| Democratic debate a breakout chance for O'Malley, others Posted: 12 Oct 2015 02:33 PM PDT  DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Stuck far behind Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Martin O'Malley needs a breakout moment in the party's first debate to catch up to the front-runners.
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| Thousands rally at German protest against refugees, Islam Posted: 12 Oct 2015 01:55 PM PDT  DRESDEN, Germany (AP) — Thousands of Germans took part Monday in a protest organized by the anti-Islam group PEGIDA, almost one year after it held its first rally in the eastern city of Dresden.
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| Turkey faces period of instability in wake of attacks Posted: 12 Oct 2015 01:53 PM PDT  ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The suicide bombings that ripped through a rally promoting peace in Turkey's capital have magnified the political uncertainty ahead of a key election Nov. 1 and raised fears that the country may be heading toward an extended period of instability.
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| US airdrops small arms ammunition to Syrian Arab groups Posted: 12 Oct 2015 01:51 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. cargo planes dropped small arms ammunition to Arab groups fighting the Islamic State group in northern Syria, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday. |
| Clinton, Sanders set for first Democratic presidential debate Posted: 12 Oct 2015 01:48 PM PDT  After ignoring her chief rival for months, White House heavyweight contender Hillary Clinton steps into the ring Tuesday to confront independent Senator Bernie Sanders in their first Democratic debate of the 2016 primary cycle. Clinton will take center stage in Las Vegas joined by Sanders and three other hopefuls, and while there is unlikely to be a dramatic clash of personalities as seen in the first two Republican debates, the spotlight is likely to be on the top two candidates. The former secretary of state will no doubt face pressure from Sanders, who will tout the populism of his political revolution in their much-anticipated encounter.
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| Turkey PM says IS prime suspect in deadliest attack Posted: 12 Oct 2015 01:46 PM PDT  Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Monday said the Islamic State (IS) extremist group was the prime suspect in the double suicide bombings in Ankara that killed 97 and sparked anger over the authorities' failure to ensure security. In his first interview since Turkey was scarred Saturday by its deadliest ever attack, Davutoglu insisted that a snap election would go ahead as planned on November 1 despite the bloodshed. The attack on a peace rally of leftist, labour and Kurdish activists ratcheted up tensions to new heights in Turkey as the government wages a relentless campaign against Kurdish militants and also battles IS jihadists.
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| Two Tunisian soldiers killed in clashes with militants Posted: 12 Oct 2015 01:17 PM PDT Islamists militants killed two Tunisian soldiers who were seeking to free a man kidnapped on Monday in a mountainous area near the border with Algeria, an army spokesman said. Tunisia's army has been carrying out operations in the area after two major attacks this year claimed by Islamic State. "Two soldiers have been killed and four others wounded after clashes in the Sammama mountains in Kasserine, in clashes with terrorists," spokesman Belhassen Ouuslati said. |
| US-led coalition drops ammo to anti-IS Syrian rebels Posted: 12 Oct 2015 01:10 PM PDT  US-led coalition forces have parachuted ammunition to rebels fighting Islamic State jihadists in northern Syria, a US military spokesman said Monday. The move follows the Pentagon's announcement last week that it would halt its much-criticized program to train moderate rebels, and instead focus efforts on equipping pre-screened rebel leaders from groups actively fighting IS. Colonel Steve Warren, the Baghdad-based spokesman for the US-led effort to strike IS in Iraq and Syria, said the ammunition had gone to a group called the Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC) that has for months been fighting IS across an arc of territory north of the IS stronghold of Raqqa.
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| Syria regime advances, US drops ammo to anti-IS rebels Posted: 12 Oct 2015 12:48 PM PDT  Regime troops aided by Russian air strikes fought their fiercest clashes with rebels in weeks Monday, as US-led coalition forces parachuted ammunition to rebels battling jihadists in northern Syria. Meanwhile, the UN's peace envoy to Syria said he was heading to Moscow to promote a political end to the conflict, despite Russia intensifying its raids. In a complex conflict involving several foreign players, Moscow has sided militarily with President Bashar al-Assad against his armed foes, branding them "terrorists".
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| No fuel delivered to Yemen despite president's pledge: U.N. Posted: 12 Oct 2015 12:47 PM PDT  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Yemen only received one percent of its monthly commercial fuel needs in September and there have been no shipments since the war-torn country's president pledged to the United Nations a week ago to allow deliveries, the world body said on Monday. Yemen relies on imports, but a near-total blockade led by Saudi Arabia has slowed shipments to a trickle. The Houthis and their allies - forces loyal to former Yemen president Ali Abdullah Saleh - seized the capital, Sanaa, a year ago.
