| Feds say ex-State Department worker steered contracts to son Posted: 18 Dec 2015 04:37 PM PST ALEXANDRIA, Virginia (AP) — A former State Department employee has been indicted on conspiracy, wire fraud and other charges involving the awarding of $2 million in government micro-dairy contracts for use in Iraq. |
| Pentagon chief in Afghanistan as violence escalates Posted: 18 Dec 2015 03:20 PM PST  US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Afghanistan Friday for meetings with military commanders, as the security situation deteriorates with a surge in Taliban attacks and the creeping emergence of the Islamic State group. The unannounced visit comes just days after a Pentagon report presented a grim portrait of the war which has inflicted a growing number of casualties on hard-pressed Afghan forces. During an event with soldiers at a US base near Jalalabad city in the eastern province of Nangarhar, Secretary Carter warned of the Taliban's continued threat to security in the country, while lauding the troops for training Afghan forces to battle the insurgents.
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| US-led coalition strike may have killed Iraqi soldiers: US military Posted: 18 Dec 2015 03:17 PM PST  An air strike by the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State may have killed Iraqi soldiers on Friday, the US military said, in what was likely the first "friendly fire" incident in the war on the extremists. It appears to be the same incident which Iraq's joint operations command earlier said left 10 Iraqi soldiers killed or wounded south of the jihadist stronghold of Fallujah. "Despite coordination with the Iraqi security forces on the ground, initial reports indicate the possibility one of the strikes resulted in the death of Iraqi soldiers," the US military said in a statement, adding that it would launch an investigation.
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| US airstrike may have inadvertently killed Iraqi soldiers Posted: 18 Dec 2015 03:01 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military said it is investigating an American airstrike that may have inadvertently killed Iraqi soldiers near the city of Fallujah. |
| U.N. council endorses Syria peace plan; no agreement on Assad's fate Posted: 18 Dec 2015 02:41 PM PST  By Arshad Mohammed, Denis Dyomkin and John Irish UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations Security Council on Friday unanimously agreed a resolution endorsing an international roadmap for a Syria peace process, a rare show of unity among major powers on a conflict that has claimed more than a quarter million lives. "This council is sending a clear message to all concerned that the time is now to stop the killing in Syria and lay the groundwork for a government that the long-suffering people of that battered land can support," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told the 15-nation council after the vote. The resolution came after Russia and the United States clinched a deal on a text.
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| US would like to intensify campaign against ISIS. Why that's proving tricky Posted: 18 Dec 2015 02:41 PM PST President Obama has directed the Pentagon to "intensify" its military campaign against the Islamic State. This could involve, say, sending more US forces to Iraq, where upward of 3,500 US troops are already training Iraqi soldiers. Recommended: How much do you know about the Islamic State? |
| White House awakens to the force of Star Wars Posted: 18 Dec 2015 02:26 PM PST  Washington (AFP) - Even the White House is not immune to The Force.
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| Obama urges Turkey's Erdogan to withdraw troops from Iraq: White House Posted: 18 Dec 2015 02:25 PM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call on Friday to "deescalate tensions" with Iraq by continuing to withdraw Turkish forces from northern Iraq, the White House said in a statement. The leaders also discussed the fight against Islamic State militants in Syria including efforts to support the moderate opposition in the war-torn nation, the White House said. (Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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| Obama vows active role in 2016 presidential race Posted: 18 Dec 2015 02:11 PM PST  President Barack Obama closed his next-to-last year in office with rare praise for congressional Republican leaders who helped orchestrate a bipartisan budget deal Friday, then vowed to work hard to beat ...
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| Obama urges Americans remain vigilant against homegrown threats Posted: 18 Dec 2015 02:03 PM PST  President Barack Obama urged Americans to remain vigilant against the potential threat of homegrown Islamic State militants on Friday, acknowledging the difficulty of tracking "lone wolf" attackers like those who went on a shooting spree in California. Obama appeared in the White House press briefing room for a year-end news conference shortly before traveling to San Bernardino, California, where the Dec. 2 shootings took place, to meet privately with families of the victims en route to spending the holidays in Hawaii. Obama talked tough about the prospects of defeating Islamic State militants who control broad swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq but admitted U.S. law enforcement agencies have limitations in tracking the threat at home.
