shot him in the head, police said. King Louie, whose real name is Louis Johnson and also goes by the stage name King L, has been a prominent figure in the drill music scene that emerged several years ago in the Midwestern metropolis along with controversial rapper Chief Keef.
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| Some Shebab Islamists switching ties from Al-Qaeda to IS: Kenya Posted: 24 Dec 2015 08:37 AM PST  Kenyan police warned Thursday of the risk of attacks by Islamist Shebab insurgents claiming they had split into rival factions, with some shifting allegiance from Al-Qaeda to Islamic State. "They have split, and as a result of the split, particularly those ones along ideological lines or religious lines are very keen to promote that competition by proving a point," police chief Joseph Boinnet told reporters Thursday, as Kenyans prepare to celebrate Christmas in the east African nation. The Shebab, East Africa's long-time Al-Qaeda branch, is headquartered in Somalia where it is fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu, which is protected by 22,000 African Union troops, including Kenyan soldiers.
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| Iraqi forces close in on key Ramadi district Posted: 24 Dec 2015 08:30 AM PST  Iraqi forces battled the last jihadist fighters holed up in the centre of Ramadi city Thursday, slowed in their advance by stiff resistance, booby traps and fears for trapped civilians. Fighting raged around the former government headquarters in Ramadi, a key position whose recapture by federal forces would mark another key step toward reclaiming the city they lost to the Islamic State group in May. "The Iraqi forces are in Hoz neighbourhood... about 500 metres (yards) away from the governmental complex," an army lieutenant-colonel told AFP from Anbar province.
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| U.S.-backed alliance pushes toward Islamic State-held dam in northern Syria Posted: 24 Dec 2015 08:13 AM PST  By Suleiman Al-Khalidi BEIRUT (Reuters) - A U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab rebel groups advanced toward a dam in northern Syria held by Islamic State fighters on Thursday, in an assault aimed at capturing the militants' stronghold of Raqqa, rebels and a monitor said. Further south of the dam that still supplies power to large areas in northern Syria is the even larger Baath Dam. Its power plant, under militant control, feeds much of the territory under Islamic State and is 22 km (15 miles) upstream from Raqqa.
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| Turkish PM accuses pro-Kurdish party head of treason over Russia comments Posted: 24 Dec 2015 06:56 AM PST  Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu accused the head of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition party of treason on Thursday for using a trip to Moscow to condemn Ankara's shooting down of a Russian warplane over Syria. Selahattin Demirtas, co-head of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), met foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Wednesday and criticized Ankara for shooting down the warplane near the border with Syria last month.
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| Indonesian police arrest 2 more suspected militants Posted: 24 Dec 2015 06:40 AM PST  JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian police said they have arrested two more suspected militants including a member of China's ethnic Uighur minority who was allegedly preparing to be a suicide bomber.
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| Kurdish-Arab alliance pushes IS back in north Syria: spokesman Posted: 24 Dec 2015 06:40 AM PST  An alliance of Kurdish and Arab rebels advanced Thursday against the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria's north in a new offensive backed by US-led air strikes, its spokesman said. Talal Sello, spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, told AFP the SDF offensive was launched late Wednesday in Aleppo province. "The battle now is aimed at the liberation of areas south of the town of Sarrin... to the Tishreen Dam" on the Euphrates River, Sello said.
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| Iran calls China to join the fight against the Islamic State Posted: 24 Dec 2015 06:15 AM PST By Bozorgmehr Sharafedin DUBAI (Reuters) - China should play a more active role in fighting Islamic State, a senior figure in a body that advises Iran's Supreme Leader said on Thursday, according to the country's Fars news agency. China relies on the Middle East for oil supplies, but tends to leave diplomacy there to other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France and Russia. "China can significantly help the regional peace and stability by becoming more active in the fight against the Islamic State," said Mohsen Rezaei, who has the title of Secretary of the Expediency Council, after meeting members of a Chinese delegation in Tehran. |
| Philippine Muslim guerrillas murder seven in Christmas eve raids Posted: 24 Dec 2015 06:00 AM PST  Seven Christian farmers were killed on Thursday as Muslim guerrillas launched a series of attacks in the troubled southern Philippines, the military said. The fighters of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) seized the seven and then killed them in a series of raids in the island of Mindanao where Christian-Muslim conflicts have seethed for decades. About 150 fighters of the BIFF launched assaults in different mainly-Christian towns before dawn, said Colonel Ricky Bunayog, the local military commander.
