| Pataki: Fighting Islamic State should be higher priority Posted: 16 Aug 2015 03:49 PM PDT DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The latest from the presidential candidates as they meet and greet voters at the Iowa State Fair (all times are local): |
| US hopefuls split on sending ground troops to Middle East Posted: 16 Aug 2015 03:01 PM PDT ATLANTA (AP) — Republican presidential candidates are split on whether the U.S. should send ground troops to the Middle East to combat Islamic State forces. |
| Iraq PM scraps third of cabinet posts in reform drive Posted: 16 Aug 2015 02:33 PM PDT  Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the removal of 11 of 33 cabinet posts Sunday, the first concrete step in a reform drive to curb corruption and streamline the government. The announcement came as parliament and Abadi made preliminary moves toward holding top officials -- including ex-premier Nuri al-Maliki -- accountable for military disasters in the cities of Mosul and Ramadi, which have been seized by the Islamic State jihadist group. Abadi rolled out a reform programme a week ago in response to popular pressure from weeks of protests against corruption and poor services, and to a call for drastic change from Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
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| Iraq's Abadi cuts 11 ministerial positions in reform push Posted: 16 Aug 2015 02:21 PM PDT  Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered an immediate reduction in the number of ministers on Sunday to 22 from 33, as part of a sweeping campaign to reduce corruption and mismanagement affecting the highest reaches of government. Abadi moved to eliminate the three deputy prime minister positions as well as the minister of human rights, ministries of state for women's affairs and provincial affairs, and another minister of state.
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| GOP hopefuls split on sending ground troops to Middle East Posted: 16 Aug 2015 01:48 PM PDT ATLANTA (AP) — Republican presidential candidates are split on whether the U.S. should send ground troops to the Middle East to combat Islamic State forces. |
| Iraq PM reduces Cabinet by one-third in reform push Posted: 16 Aug 2015 01:05 PM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Sunday ordered his Cabinet reduced from 33 members to just 22, consolidating the body as part of a major reform push in response to mass protests against corruption and poor governance. |
| Iraqi panel finds Maliki, others responsible for fall of Mosul Posted: 16 Aug 2015 12:41 PM PDT  By Ahmed Rasheed and Stephen Kalin BAGHDAD/BEIRUT (Reuters) - An Iraqi parliamentary panel called on Sunday for former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and dozens of other top officials to stand trial over the fall of the northern city of Mosul to Islamic State last year. Separately, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi directed military commanders accused of abandoning their posts in Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province which was overrun by Islamic State in May, to face court martial. The moves come a week after Abadi launched a sweeping campaign to reform the governing system, and are the most drastic steps yet taken by Baghdad to provide accountability for the loss of nearly a third of the country's territory to the radical jihadists.
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| One soldier, three Kurdish rebels killed in Turkey unrest: army Posted: 16 Aug 2015 11:46 AM PDT  One Turkish soldier and three suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were killed in eastern Turkey in new violence blamed on the Kurdish rebels, the army said Sunday. Fighting erupted in the early hours of Sunday near Kagizman town in eastern Kars province during an operation to capture Kurdish militants, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) said in a statement. Two soldiers were wounded and one of them later died of his injuries in hospital, the army said, adding that the security forces had shot dead three PKK members.
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| US to withdraw Patriot missiles from Turkey in October Posted: 16 Aug 2015 11:39 AM PDT  Turkey and the United States said Sunday that Washington would withdraw its Patriot missile batteries from the country in October after bolstering Ankara's air defences against threats from Syria's civil war. The NATO mandate for the mission will run out in October and will not be renewed, but the US is prepared to return Patriot assets and personnel to Turkey within one week if needed, a joint Turkish-US statement said. "They will be redeployed to the US for critical modernisation upgrades that will ensure the US missile defence force remains capable of countering evolving global threats and protecting Allies and partners, including Turkey," the statement said.
