| Barthelemy stays unbeaten with victory over DeMarco Posted: 21 Jun 2015 04:27 PM PDT LAS VEGAS (AP) — Rances Barthelemy beat Antonio DeMarco by unanimous decision on Sunday. |
| Pentagon chief urges balanced approach to Russian aggression Posted: 21 Jun 2015 02:22 PM PDT  BERLIN (AP) — Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the U.S. and NATO need to have a "strong but balanced" approach to Russia, and he questioned whether Moscow's "backward-looking" aggressive behavior will change while President Vladimir Putin remains at the helm.
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| Pentagon chief planning for longer-term rift with Russia Posted: 21 Jun 2015 01:48 PM PDT  By Phil Stewart BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States and its NATO allies are preparing militarily for the prospect that their rift with Russia could outlast President Vladimir Putin, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Sunday. Russia's intervention in Ukraine has put NATO allies in eastern Europe on edge and triggered a series of military moves by the alliance, including an acceleration of exercises and the creation of a NATO rapid response force. Carter, speaking at the start of a week-long trip to Europe, said the United States hoped Russia would return to a forward- looking course and noted areas of diplomatic cooperation with Moscow, including talks over Iran's nuclear program.
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| Turkey's Erdogan warns of snap vote if coalition talks fail Posted: 21 Jun 2015 12:25 PM PDT  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday urged the swift formation of a coalition government, warning he could call early elections should there be no agreement by mid-August. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its majority in June 7 elections for the first time since it came to power in 2002, in a major blow to Erdogan. Newly elected lawmakers will be sworn in on Tuesday, after which Erdogan will ask the AKP -- still the biggest party in parliament -- to form a coalition government within 45 days.
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| Israel, Hamas in unspoken alliance against Gaza extremists Posted: 21 Jun 2015 08:27 AM PDT  KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Nearly a year after a devastating war, Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers appear to have formed an unspoken alliance in a common battle against the shared threat of jihadis aligned with the Islamic State group.
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| U.S., allies target Islamic State with 18 air strikes in Iraq Posted: 21 Jun 2015 07:57 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. and coalition forces launched 18 air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq on Saturday, with four each in Tal Afar and Mosul, the U.S. military said in a statement. The air strikes hit near nine Iraqi cities in all, destroying Islamic State buildings, tactical units, heavy machine guns and vehicles, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement Sunday. Near Haditha, two air strikes hit a militants' safe house and an Islamic State headquarters, it said. Other cities affected were Baghdadi, Ar Rutbah, Baiji, Fallujah, Makhmur and Sinjar, it said. ...
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| Afghan Taliban offer govt workers 'hotline' number to defect Posted: 21 Jun 2015 07:36 AM PDT  The Afghan Taliban have announced a 24-hour telephone "hotline" and email addresses for any government employees wishing to defect to them, as the tech-savvy militants try to bolster public support. "The Islamic Emirate will provide safety to anybody who defects from the Kabul puppet regime," the Taliban said in a statement on their website on Sunday, using their formal name. The move demonstrates the Taliban's efforts to boost public support for their resilient but unpopular insurgency following a string of defections to the Islamic State group in recent months.
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| Surplus food for the homeless is just an app away Posted: 21 Jun 2015 07:36 AM PDT  On-demand smartphone apps are known for addressing the whims and desires of the comfortable. It turns out they can also serve the greater good.
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| Fears after Islamic State group mines Syria's Palmyra Posted: 21 Jun 2015 07:36 AM PDT  Islamic State group jihadists have mined the spectacular ancient ruins in Syria's Palmyra, an antiquities official and monitor said Sunday, prompting fears for the UNESCO World Heritage site. Syria's antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said that the group had laid mines and explosives in Palmyra's Greco-Roman ruins. The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources on the ground, said the explosives were laid on Saturday.