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| France's Syria strikes 'may have killed French jihadists' Posted: 12 Oct 2015 12:13 PM PDT  French air strikes in Syria may have killed French jihadists, a source close to Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Monday, although the defence ministry said the information could not yet be confirmed. The strikes Thursday night targeted a training camp for Islamic State group militants in the conflict-torn country -- the second time that French jets have targeted IS camps in Syria. There might well be French jihadists among them," said the source in Valls's delegation during a visit to Jordan as part of a Middle East tour.
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| Iraq announces new phase in IS fight in central province Posted: 12 Oct 2015 12:12 PM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's prime minister has announced the launch of the second phase of a large-scale military operation to drive Islamic State militants out of the central Salahuddin province. |
| Ready to debate: A guide to the Democratic 2016 candidates Posted: 12 Oct 2015 12:05 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican presidential contest has been aflutter for months, but now it's time for the Democrats to spread their wings before a big national audience.
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| Political crisis escalates in Iraq's Kurdistan region Posted: 12 Oct 2015 12:02 PM PDT  By Isabel Coles ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - The prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan removed four ministers from his cabinet on Monday and the speaker of parliament was barred from entering the capital in an escalating political crisis that threatens to destabilize the region. The parliament speaker and ministers are all members of the Gorran party, which the dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) accuses of orchestrating violent protests that resulted in five deaths. The ministers of religious affairs, finance, trade, and peshmerga forces on Monday met Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani who "asked them to leave their posts", Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) spokesman Safeen Dizayee told Reuters.
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| Syria troops advance under Russian air cover Posted: 12 Oct 2015 11:58 AM PDT  DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Russian jets intensified their airstrikes Monday in central Syria as government forces battled insurgents in a strategic area near a rebel-held province and a government stronghold.
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| Amid Russian airstrikes, a Putin craze takes hold in Mideast Posted: 12 Oct 2015 11:55 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — Amid the ornate walls of Damascus' famed Omayyad Mosque, preacher Maamoun Rahmeh stood before worshippers last week, declaring Russian President Vladimir Putin a "giant and beloved leader" who has "destroyed the myth of the self-aggrandizing America."
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| IS was behind deadly Karachi bus attack: Pakistan official Posted: 12 Oct 2015 11:53 AM PDT  Islamic State militants were behind a brutal attack that killed 45 Shiites in Karachi in May, a Pakistani official told AFP Monday, despite the government's long-held stance that the jihadist group does not have a presence in the country. Gunmen stormed a bus in Karachi in May, slaughtering members of the Ismail minority community in one of the deadliest incidents in Pakistan this year. IS swiftly claimed responsibility, marking the first time the militants, who have seized a large swathe of Syria and Iraq and declared a "caliphate", said they were behind an attack in Pakistan.
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| German conservatives agree on 'transit zones' for refugees Posted: 12 Oct 2015 11:53 AM PDT  By Thorsten Severin and Andreas Rinke BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and her Bavarian allies have agreed on a plan to set up "transit zones" at the border to filter out migrants who clearly have no chance of gaining asylum, Bavarian Premier Horst Seehofer said on Monday. Seehofer, who heads the Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), said a concrete proposal would be drawn up by the two parties, the Bavarian government and the federal government, this week. Speaking at a CDU event at the northern city of Stade, Merkel said the idea was to stop directly at the border those people who were coming from countries deemed as safe.
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| Iraqi Kurdish PM fires four ministers after violent unrest: spokesman Posted: 12 Oct 2015 10:54 AM PDT  The prime minister of Iraq's Kurdistan region has removed four members of his cabinet, a spokesman said on Monday, in an escalating political crisis that threatens to destabilize the relatively peaceful region. Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani is also vice president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which accuses the Gorran party of provoking violent unrest that recently left five people dead. The ministers of Religious Affairs, Finance, Trade and Peshmerga forces, all of whom are from Gorran, met on Monday with Nechirvan Barzani.
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| PKK to keep to ceasefire as conflict drags on in Turkey's southeast Posted: 12 Oct 2015 09:17 AM PDT  By Daren Butler ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A top Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) commander was quoted on Monday as saying the group would stick to a unilateral ceasefire announced at the weekend despite Turkish air strikes against its positions in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq. The government has dismissed the PKK ceasefire as a ploy ahead of November polls, where a pro-Kurdish party opposed to President Tayyip Erdogan will be seeking to strengthen a foothold in parliament. "We are obliged to maintain this halt to hostilities, without succumbing to doubt, as a legacy for those (killed in Ankara)," Firat news agency reported Murat Karayilan as saying in a radio broadcast to the PKK's militants in Turkey and Iraq.