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| Obama presses Turkey's president to lower tensions with Iraq Posted: 18 Dec 2015 02:02 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Urging an end to tensions between two U.S. partners, President Barack Obama asked Turkey on Friday to keep pulling its troops from a training camp in Iraq and respect the country's integrity as a sovereign nation.
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| Obama urges Turkey's Erdogan to withdraw troops from Iraq Posted: 18 Dec 2015 01:33 PM PST  President Barack Obama urged Turkey's leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan to pull troops out of Iraq Friday, amid a row that has split key members of the coalition fighting the Islamic State group. Obama "urged President Erdogan to take additional steps to deescalate tensions with Iraq, including by continuing to withdraw Turkish military forces," the White House said after a phonecall between the two leaders.
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| Ex-Pentagon chief hits out at former boss Obama Posted: 18 Dec 2015 01:24 PM PST  Barack Obama lost international credibility when he decided against attacking Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2013, former US defense chief Chuck Hagel said in a damning appraisal of his former boss. In his first lengthy public remarks since being forced from the top Pentagon position in February, Hagel aired a series of gripes against Obama, including that leaders around the world lost confidence in the US president after he backed down from attacking Assad. After the Syrian leader used the weapons against his own people anyway, Hagel finalized plans to launch cruise missiles against the Damascus regime.
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| Obama's Final Press Conference of 2015 Posted: 18 Dec 2015 01:03 PM PST President Obama opened his last press conference of the year on Friday with a joke. "Clearly, this is not the most important thing that's taking place in the White House today," the president said. "There's a screening of Star Wars." |
| How Two Americans Helped More Than 100 Iraqi Christian Refugees Escape ISIS Posted: 18 Dec 2015 12:44 PM PST  An American husband and wife team helped more than 100 Iraqi Christian refugees escape ISIS terror threats in their homeland and flee to Europe. Joseph and Michele Assad, former U.S. counter-terrorism officers, helped arrange for 25 families, 149 refugees in all including 62 children, to board a privately-chartered plane in the Kurdistan region of Iraq on Dec. 10, and land in Kosice, Slovakia, where they will be granted asylum within a month. "We are so proud of Slovakia," Michele Assad told ABC News "20/20." "They were very courageous to make this decision and it wasn't an easy one to make, yet they did.
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| Obama says Assad must go for peace in Syria Posted: 18 Dec 2015 12:41 PM PST  President Barack Obama on Friday reaffirmed US insistence that Syria's President Bashar al-Assad step down, warning there can be no peace there without a legitimate government. "I think that Assad is going to have to leave in order for the country to stop the blood(shed), for all the parties involved to be able to move forward in a nonsectarian way," Obama said at a year-end news conference. Obama spoke as US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a meeting of foreign ministers in New York to discuss a political settlement to the nearly five year-old war.
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| Canadian special forces, warplanes strike IS as minister seeks mission reset Posted: 18 Dec 2015 12:33 PM PST  One day after Canadian warplanes and special forces soldiers helped counter an Islamic State group attack in Iraq, Canada reaffirmed Friday that its fighter jets are coming home. Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan, speaking in London after meeting with his British counterpart, however, declined to provide a timeline for their withdrawal. "We're still committed to ending the airstrikes and readjusting our mission so that we can have a meaningful contribution," Sajjan said.
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| No sign of peace for Turkey's Kurds after Erdogan victory Posted: 18 Dec 2015 12:29 PM PST  Like many Kurds in Turkey's southeast, Sevgi Gezici, 22, believed President Tayyip Erdogan would relent in a violent clampdown against Kurdish militants after his party won back its majority in an election in November. Before the Nov. 1 vote, the view among Turkey's Kurds was that Erdogan had engineered a new conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to win over Turkish nationalist voters and help the AK Party he founded return to the single party rule it had lost in an earlier vote in June. Erdogan rejects such a plot.
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| The Latest: Obama says Syrian peace needed to defeat IS Posted: 18 Dec 2015 12:15 PM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest from President Barack Obama's year-end news conference with reporters at the White House. All times are local.
