| Donald Trump and Muslims: Is he inadvertently helping Islamic State? Posted: 20 Dec 2015 02:41 PM PST Recommended: What do you know about Donald Trump? Some Republicans, such as Mr. Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, have cast the conflict in the terms of a conventional war – whether talking of temporarily banning Muslim visitors or of "carpet bombing" Islamic State strongholds in Syria and Iraq. In this scenario, the defeat of the Islamic State occurs by military action abroad and vigilance at home, and residents are asked to stay resolute. |
| Iran: Changes to US visa waiver program contradict nuke deal Posted: 20 Dec 2015 12:31 PM PST TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Changes to a U.S. visa waiver program that impose travel restrictions on those who visit Iran contradict the landmark nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday. |
| Clinton backs Obama's Islamic State strategy in Democratic debate Posted: 20 Dec 2015 11:47 AM PST  By John Whitesides and Luciana Lopez MANCHESTER, N.H. (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton backed elements of President Barack Obama's strategy to fight Islamic State militants in a debate on Saturday, drawing criticism from all sides for saying "we now finally are where we need to be" in Syria. Top rival Bernie Sanders accused Clinton of being too quick to push for regime change, while Republican candidate Carly Fiorina, said the former secretary of state was too willing to cede U.S. policy to other countries.
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| Trump defends Putin on journo deaths, asks media to 'prove it' Posted: 20 Dec 2015 11:00 AM PST  US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump defended Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, saying it would be "despicable" if the leader actually did kill opposition journalists, as he has been accused of on US television. Grilled about the matter Sunday on ABC's "This Week" show, Trump defended Putin's record regarding Russian journalists who have died. "I think it was despicable if that took place, but I haven't seen any evidence that he killed anybody in terms of reporters," Trump said.
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| Analysis: Sanders struggles to gain edge in presidential bid Posted: 20 Dec 2015 11:00 AM PST  MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — The third Democratic presidential debate opened with an apology and ended with compliments.
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| Iran says new US visa law goes against nuclear deal Posted: 20 Dec 2015 10:53 AM PST  Iran said Sunday new US visa regulations for visitors from 38 mainly European countries but including Iran flies in the face of Tehran's landmark nuclear deal with the West. The ISNA news agency reported Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying Tehran had consulted with European countries on countering the new law passed by Congress on Friday. "This law certainly affects economic, tourist, scientific and cultural exchanges with Iran and it contravenes the nuclear deal," Araghchi said.
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| Trump, Sanders say U.S. should not try to topple dictators Posted: 20 Dec 2015 10:52 AM PST  By Andy Sullivan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump said separately on Sunday that the United States should not try to topple dictators such as Syria's Bashar al-Assad, highlighting a skepticism over foreign wars that transcends party lines. Both candidates said the Middle East would be less tumultuous today if Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and Iraq's Saddam Hussein were still in charge, arguing that the United States faces a greater threat from Islamic State and other extremist groups that have flourished in their wake.
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| AP FACT CHECK: Clinton's video claim doesn't hold up Posted: 20 Dec 2015 10:44 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton had no evidence to back up her claim in the latest Democratic presidential debate that the Islamic State group is using video of Donald Trump to recruit Muslims to its cause.
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| Week-long assault captures extremist camp, claims 29 lives: Philippines Posted: 20 Dec 2015 10:33 AM PST  Soldiers captured the Abu Sayyaf camp in a forested area on the southern island of Basilan but an improvised explosive device left behind by the rebels, injured 12 soldiers on Sunday, said Major Filemon Tan. About 300 soldiers, backed by artillery and attack helicopters, launched the attack on the Abu Sayyaf group on strife-torn Basilan about 885 kilometres (550 miles) from Manila on Monday, starting days of intense combat. The battle involved as many as 150 members of the Abu Sayyaf group, according to the military, which also reported militant deaths that could not be verified.
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| West pushes for Libyan unity as bulwark against IS Posted: 20 Dec 2015 08:34 AM PST  The West has heaped pressure on rival Libyan politicians to form a unity government as the need for a stable ally to take on Islamic State jihadists in the country grows ever more pressing. The disorder has provided fertile ground for jihadists and people-smugglers to flourish, and the growing strength of IS in Libya has alarmed the West, which finds itself without a stable partner to work with against the radical group. With a unity government in place, "we can imagine that a call to help will one day be directed to the West" to fight IS, said Marc Pierini, an analyst with the Carnegie centre and European Union ambassador to Tripoli.
