| Anti-IS coalition vows to step up military campaign in Iraq, Syria Posted: 02 Feb 2016 03:39 PM PST  The US-led coalition of countries combatting Islamic State in Iraq and Syria vowed Tuesday to "accelerate and intensify" their fight against the jihadist group, pledging more cash for reconstruction work and broader military action. Speaking after talks in Rome, US Secretary of State John Kerry said 10,000 airstrikes in the year since the coalition was launched had yielded "undeniable progress" with IS forced to give up 40 percent of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and more than 30 percent in Syria. Kerry said he was confident that promises made on Tuesday would lead to a "very substantial amount of money" being pledged at a donor conference for Syria in London on Thursday.
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| Cheap oil buoys consumers, shakes up global governments Posted: 02 Feb 2016 03:18 PM PST  Cheap oil will be sticking around for a while. That reality is wreaking havoc and causing uncertainty for some governments and businesses, while creating financial windfalls for others. Less expensive ...
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| Exclusive: Report shows Marines' shifting approach to women in combat Posted: 02 Feb 2016 03:01 PM PST A yet-to-be-released Pentagon document obtained by the Monitor suggests that the Marines – long resistant to including women in combat units – are convinced that their concerns can be overcome. When Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter opened combat positions to women last year, the Marine Corps asked for an exception to the policy, which was denied. Earlier, in arguing against the move, the Marines had published a controversial study that suggested women got injured more than men and were a detriment to unit morale. |
| Public health emergencies: a brief history Posted: 02 Feb 2016 01:40 PM PST  By declaring a surge of microcephaly cases in Latin America to be a "public health emergency of international concern", the World Health Organization has sought to boost research into a little-understood condition. There have been three previous such declarations in the UN agency's history: for polio, the H1N1 "swine" flu epidemic, and most recently, West Africa's Ebola outbreak. - What is a "public health emergency of international concern"?
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| Pentagon chief unveils extra funds to bomb IS, counter Russia Posted: 02 Feb 2016 01:09 PM PST  US forces have fired so many smart bombs at Islamic State targets that stocks of the sophisticated weapons are dwindling, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Tuesday as he previewed the Pentagon's enormous budget. American drones and warplanes are at the forefront of an 18-month-old coalition effort to fight the IS group in Iraq and Syria, in a campaign that has so far seen some 10,000 air strikes, many of which the Pentagon says were carried out with pinpoint accuracy. "We've recently been hitting ISIL with so many GPS-guided smart bombs and laser-guided rockets that we're starting to run low on the ones we use against terrorists the most," Carter said, using an acronym for the IS group.
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| Iraqi Kurdish leader calls for non-binding independence referendum Posted: 02 Feb 2016 12:53 PM PST  Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region should hold a non-binding referendum on independence, its president said on Tuesday, despite the numerous crises it is facing. Massoud Barzani has previously called for a referendum but set no timetable for a proposed vote. The chaos created by Islamic State's occupation of swathes of Iraq and Syria has given Kurds a chance to further their long-held dream of independence.
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| Growing numbers of children braving migrant sea crossings Posted: 02 Feb 2016 12:39 PM PST  Children now make up over a third of the migrants making the perilous sea crossing from Turkey to Greece, the UN said Tuesday as two more babies drowned off Europe's shores. The figures emerged as Europe struggles with its biggest migration crisis since World War II, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war, violence and poverty risking life and limb to reach its shores. "Children currently account for 36 percent of those risking the treacherous sea crossing between Greece and Turkey," the UN children's agency UNICEF said.
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| Intelligence panel's top Democrat: Afghanistan shows 'limits of state-building' Posted: 02 Feb 2016 12:23 PM PST As the United States has tried to turn more responsibilities over to the Afghan government, "the situation in Afghanistan has sadly deteriorated," said the California congressman at a Monitor-hosted breakfast for reporters. President Obama announced late last year that the US will keep 9,800 troops in Afghanistan through 2016 and 5,500 in 2017 in a train-and-assist role. "Drawing down troops further to what the president hoped is looking increasingly unlikely," said Representative Schiff, who is among the most thoroughly briefed congressional officials. |
| Iraq awards Italy's Trevi contract to fix imperilled dam Posted: 02 Feb 2016 12:07 PM PST  Iraq said Tuesday that Italian firm Trevi will repair and maintain the country's largest dam, which is in danger of a catastrophic collapse that would devastate areas to the south. The Mosul Dam was built on an unstable foundation that continuously erodes, and a lapse in maintenance after the Islamic State jihadist group seized it in 2014 weakened the already flawed structure. The dam has long been in danger of collapse, an event US officials have warned could send a huge wave crashing into IS-held Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) away.