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| Obama asks Americans to stay vigilant against potential acts of terrorism Posted: 18 Dec 2015 11:39 AM PST President Barack Obama on Friday asked Americans to remain vigilant as he sought to assure them that his administration was working overtime to keep them safe by "squeezing" the heart of Islamic State overseas. "Squeezing ISIL's heart, its core in Syria and Iraq, will make it harder for them to pump their terror and propaganda to the rest of the world," Obama told a year-end news conference, using an acronym for the militant Islamist group. |
| About 200 IS jihadists killed in Iraq offensive: US Posted: 18 Dec 2015 11:14 AM PST  Some 200 Islamic State jihadists were killed by US-led coalition aircraft during an intense battle in Iraq this week, a US military spokesman said Friday. Baghdad-based Colonel Steve Warren, who represents the US-led coalition that is attacking the IS group in Iraq and Syria, said about 500 jihadists had carried out an offensive against Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga forces in the northern province of Nineveh on Wednesday. Coalition aircraft from five nations responded and dropped nearly 100 bombs during the overnight fight, he added.
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| Carter in Afghanistan to review security as violence rises Posted: 18 Dec 2015 10:36 AM PST  JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — Defense Secretary Ash Carter told his Afghan counterpart Friday that the United States is "with you," committed to supporting Afghan security forces and building their capabilities for years to come.
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| US denies Russian air defenses are hampering IS fight Posted: 18 Dec 2015 10:31 AM PST  The US military on Friday denied reports that Russia's placement of air defense systems in Syria have hampered the US-led coalition's efforts to bomb Islamic State jihadists in the war-torn country. Russia has sent surface-to-air missiles to Aleppo in northern Syria, Baghdad-based military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said. "We've openly discussed the presence of both Russian and Syrian air defense systems in northern Syria, (but) I can tell you there has not been a significant disruption to our operations," Warren told Pentagon reporters in a video call.
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| After terror strikes, Congress restricts visa-free travel Posted: 18 Dec 2015 10:02 AM PST  Congress on Friday tightened the program that allows millions of foreign nationals to travel visa-free to the United States, as lawmakers demand heightened security following terrorist attacks in Paris and California. The restrictions were part of a sprawling federal spending bill and tax relief package that easily passed the Senate shortly after earlier clearing the House and now heads to President Barack Obama's desk for his signature. It bars people who are citizens of the 38 countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) and who are also dual nationals from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Sudan from using the visa-free system.
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| Massive spending and tax deal at a glance Posted: 18 Dec 2015 09:38 AM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Congress on Friday cleared a $1.1 trillion spending bill to fund the government for the 2016 budget year and extend $680 billion in tax cuts for businesses and individuals. President Barack Obama is expected to sign the legislation. Here are the highlights: |
| World powers bring Syria peace plan to UN Posted: 18 Dec 2015 09:31 AM PST  The world powers most implicated in Syria's civil war met in New York on Friday to renew efforts to bind Bashar al-Assad's regime and its rebel foes into a ceasefire and peace talks. Later, they were to head across the city to the United Nations and seek the support of the Security Council for their plan to achieve a political settlement to the almost five-year civil war.
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| Veterans' PTSD may recur down the line Posted: 18 Dec 2015 09:13 AM PST By Madeline Kennedy (Reuters Health) – - Soldiers deployed to Afghanistan had a spike in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in the months immediately after their return, but also five years later, according to a Dutch study. The results suggest that screening for PTSD symptoms should continue for more than just a year or two after soldiers return home because new or recurrent PTSD cases could emerge, the authors say. "Our objective was to gain more insight in the changes in posttraumatic stress complaints in a long-term period after deployment, ultimately to evaluate the timing of an increase in treatment demand after deployment," said lead author Iris Eekhout of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, by email. |
| Military: 62 Kurdish rebels killed in past 3 days in Turkey Posted: 18 Dec 2015 09:05 AM PST ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's security forces killed 62 Kurdish militants in three days of operations in two mainly-Kurdish towns near the border with Iraq, the military said Friday. One Turkish soldier was killed in the fighting. |
| Spain's no-frills, austere PM seeks re-election Posted: 18 Dec 2015 08:57 AM PST  Straight-laced and sedate, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has turned his perceived dullness into a political strength, positioning himself as a safe pair of hands who saved the country from economic collapse.