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| Over '100 dead' as Turkey presses major offensive against PKK Posted: 20 Dec 2015 08:18 AM PST  The number of Kurdish rebels killed in a massive Turkish military offensive in the restive southeast has jumped to 102, a security source told AFP on Sunday, as the operation entered its fifth day. An earlier toll released on Saturday put the figure at 70 dead in the unprecedented police and army operation, with the military saying all were suspected members of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Some 10,000 troops backed by tanks have been deployed in the southeast to try to rout young PKK supporters from urban areas, according to local media.
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| Iraq welcomes Turkish withdrawal announcement Posted: 20 Dec 2015 07:52 AM PST  Baghdad on Sunday welcomed Turkey's move to pull troops out of northern Iraq but said it would keep up efforts at the United Nations to achieve a full withdrawal. "What has been reported in the media is a step in the right direction," Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari was quoted as saying in a statement from his office. "We will carry on our process with the (UN) Security Council until a full withdrawal is achieved," he added.
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| IS jihadists stole 'tens of thousands' of blank passports: report Posted: 20 Dec 2015 07:49 AM PST  The Islamic State group may have stolen "tens of thousands" of blank passports that it could use to smuggle its fighters into Europe as refugees, a German newspaper reported Sunday. The Welt am Sonntag cited Western intelligence sources as saying that IS could have acquired the stolen travel documents in areas of Syria, Iraq and Libya it now controls. The passports could be issued to would-be attackers to enter the European Union as asylum seekers, according to the report.
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| Iraq military asks residents of ISIS-controlled Ramadi to leave city Posted: 20 Dec 2015 07:37 AM PST  Iraqi military planes dropped leaflets on Sunday on Ramadi, asking residents to leave within 72 hours the western city which is under the control of Islamic State militants, an army spokesman said."It is an indication that a major military operation to retake the city center will start soon," one officer said on condition of anonymity. The leaflets indicated safe routes for civilians to exit the city and asked them to carry proper identification documents, joint operations spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told Reuters by phone. "All security forces were instructed on how to deal with civilian approaching them." Last week Iraqi security forces said they had made advances on two fronts in Ramadi, clearing Islamic State militants from a military command base and the sprawling neighborhood of al-Taamim on the western rim of the city that they captured in May. Iraqi intelligence estimates the number of Islamic State fighters that are entrenched in the centre of Ramadi, capital of the Sunni Anbar province, at between 250 and 300.
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| EU border agency warns of risks from fake passports: report Posted: 20 Dec 2015 04:26 AM PST  The head of the European Union's border agency has said the large number of refugees entering Europe poses a security risk, with civil war making it harder to check the authenticity of Syrian passports. Hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and poverty in countries such as Syria and Iraq have arrived in Europe this year. Since last month's attacks in Paris, concern has grown that Islamist militants could enter undetected among the influx.
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| Here’s What’s on the Top Presidential Candidates’ Wish Lists Posted: 20 Dec 2015 04:19 AM PST  Primary voters in Iowa and New Hampshire will start cramming even harder about the candidate they want to support and the outcomes in those states could determine much before Election Day next November. Hillary Clinton … wants to run against Donald Trump. A contest against Trump, with his penchant for making controversial statements on race, gender and income (to name a few) would give Clinton the best chance to contrast the difference between Democrats and Republicans to crucial Independent voters.
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| Philippine military says 26 militants killed in offensive Posted: 20 Dec 2015 04:15 AM PST MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine troops killed 26 Abu Sayyaf gunmen and possibly a Malaysian militant in a weeklong counterterrorism offensive in the south that ended Sunday with the capture of a major jungle training camp where bombs and bomb-making components were found, an army commander said. |
| US Democrats hit Trump, clash over jihadist fight in debate Posted: 20 Dec 2015 02:41 AM PST  Hillary Clinton and other Democratic presidential hopefuls have used Donald Trump as a political bogeyman to highlight their own calls to defeat jihadist extremists without the bigotry and bluster brandished by their top Republican rival. Former secretary of state Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders and Maryland ex-governor Martin O'Malley each hit on the need to boost national security, raise the minimum wage and protect rights of women, minorities and the disadvantaged as they faced off in New Hampshire. With just over six weeks before the first votes are cast in the nomination race, on February 1 in Iowa, Sanders and O'Malley are running out of time to blunt the momentum of the former top US diplomat, who is 25 points ahead of rival Sanders in national polling compiled by RealClearPolitics.com.