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| U.S., allies conduct 22 air strikes against Islamic State - U.S. military Posted: 16 Aug 2015 11:33 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies have conducted 22 air strikes against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria in the past 24 hours, the U.S. military said on Sunday. In Syria, three strikes near Hasaka in northeast Syria hit a tactical unit and destroyed Islamic State fighting positions, bunkers, and excavators. One strike near Aleppo hit an Islamic State tactical unit, and a strike near Kobani, near the Turkish border, struck a tactical unit and destroyed three fighting positions, the Coalition Joint Task Force said. ...
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| Merkel says migrants bigger challenge for EU than Greek debt crisis Posted: 16 Aug 2015 11:14 AM PDT  Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday condemned a surge in German attacks on refugee shelters and warned that the issue of asylum could become a bigger challenge for the European Union than the Greek debt crisis. Merkel warned that waves of refugees would "preoccupy Europe much, much more than the issue of Greece and the stability of the euro". For Germany, where some officials have said the number of asylum-seekers could top 600,000 this year, Merkel said the issue posed particular challenges.
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| Iraq PM reduces Cabinet by one-third in latest reform push Posted: 16 Aug 2015 11:03 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq PM reduces Cabinet by one-third in latest reform push. |
| AP Interview: Jordan says Syria militants try to sneak in Posted: 16 Aug 2015 10:56 AM PDT  ON THE SYRIA BORDER, Jordan (AP) — Militants have tried to sneak into Jordan from Syria by blending in with Syrian refugees, while smugglers have stepped up efforts to bring weapons and drugs into the kingdom, the commander of Jordan's Border Guard said in an interview Sunday.
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| Body of Syrian boy, 16, found at base of Greek island cliff Posted: 16 Aug 2015 10:43 AM PDT  The body of a 16-year-old Syrian boy smuggled from Turkey has been found at the foot of a cliff on the Greek island of Kos, a Red Cross official told AFP on Sunday. "His boat landed in a dangerous area of Kos," by a cliff, the official said. "We launched a search and rescue operation and found his body on the beach yesterday (Saturday)," the Red Cross official said.
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| Send refugees home after wars end, urges Swiss politician Posted: 16 Aug 2015 10:18 AM PDT  A leading Swiss politician said people fleeing conflict should only receive temporary protection in Switzerland, calling for a rethinking of the country's approach to asylum seekers in an interview published Sunday. "People displaced by war should still be taken in but only with the aim of sending them back later when the situation in their country of origin allows it," Philipp Mueller, leader of the influential centre-right FDP party, told the Schweiz am Sonntag paper. Noting "chaos" on the Greek island of Kos, where thousands of migrants mainly from Syria and Iraq have turned up in recent weeks, Mueller said Switzerland needed to refocus on the issue of migrants.
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| Indian premier discusses cooperation with UAE Posted: 16 Aug 2015 09:55 AM PDT  Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks Sunday with Abu Dhabi's crown prince on bolstering cooperation with the United Arab Emirates at the start of a two-day visit, state media said. Modi is the first Indian premier to visit the UAE in more than three decades since Indira Gandhi came in 1981 and is due to address the country's large India expat community in Dubai on Monday. Indians, who form the UAE's largest expatriate community, account for about 30 percent of the country's population of eight million, with many of them labourers who were behind the construction boom.
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| Iraq probe finds Maliki, others responsible for Mosul fall Posted: 16 Aug 2015 09:34 AM PDT  An Iraqi parliamentary investigation found ex-premier Nuri al-Maliki and other officials responsible for jihadists overrunning second city Mosul, in a report being sent for possible legal action, lawmakers said Sunday. While various top commanders and political leaders have long been blamed for the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group's disastrous takeover of the capital of Nineveh province, the investigative committee's report is the first time they have been named officially. Committee member MP Abdulrahim al-Shammari said that Maliki, who was prime minister from 2006 until last year, was among those named, as did another member who declined to be identified.