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| Iran nuclear deal: Implementation nears, but the sparring continues Posted: 18 Dec 2015 08:56 AM PST Just over five months since Iran and six world powers reached a landmark nuclear deal that was heralded as a historic choice of diplomacy over war, the tough rhetoric and frequent posturing that marked years of bitter negotiations persist. News headlines remain full of claims and counter-claims linked to the accord – which limits Iran's nuclear program in exchange for rolling back crippling economic sanctions – on issues as diverse as Iranian missile tests and American visa waivers. Recommended: How much do you know about Iran? |
| Iraq says coalition air strike kills or wounds 10 soldiers Posted: 18 Dec 2015 08:53 AM PST  Iraq's joint operations command said 10 Iraqi soldiers were killed or wounded Friday by so-called friendly fire from US-led coalition aircraft west of Baghdad. The command, which oversees Iraq's war effort against the Islamic state group, said casualties occurred on both sides during a strike on IS during close combat. The incident took place at around 1:00 pm (1000 GMT) south of the jihadist stronghold of Fallujah, military sources said.
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| Friends of Aya want to help Iraqi refugee live the American dream Posted: 18 Dec 2015 08:16 AM PST  The "Let's Bring Aya to America" Change.org campaign, which is trying to help an Iraqi refugee enter the U.S., is one of the fastest growing in the site's history.
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| Riyadh-based Syria grouping says no direct Assad talks Posted: 18 Dec 2015 07:42 AM PST  A Riyadh-based Syrian opposition grouping preparing for possible talks with the Damascus regime said Friday it will not talk to President Bashar al-Assad himself. "We're not entering any negotiation until all the points in 'Geneva 1' are applied, which is that Assad and his government must not be in power, the transitional period has to be without him and he must be tried for his crimes," said Riad Hijab, a former Syrian prime minister who defected in 2012. "Either that, or no negotiation," Hijab told reporters, following his election as general coordinator for a High Committee set up at unprecedented talks last week in the Saudi capital to unify political and armed Syrian factions.
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| U.S. Defense Secretary, in Afghanistan, warns of IS threat Posted: 18 Dec 2015 06:36 AM PST  By Yeganeh Torbati OPERATING BASE FENTY, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter warned of the threat from Islamic State in Afghanistan during a surprise visit days after the Pentagon painted a grim picture of worsening security there. Carter met troops at a U.S. base near the city of Jalalabad in Nangarhar Province, where about 600 U.S. troops are stationed. Operating Base Fenty is a hub for training, logistics and counter-terrorism efforts across eastern Afghanistan.
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| Putin’s Anti-NATO Language Gets…Salty Posted: 18 Dec 2015 06:30 AM PST  A top Russian lawmaker on Thursday described the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a "cancerous tumor on the whole European continent." The anti-NATO rhetoric came not long after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the organization is acting as a shield for Turkey, which recently shot down a Russian bomber on its border with Syria. Moscow's criticism of NATO is nothing new, but it has reached a new level in recent weeks following the downing of the Russian jet by Turkey and last week's announcement that Montenegro, once a part of the former Socialistic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, had been invited to join the alliance.
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| Syrian crisis simplified: Who's fighting whom, and why? Posted: 18 Dec 2015 06:23 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — One nation, two wars, a quarter-million lives lost, millions forced from their homes, and still no end in sight for the pitiless, seemingly bottomless crisis in Syria.
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| German secret service 'in talks with Syrian spies' Posted: 18 Dec 2015 06:06 AM PST  Germany's foreign intelligence service BND has resumed cooperation with the Syrian secret service in the fight against Islamist extremists, according to a newspaper report Friday. The BND declined to comment on the report by Bild daily which comes as Berlin and other Western governments shun official cooperation with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad over his regime's abuses. The BND told AFP that it only informs the government and a parliamentary oversight panel of "operative aspects" of its work, and a spokeswoman for Chancellor Angela Merkel also declined comment at a press conference.
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| Qatar's channel to militants possibly dangerous, possibly useful Posted: 18 Dec 2015 05:24 AM PST  By Tom Finn DOHA (Reuters) - To its foes, Qatar's deal-making with armed groups is reckless grandstanding that helps destabilize the Middle East. To its friends, the network of Islamist contacts Doha has built in the process may prove crucial to mediating peace in regional hotspots, including in Syria. Qatar has for years played the role of the Middle East peace broker, using its gas riches and wide-ranging political ties in a policy of international self-promotion to free hostages and secure peace agreements from Sudan to Somalia.
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| Russia calling the shots as nations lock down Syria plan Posted: 18 Dec 2015 05:17 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — As the United States and world powers gather again in a bid to end Syria's civil war, Russia appears to be calling the shots.
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