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| Syrian army threatens to encircle Aleppo as talks falter Posted: 02 Feb 2016 11:45 AM PST  By Tom Perry, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and John Irish BEIRUT/AMMAN/GENEVA (Reuters) - A Syrian military offensive backed by heavy Russian air strikes threatened to cut critical rebel supply lines into the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday, while the warring sides said peace talks had not started despite a U.N. statement they had. U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura announced the formal start on Monday of the first attempt in two years to negotiate an end to a war that has killed 250,000 people, caused a refugee crisis in the region and Europe and empowered Islamic State militants. De Mistura acknowledged that a collapse of the Geneva talks was always possible.
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| A Drone You Can Fit in Your Backpack Posted: 02 Feb 2016 11:30 AM PST  Don't let your drone get in the way of your hike: You can easily fold up the ProDrone Byrd and store it in a bag.
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| U.S. defense budget focuses on changing security environment: Carter Posted: 02 Feb 2016 11:15 AM PST  U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Tuesday the Pentagon would seek a $582.7 billion defense budget next year and reshape its spending priorities to reflect a new strategic environment marked by Russian assertiveness and the rise of Islamic State. Carter, speaking to the Economic Club of Washington, said the funding request was in line with last year's congressional budget deal and the spending plan would be refocused to address the five big challenges facing the U.S. military: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Islamic State.
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| US proposes more Pentagon funding for Europe aid, equipment Posted: 02 Feb 2016 11:06 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration said Tuesday it will propose quadrupling what it spends on its troops and training in Europe, as part of the U.S. military's accelerating effort to deter Russia.
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| How to Take Down a Rogue Drone Posted: 02 Feb 2016 11:00 AM PST  Eagles are being trained to attack drones in the Netherlands, and anti-drone drones are capturing others with nets.
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| Facts and figures show the impact of low oil prices Posted: 02 Feb 2016 10:35 AM PST The impact of sharply lower oil prices is being felt around the globe. Oil-dependent countries are trying to mend busted budgets. Oil companies are cutting production and workers. While consumers in some countries enjoy lower gas prices, elsewhere consumers are paying higher food prices due to declines in the local currency. |
| The Syrian crisis in figures Posted: 02 Feb 2016 10:27 AM PST  Syria's war has killed more than 260,000 people, uprooted more than half the population and left the country in ruins since it erupted nearly five years ago. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a large network of sources across the country, says 260,758 people were killed between March 2011 and December 31, 2015, most of them combattants. The toll excludes thousands who have disappeared, notably in Syria's infamous jails, and the hundreds of loyalists who have gone missing at the hands of rebels and jihadist groups, including the so-called Islamic State.
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| Iraq awards contract for repairing major dam Posted: 02 Feb 2016 10:17 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq on Tuesday awarded an Italian company a contract to overhaul and maintain the Mosul dam in the country's north, days after a U.S. general warned of its possible collapse. |
| ISIS pushed back in Iraq, Syria, but a threat in Libya: Kerry Posted: 02 Feb 2016 10:08 AM PST  By Arshad Mohammed and Crispian Balmer ROME (Reuters) - An international coalition is pushing back Islamic State militants in their Syrian and Iraqi strongholds, but the group is threatening Libya and could seize the nation's oil wealth, U.S Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday. Officials from 23 countries met in Rome to review the fight against Islamic State militants, who have created a self-proclaimed Caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq, and are spreading into other countries, notably Libya. While Western officials worry about the growing threat posed by Islamic State in the former Italian colony, there was no suggestion that foreign powers were preparing to launch a major military offensive against them there for now.
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| Kerry brands Islamic State group 'apostates' Posted: 02 Feb 2016 10:01 AM PST  The United States affords its citizens religious freedom and does not consider apostasy a crime, but Kerry chose the term to rubbish the jihadists' claims of piety. Some Muslim legal scholars consider the proper punishment for turning one's back on the faith to be death and several majority Islamic countries execute convicted apostates. The IS group claims to have founded a "caliphate" based on its interpretation of Islamic sharia law and itself often brands its Muslim enemies apostates.