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| Bombings kill at least 5 people near Iraqi capital, Baghdad Posted: 21 Jun 2015 06:54 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Officials in Iraq say separate bombings have killed at least five people outside of Baghdad. |
| Islamic State militants plant mines and bombs in Palmyra: monitoring group Posted: 21 Jun 2015 05:30 AM PDT  Islamic State has planted mines and bombs in the ancient part of the central Syrian city of Palmyra, home to Roman-era ruins, a group monitoring the war said on Sunday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not immediately clear whether the group was preparing to destroy the ancient ruins or planted the mines to deter government forces from advancing towards the city, also known as Tadmur. Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria's head of antiquities, told Reuters that the reports of Islamic State planting bombs in Palmyra "seems true".
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| A short chronology of the Islamic State group Posted: 21 Jun 2015 05:08 AM PDT April 18, 2010 — U.S. and Iraqi forces kill two top leaders of al-Qaida's branch in Iraq. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes the terror group's new leader. |
| State of fear: Survivors tell of life under IS rule Posted: 21 Jun 2015 05:06 AM PDT  ESKI MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — When the Islamic State fighters burst into the Iraqi village of Eski Mosul, Sheikh Abdullah Ibrahim knew his wife was in trouble.
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| Cigarette smuggler skirts deadly edge of IS smoking ban Posted: 21 Jun 2015 05:05 AM PDT  ESKI MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — It was a heart-racing moment. The cigarette smuggler was stuck in line at a checkpoint as, up ahead, Islamic State militants were searching cars. He was running a big risk: The militants have banned smoking and lighting up is punishable with a fine or broken finger. Selling cigarettes can be a death sentence.
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| How ISIS Is Spreading Terror Far Beyond Iraq and Syria Posted: 21 Jun 2015 03:30 AM PDT In Iraq, ISIS has captured the major cities of Mosul and Ramadi despite 10 months of U.S.-led air attacks and an ongoing ground war with the governments of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya and Nigeria. In the United States, the terror plots and attacks are rising. |
| Austere brand of Islam on rise in Europe, stirring concerns Posted: 21 Jun 2015 02:39 AM PDT  PARIS (AP) — Its imams preach austere piety, its tenets demand strict separation of sexes — and some of its most radical adherents are heeding the call of jihad. Salafism, an Islamic movement based on a literal reading of the Quran, is on the rise in France, Germany and Britain, security officials say, with Salafis sharply increasing their influence in mosques and on the streets.
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| Jolie decries 'explosion of suffering' after visiting refugees in Turkey Posted: 21 Jun 2015 12:19 AM PDT  Hollywood actress and director Angelina Jolie on Saturday described a spiraling global refugee crisis as an "explosion of human suffering" whose causes the international community refuses to confront. Jolie, who serves as a United Nations special envoy for refugees, was speaking at a news conference in southeastern Turkey, home to Syrians and Iraqis displaced by war, on World Refugee Day. The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR said in a report last week that there were now more refugees than at any other time in history, with 59.5 million people displaced from their homes worldwide.
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| Baghdadi: The enigmatic IS jihadist chief Posted: 20 Jun 2015 10:54 PM PDT  Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi rose from obscurity to lead the world's most infamous and feared jihadist group, but shuns the spotlight for an aura of mystery that adds to his appeal. The Islamic State group released a slew of photos and videos documenting its offensive that overran a third of Iraq last June, and the many atrocities it carried out. IS declared a cross-border Islamic "caliphate" a year ago this month, after which a man identified as Baghdadi appeared in a mosque in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, ordering Muslims around the world to obey him.
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| Twitter, YouTube analysis pinpoints IS strategy Posted: 20 Jun 2015 10:09 PM PDT  Tweets and YouTube videos by fighters from the Islamic State group have allowed analysts to pinpoint their movements in Iraq and Syria, highlighting the group's increasing push towards government strongholds. The data compiled by Britain-based analysts from IHS Conflict Monitor, and shared exclusively with AFP, shows how the Islamic State (IS) group is probing beyond the territory it currently holds and pushing the bulk of its forces towards Damascus and Baghdad. IHS ranks the most reliable Twitter and YouTube accounts from known IS militants, as well as opposition activists and government sources, using the geo-location data from around 4,000 entries a month to map attacks ranging from assassinations to large-scale bomb attacks.
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