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| U.S., Germany to pull Patriot missiles from Turkey Posted: 16 Aug 2015 08:56 AM PDT  BERLIN/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The United States and Germany said they will pull Patriot missile batteries from southern Turkey after a reassessment of the threats stemming from the conflict in neighboring Syria. The U.S. Patriots, in Turkey as part of a broader NATO mission since 2013, will be redeployed to the United States for upgrades, according to a joint Turkish-U.S. statement on Sunday. German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced at the weekend that Berlin would let its three-year Patriot mission lapse in January instead of seeking parliamentary approval to extend it.
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| Iraq's Abadi orders commanders to face trial over Ramadi withdrawal Posted: 16 Aug 2015 04:54 AM PDT  By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi directed military commanders on Sunday to face a court martial for abandoning their positions in Ramadi, as he pushed ahead with a campaign aimed at combating corruption and mismanagement. Underlining the risks of the ambitious reform agenda, however, the head of parliament's integrity panel, which refers corruption cases to the courts, said his convoy had been targeted west of Baghdad on Saturday evening. Abadi is seeking to transform a system he says has encouraged graft and incompetence, depriving Iraqis of basic services while undermining government forces in the battle against Islamic State militants.
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| Arms seized in Kuwait came from Iran: Kuwaiti newspapers Posted: 16 Aug 2015 04:21 AM PDT A huge arms cache seized in Kuwait last week was smuggled into the country from Iran, two Kuwaiti newspapers reported on Sunday. The Interior Ministry said on Thursday authorities had found ammunition, explosives, weapons and grenades in holes dug under houses in an area near the Iraqi border. Al-Anba newspaper reported at the time that the weapons had been smuggled across the border from Iraq for use by members of an Iranian-backed Hezbollah cell. |
| Iraq PM clears way for military trials over Ramadi loss Posted: 16 Aug 2015 01:48 AM PDT  Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi approved an investigative commission's recommendation that commanders face military justice and probable trial for withdrawing from Ramadi without orders, his office said Sunday. Ramadi fell to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group in mid-May after government forces had held out against militants in the city west of the capital for more than a year, in the worst setback for Baghdad in months. Abadi approved "decisions of the investigative commission on the withdrawal of the Anbar Operations Command and units attached to it from the city of Ramadi," his office said in a statement.
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| Libya's government urges Arab air strikes against Islamic State in Sirte Posted: 16 Aug 2015 12:48 AM PDT Libya's internationally recognised government has asked fellow Arab states to conduct air strikes against Islamic State in the coastal city of Sirte, a cabinet statement said on Saturday. In the past few days, Islamic State has crushed a revolt by a Salafist Muslim group and armed residents trying to break its grip on the city. The fighting typifies chaos in Libya, where two rival governments and parliaments, together with an assortment of Islamists, tribesmen and armed groups, are battling for control of cities and regions, four years after the ousting of veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi. |
| Obamas, Clintons golf and fete friend on Martha's Vineyard Posted: 15 Aug 2015 09:37 PM PDT  By Jeff Mason OAK BLUFFS, Mass. (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama played golf with former President Bill Clinton and attended a party with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday to celebrate the birthday of Washington power broker and mutual friend Vernon Jordan. The birthday bash, which took place on the Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard, reunited the two powerful Democratic families in the midst of a second White House bid by Hillary Clinton, who is under fire for using a private email server during her time as the top U.S. diplomat. The Obamas and Clintons crossed paths last year on Martha's Vineyard at a similar celebration for Jordan's wife, Ann.
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| Hillary Clinton hits back at Jeb Bush on Iraq Posted: 15 Aug 2015 07:27 PM PDT  Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton returned fire at her Republican rival Jeb Bush's claim that a "premature" US pullout from Iraq fueled the rise of the Islamic State group. Clinton served as secretary of state under President Barack Obama during the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS). In 2002, while serving as a US senator from New York, Clinton voted in favor of authorizing the invasion of Iraq ordered by Bush's brother and then-president George W. Bush.
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