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| What We're Following This Afternoon Posted: 02 Feb 2016 08:54 AM PST FBI joins Flint investigation: The bureau is part of a multi-agency inquiry into the contamination of drinking water in the Michigan city. Last month, Governor Rick Snyder declared a state of emergency due to lead in the water supply, and the U.S. Department of Justice announced it is investigating what went wrong. Update: More here. |
| Should the US carpet bomb ISIS targets? Posted: 02 Feb 2016 08:47 AM PST A top United States general shot down proposals to carpet bomb Islamic State (IS) forces in Iraq and Syria in a teleconference on Monday. US Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, commander of the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF – OIR) of the US-led coalition against IS, spoke from Baghdad on the task force's ongoing efforts in fighting the militant group. "Indiscriminate bombing where we don't care if we are killing innocents or combatants is just inconsistent with our values," MacFarland said. |
| Germany's Gabriel calls for fewer migrants as registrations triple on year Posted: 02 Feb 2016 08:32 AM PST  The number of migrants coming to Germany needs to fall, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel wrote in a letter on Tuesday, as data showed registrations almost tripled in January compared with the same month last year. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) said Germany's states registered almost 92,000 migrants last month in the computer system called EASY, which records people in reception centers and then distributes them around the country based on each state's population and tax revenues. It comes as Chancellor Angela Merkel faces increasing criticism for her "open-door" policy, which saw more than 1.1 million migrants enter Germany last year.
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| U.S.-led coalition aims to recapture ISIS 'caliphate' in Iraq, Syria Posted: 02 Feb 2016 08:20 AM PST  By Samia Nakhoul BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State aims this year to recapture Iraq's second city Mosul, working with Iraqi government forces, and drive the jihadis out of Raqqa, their stronghold in northeast Syria, Arab and Western officials say. If it succeeds, the coalition will have struck a crippling blow against Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria. "The plan is to hit them in Raqqa in Syria and in Iraq at Mosul, to crush their capitals," said an Iraqi official with knowledge of the strategy.
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| Migrants set out on foot along Greek highway to Macedonia Posted: 02 Feb 2016 07:53 AM PST  By Fedja Grulovic POLIKASTRO, Greece (Reuters) - Hundreds of migrants set out on foot along a major north-south highway in Greece on Tuesday, heading north for Macedonia after being stranded for days by farmer and taxi driver protests on either side of the frontier. At least 80 buses packed with migrants, many of them women and children fleeing the war in Syria, were backed up 10 km (6.2 miles) short of Greece's border with Macedonia, halted by police. Then, with patience running out, hundreds of migrants disembarked from their stationary buses and blocked the road, sitting on the tarmac and chanting "Macedonia, Macedonia!" One group set out on foot, according to a Reuters cameraman at the scene.
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| Iraqis running out of food and medicine in besieged Falluja Posted: 02 Feb 2016 07:18 AM PST  By Stephen Kalin BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of trapped Iraqi civilians are running out of food and medicine in the western city of Falluja, an Islamic State stronghold under siege by security forces, according to local officials and residents. The Iraqi army, police and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias - backed by air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition - imposed a near total siege late last year on Falluja, located 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad in the Euphrates river valley. The city's population is suffering from a shortage of food, medicine and fuel, residents and officials told Reuters by phone, and media reports said several people had died due to starvation and poor medical care.
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| U.S., allies conduct 20 air strikes in Iraq, six in Syria: U.S. military Posted: 02 Feb 2016 07:13 AM PST  The United States and its allies conducted 20 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and six in Syria on Monday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement. The strikes in Iraq included six near Qayyarah, three near Kisik and four each near Ramadi and Mosul, where they destroyed an Islamic State homemade explosives cache, a militant checkpoint, four staging areas and a weapons cache, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Tuesday. Other strikes included one near Albu Hayat, where a tactical unit was hit and a staging area destroyed, and Habbaniyah, where an air strike destroyed two vehicles, three front-end loaders and another homemade explosives cache, it said.
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| 'Youngblood': An Iraq War Veteran on His Striking Fiction Debut Posted: 02 Feb 2016 07:00 AM PST  Matt Gallagher talks about his debut novel.
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| NATO strikes Islamic State radio station in Afghanistan, as U.S. ups campaign Posted: 02 Feb 2016 06:47 AM PST By James Mackenzie and Mirwais Harooni KABUL (Reuters) - Coalition aircraft struck Islamic State's new radio station in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar late on Monday, part of NATO's escalating campaign to stop the ultra-radical Islamist movement taking root in the country. Attaullah Khogyani, spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial governor, said the overnight raid also involved Afghan ground forces and destroyed an Islamic State broadcaster in Achin district, killing 29 militants including eight working on the radio and online operation. The emergence of fighters loyal to Islamic State has introduced a dangerous new element to Afghanistan's long-running civil conflict, with the group violently challenging the much larger Afghan Taliban movement in pockets of the country. |
| As Europe grapples with migrant influx, benefits limited Posted: 02 Feb 2016 06:38 AM PST  BERLIN (AP) — Germany is mulling taking away benefits from asylum-seekers if they refuse to try to learn the language and integrate; Denmark has just approved a measure to let police seize valuables from migrants to help cover their housing and food costs; and an Austrian province this week is expected to more than halve payments to many refugees.