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| Turkey will withdraw more troops from Iraq after US request Posted: 20 Dec 2015 02:17 AM PST ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey says it will withdraw more troops from northern Iraq and acknowledged there had been a miscommunication with the Iraqi government over the issue. |
| Across Europe, refugees cling to hope in temporary homes Posted: 20 Dec 2015 12:03 AM PST  Seven-month-old Adam's nights are restless. The din and chatter of 600 other asylum seekers sharing a "camp" in the north of the Netherlands keeps this youngest resident awake, and his parents anxious. All is a far cry from the vision that kept Ahmad and his hazel-eyed wife Alia, 26, going as they trod, baby in sling, the migrant route to Europe last September, with a team of AFP journalists in tow.
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| Indonesian police say New Year terror plot foiled, five held Posted: 20 Dec 2015 12:02 AM PST  Indonesian police have foiled a major terror plot with the arrest of several men allegedly linked to a planned suicide bombing in Jakarta during New Year celebrations, according to documents seen on Sunday. During raids in several cities across Java island on Friday and Saturday, police arrested five members of an alleged extremist network and seized chemicals, laboratory equipment and a flag inspired by the Islamic State group. Among those arrested was Asep Urip, a 31-year-old teacher at an Islamic boarding school in Central Java, and his 35-year-old pupil Zaenal, whom police allege was being "groomed" to carry out an imminent attack.
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| US air strike 'mistake' led to Iraq military deaths: Carter Posted: 19 Dec 2015 11:03 PM PST  US-led coalition forces appear to have been responsible for air strikes that mistakenly killed several Iraqi soldiers, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Saturday. The strike appears to have been "a mistake that involved both sides," Carter told reporters, adding that he had called Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to express condolences. Carter made his remarks, which were broadcast widely in US media, while on a visit aboard the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious assault ship supporting coalition missions in Iraq and Syria against Islamic State group (IS) militants.
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| 2015, the year that IS terror went global Posted: 19 Dec 2015 10:55 PM PST  From the blood spilled in the streets of Paris to the San Bernardino shootings, the world in 2015 showed its vulnerability to the brand of terror perpetrated by Islamic State jihadists. Over the past 12 months, the group that took root in Iraq and in the chaos of the Syrian war has turned its focus from territorial gains to hitting at "distant enemies". "The Islamic State... has gone global," said Richard Barrett, a former head of Britain's global counter-terrorism operations who is now vice-president of the New York-based think-tank Soufan Group.
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| Sanders apologizes to Clinton, supporters for data breach Posted: 19 Dec 2015 09:27 PM PST  MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Bernie Sanders apologized to Hillary Clinton and his own supporters Saturday night for a breach of her campaign's valuable voter data, seeking to put the controversy to rest in a debate that quickly moved on to national security concerns and Americans' heightened fear of terrorism.
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| Gulf war trauma began Japan's retreat from pacifism Posted: 19 Dec 2015 05:38 PM PST  By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO (Reuters) - As the first Gulf War raged in February 1991, Japanese army major Nozomu Yoshitomi was supposed to be playing war games with U.S. officers at a military facility in Tokyo. On another TV, local news showed Japanese troops sculpting ice figures at a snow festival. "They asked how Japan could be a true U.S. ally if it hadn't sent troops," said Yoshitomi, recalling the shame he felt watching Japanese personnel build snowmen as U.S.-led coalition soldiers fought to evict the Iraqi army from the Kuwaiti desert.
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| Viewers' Guide: Sanders faces tough questions at 3rd debate Posted: 19 Dec 2015 09:51 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — What timing: Just before the final Democratic presidential debate of the year, tensions suddenly are boiling between front-runner Hillary Clinton and chief rival Bernie Sanders.
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