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| Teenage girls and drama therapy break new ground in Iraq Posted: 12 Oct 2015 08:38 AM PDT  Haneen, who has spent most of her life in orphanages, says she used to stay weeks locked up in herself, aimlessly eating, watching TV and sleeping through each day. Last week, the 13-year-old Iraqi girl was beaming with joy and excitement when the crowd at a Baghdad theatre gave her and her friends a rousing round of applause. What happened was a project set up by the Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq and aimed at introducing drama therapy in a country where almost everybody has suffered some kind of trauma.
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| Turkey bombings: Islamic State focus doesn't sway Kurdish suspicions Posted: 12 Oct 2015 08:02 AM PDT National mourning combined with deepening political rage across Turkey on Monday, in the aftermath of twin suicide bombings at a peace rally that killed at least 97. The weekend bombings came amid a perfect storm of destabilizing internal and external factors, less than three weeks before Turkey holds snap elections. In Syria, Turkey has begun to take on the Islamic State (IS), which the government sees as the likely perpetrator of the worst terrorist attack in modern Turkish history. |
| Official: Kuwait to produce 4M barrels of oil daily by 2020 Posted: 12 Oct 2015 07:31 AM PDT KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Kuwait's oil minister says his country still plans to produce 4 million barrels of oil a day by 2020, even as global crude prices have slumped. |
| Islamic State can draw on veteran jihadists, ex-Iraq army officers for leadership Posted: 12 Oct 2015 07:00 AM PDT  By Michael Georgy and Mariam Karouny CAIRO/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, one of the world's most wanted men, is counting on veteran jihadis and former Iraqi army officers who form the core of the militant movement to take over if he is killed. New questions arose over Islamic State's leadership structure and who might succeed Baghdadi after Iraq's military said on Sunday air strikes had hit a convoy carrying him, though Iraqi security officials later denied this. Baghdadi, who rarely appears in public and delivers few audio speeches, makes the vast majority of decisions, including which of the group's enemies should be killed.
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| CompTIA Industry Advisory Councils Donate $30,000 to Five Charities Posted: 12 Oct 2015 06:30 AM PDT DOWNERS GROVE, Ill., Oct. 12, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- CompTIA, the IT industry trade association, announced that its three industry advisory councils selected five charities to donate $30,000. The Creating IT Futures Foundation, the philanthropic arm of CompTIA, gives each member community and industry advisory council $10,000 with which to support one or two charities doing good works. "This program demonstrates CompTIA's core belief in giving back to local groups through philanthropy," said Charles Eaton, CEO, Creating IT Futures. |
| Foreign toll figures show hajj tragedy deadliest in history Posted: 12 Oct 2015 06:29 AM PDT  Dubai (AFP) - The death toll from last month's stampede at the hajj has risen to at least 1,587, according to tallies given by foreign officials, making it the deadliest incident in the pilgrimage's history.
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| Indonesia tries 7 suspected militants over IS links Posted: 12 Oct 2015 06:13 AM PDT  JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia began trials Monday of seven men on charges of conspiring with terrorists and recruiting for militant groups in the Mideast, including the Islamic State, which has an estimated hundreds of Indonesians as members.
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| EU aviation agency issues safety note over Caspian missiles Posted: 12 Oct 2015 05:51 AM PDT BERLIN (AP) — The European Aviation Safety Agency has issued a safety bulletin to airlines and authorities regarding Iranian and Iraqi airspace after Russian warships in the Caspian Sea last week fired cruise missiles toward Syria. |
| Iraqi asylum seekers protest against Finland's deportation move Posted: 12 Oct 2015 05:29 AM PDT  Iraqi asylum seekers rallied in central Helsinki and signed a petition on Monday against Finland's plans to negotiate a deal with Baghdad that could lead to their deportation, arguing that their country should not be considered safe. Hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers from conflict- and poverty-stricken parts of the Middle East, Asia and Africa have streamed into Europe this year, with even far-northern Finland becoming the final stop for more than 21,000, mostly from Iraq. Encouraged by relatively broad Finnish asylum criteria and an existing Iraqi community in the Nordic country, they have taken a long circuitous journey up through central Europe and Sweden to reach Finland's border near the Arctic Circle.