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| Russia open to hard-liners attending Syria peace talks Posted: 02 Feb 2016 06:19 AM PST  GENEVA (AP) — Russia said Tuesday it supports the inclusion of all opposition parties in Syrian peace talks, including representatives of two hard-line Islamic groups, as President Bashar Assad's troops captured a village north of Syria's largest city with the aid of Russian airstrikes.
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| Nine migrants drown off Turkey Posted: 02 Feb 2016 06:07 AM PST  The Turkish coastguard on Tuesday recovered the bodies of nine migrants including two babies after their boat sank just a short distance from land while trying to reach Europe. The deaths come after 37 migrants drowned off another part of the Turkish coast on Saturday -- in harrowing scenes reminiscent of the death of Aylan Kurdi, the Syrian toddler whose tiny body was found lying face down on a Turkish beach in September. Turkey reached an agreement with the European Union in November to stem the flow of migrants bound for Europe in return for three billion euros ($3.2 billion) in financial assistance.
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| IS pushed back in Iraq, Syria, but a threat in Libya: Kerry Posted: 02 Feb 2016 06:02 AM PST  By Arshad Mohammed ROME (Reuters) - An international coalition is pushing back Islamic State militants in their Syrian and Iraqi strongholds but the group is threatening Libya and could seize the nation's oil wealth, U.S Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday. Officials from 23 countries are in Rome to review the fight against Islamic State militants, who have created a self-proclaimed Caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq, and are spreading into other countries, notably Libya. Islamic State forces have attacked Libya's oil infrastructure and established a foothold in the city of Sirte, exploiting a power vacuum in the North African country where two rival governments have been battling for supremacy.
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| The Latest: German railway boss warns on border checks Posted: 02 Feb 2016 05:59 AM PST  GENEVA (AP) — The Latest on migrants seeking sanctuary in Europe (all times local):
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| A new global oil deal could draw lessons from 1998 Posted: 02 Feb 2016 05:53 AM PST  After a year of secret diplomacy and hushed-up private talks around the world, OPEC's mighty Saudi Arabia and rival Venezuela were persuaded to cut a deal by non-OPEC Mexico which overcame mutual acrimony and led to a much-needed rise in oil prices. Now, with oil prices touching their lowest level since 2003, OPEC officials and deal brokers are looking back nearly two decades and asking whether a behind-the-scenes deal to curb oil output between OPEC and non-OPEC Russia could be struck.
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| Syria donors meet in London in bid to stem refugee crisis Posted: 02 Feb 2016 05:39 AM PST  World leaders gather in London on Thursday to try to raise $9 billion (8.3 billion euros) for the millions of Syrians hit by the country's civil war and a refugee crisis spanning Europe and the Middle East. The donor conference, the fourth of its kind, hopes to meet the United Nations' demand for $7.73 billion to help in Syria plus $1.23 billion assistance for countries in the region affected by the crisis. British Prime Minister David Cameron will host more than 70 international leaders at the summit.
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| Syria govt says peace talks 'still in preparatory phase' Posted: 02 Feb 2016 05:30 AM PST  The Syrian government rejected Tuesday that indirect peace talks have properly begun, with the head of its delegation describing negotiations as still in a "preparatory phase" and calling the opposition "not serious". "We are still in the preparatory phase for indirect talks... We still don't know who the opposition delegation is," Bashar al-Jaafari told reporters after meeting UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura in Geneva.
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| Jordan looks to donors to ease Syria refugee burden Posted: 02 Feb 2016 05:25 AM PST  On the doorstep of Syria's conflict, Jordan is pinning hopes on this week's donor conference in London to ease the burden on its debt-riddled economy of hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees. Jordan hosts more than 630,000 of the roughly 4.6 million Syrian refugees overseas, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. "Jordan can no longer continue to provide aid to Syrian refugees without long-term international assistance," Planning Minister Imad al-Fakhoury said Sunday at a meeting with representatives of donor countries.
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| The Hawkeye State Sours on Hawkish Republicans Posted: 02 Feb 2016 04:48 AM PST Four years ago, Iowans rewarded the neocon-inflected campaigns of Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney. This year, four of the top five finishers are critics of unnecessary interventions. |
| Nations discuss how to snuff out Islamic State in Libya Posted: 02 Feb 2016 03:05 AM PST  ROME (AP) — Nations fighting the Islamic State discussed Tuesday how to prevent the extremist group from gaining a stranglehold in resource-rich Libya, though no one appeared resolved just yet to launch a second military intervention in the North African country this decade.
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