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| Coalition planes pound ISIS in Iraq's Ramadi to aid attack, TV says Posted: 24 Dec 2015 05:50 AM PST  Coalition air forces pounded positions held by Islamic State in Ramadi on Thursday, Iraqi military statements said, in support of government troops seeking to retake the western Iraqi city and push on to drive the militants from key population centers. Warplanes from the US-led coalition carried out 27 strikes against insurgent position in the last district they hold in the center of the Sunni Muslim city, which lies on the river Euphrates some 100 km (60 miles) west of Baghdad, according to a military statement on state TV.The long-awaited drive to dislodge the militants from Ramadi, the loss of which in May dealt a blow to government efforts to root out Islamic State, started early on Tuesday. Army commanders said on Wednesday the battle would take several days.If captured, Ramadi will be the second major city after Tikrit to be retaken from Islamic State in Iraq.
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| Paris attacks: Ninth terror suspect arrested in Belgium Posted: 24 Dec 2015 05:36 AM PST Abdoullah C is only the latest connection in the investigation to Belgium, which appears to be both a key planning ground for the attack and home to several of the terrorists. Of the eight men who died while carrying out the Paris attacks, at least three either were Belgian citizens or had lived there. Belgium's terrorist connections are not exclusive to the Paris attacks. |
| U.S., allies conduct 18 strikes in Iraq, six in Syria: U.S. military Posted: 24 Dec 2015 05:08 AM PST The United States and its allies conducted 18 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and six in Syria on Wednesday, coalition leading the operations said in a statement. The air strikes in Iraq were concentrated around the northern city of Mosul, where nine strikes destroyed 24 Islamic State fighting positions, two vehicles, two machine guns and an excavator, the U.S.-led coalition said in a statement Thursday. Five strikes near Ramadi, where Iraqi government troops have been waging an offensive to retake the city, destroyed five command and control nodes, "cratered" five roads used by Islamic State and denied militants access to terrain, it said. |
| Japan investigating report of journalist kidnapped in Syria Posted: 24 Dec 2015 03:30 AM PST  Japan said Thursday it was investigating the reported kidnapping of a Japanese journalist in Syria by an armed group, after two of its citizens were beheaded earlier this year. Media rights group Reporters Without Borders said Jumpei Yasuda, a freelance journalist, was kidnapped in July as he was crossing the border into the country and is still being held hostage by the group, which was not named. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to directly confirm the report when asked about it at a regular media briefing, but stressed the government was obligated to ensure the safety of Japanese citizens.
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| Iraq: Slow progress in IS-held Ramadi due to bombs, snipers Posted: 24 Dec 2015 02:42 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A senior military commander says the advance of government forces in the Islamic State-held city of Ramadi is being hampered by suicide bombers, snipers and booby traps. |
| AP INTERVIEW: Carson suggests campaign shake-up is coming Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:34 AM PST  UPPERCO, Md. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has indicated he is moving toward a major shake-up of his struggling campaign with less than six weeks to go until early voting begins to select party nominees.
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| As military handles drone strikes, less scrutiny by Congress Posted: 24 Dec 2015 12:27 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Putting the U.S. military in charge of drone strikes in Iraq and Syria has effectively reduced congressional scrutiny of those sensitive operations, leaving some activists, lawmakers and U.S. intelligence officials fearful of increased civilian casualties.
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| Syria ready to take part in Geneva peace talks: minister Posted: 23 Dec 2015 11:15 PM PST  By Ben Blanchard BEIJING (Reuters) - Syria is ready to take part in peace talks in Geneva and hopes that the dialogue will help it form a national unity government, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Thursday during a visit to Beijing. The U.N. Security Council last Friday unanimously approved a resolution endorsing an international road map for a Syrian peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter of a million lives. The U.N. plans to convene peace talks in Geneva toward the end of January.
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| Fearful Christmas for Syrian Christian town threatened by IS Posted: 23 Dec 2015 10:36 PM PST  As military vehicles roll by, Syrian boys and girls gingerly decorate a large Christmas tree in the Christian town of Sadad, at the front lines with the Islamic State jihadist group. Most residents of the ancient Syriac Orthodox-majority town in central Syria have fled, and those remaining are reluctant to celebrate the holidays as fierce battles with IS rage nearby. With the steady approach of IS, Youssef, a retired 65-year-old man living alone in Sadad, sent his family away to a safer village.
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| Plight of Syrian Refugees Recalls Tale of 2,000 Years Ago Posted: 23 Dec 2015 09:09 PM PST But those sentiments seem in scant supply in these United States. While President Obama has called on the nation to take in more refugees from Syria -- where the armies of President Bashar Assad and the self-proclaimed Islamic State represent dire threats to life and limb -- 27 U.S. governors, more than half, would attempt to bar Syrian refugees from their states. 56 percent oppose President Obama's policy. |
| Today in History Posted: 23 Dec 2015 09:06 PM PST Today in History |
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