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| U.S., allies conduct 20 air strikes in Syria and Iraq: military Posted: 12 Oct 2015 04:53 AM PDT A coalition led by the United States conducted 18 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq on Sunday, according to a military statement that did not directly address reports that the militant group's reclusive leader was killed in one of the bombardments. Iraq said on Sunday its air force had hit an Islamic State meeting in a town in western Iraq and also struck a convoy that was carrying Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to the meeting. |
| Syrian army, Russian jets drive back rebels in fiercest clashes for days: monitor Posted: 12 Oct 2015 04:16 AM PDT  Syrian army and allied forces supported by Russian warplanes made further advances as they pressed an offensive against insurgents on Monday, in the fiercest clashes for nearly a week, a monitor said. Russian jets carried out at least 30 air strikes on the town of Kafr Nabuda in Hama province in western Syria, and hundreds of shells hit the area as the Syrian army and Hezbollah fighters seized part of it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have in the past few days recaptured territory close to the government's coastal heartland in the west thanks to Russia's intervention, reversing rebel advances made earlier this year.
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| Islamic State leader probably not in targeted convoy: Iraqi security officials Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:59 AM PDT  Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was probably not in a convoy hit by air strikes near the Syrian border on Sunday, senior Iraqi security officials said on Monday. Iraq's military had said that the reclusive Baghdadi was taken away in a car after the assault on his entourage in a town near the Syrian border.
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| Australia wheat board chairman in court over Iraq 'kickback' Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:58 AM PDT  The former chairman of an Australian wheat firm that allegedly paid sanctions-busting bribes to secure UN oil-for-food programme contracts in Saddam Hussein's Iraq appeared in court Monday more than a decade after the scandal erupted. Trevor Flugge is facing a civil case by corporate regulator, the Australian Security and Investment Commission (ASIC), of breaching his duties as a company director. The AWB, formerly Australia's monopoly wheat exporter, allegedly paid Saddam's regime some US$225 million in bribes to secure lucrative grain deals with Iraq between 1999-2003 under a UN oil-for-food scheme.
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| French strikes in Syria may have hit French jihadists: prime minister Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:37 AM PDT  By Elizabeth Pineau AMMAN (Reuters) - French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Monday that French jihadists may have been killed during an air strike targeting an Islamic State (IS) camp last week and he deflected criticism, saying the primary objective was to hit the militants. Rafale fighter jets bombed a training camp for suicide bombers near Islamic State's Syrian stronghold of Raqqa on Friday, according to the French Defence Ministry. France announced it was joining what have been U.S.-led air strikes on Islamist insurgents in Syria to prevent Islamic State from carrying out attacks against its interests and to protect Syrian civilians.
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| Iraq investigating reports IS chief wounded in raid Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:32 AM PDT  Iraq's security services were attempting Monday to confirm reports that Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was wounded in an Iraqi strike on his convoy. Iraq's security forces said in a statement Sunday that Iraqi warplanes had struck Baghdadi's convoy as it was heading to an IS leadership meeting in Karabla, near the border with Syria. Security sources in Baghdad have in the past made similar claims that were never verified and pro-IS accounts on social media mocked Baghdad's latest announcement.
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| Obama’s Failure in Syria Now Extends to Turkey Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:15 AM PDT The Obama administration's failure in Syria after four years of wasted lives, money, and effort deepens by the day now. The Russians have just benched us, whether Washington wants to admit it or not, and we may well sit out the rest of the game. You can't beat Obama's policy people for their timing. |
| Obama Is Certain Trump Won’t Be the Next President Posted: 12 Oct 2015 03:15 AM PDT Russia stepped up military action in Syria while the U.S. admitted its failure to train Syrian rebels to halt the spread of the ISIS. Billionaire Donald Trump's continues to dominate the Republican presidential campaign, followed closely by Ben Carson. Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's mounting email woes continue and a House panel has been accused of political motives in their investigation of Benghazi. |
| Fury towards Erdogan intensifies after Ankara attack Posted: 11 Oct 2015 10:43 PM PDT  Anger towards President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over Turkey's worst-ever terrorist attack intensified as authorities raced to identify the two male suicide bombers it blamed for the bloodshed. In Istanbul on Saturday, a 10,000-strong crowd accused the government of failing to protect citizens by providing security for the event, carrying placards reading "the state is a killer" and "we know the murderers". As tributes poured in from world leaders, Selahattin Demirtas, leader of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), was cited as saying "State attacked the people.
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