Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Obama makes last attempt to persuade Congress to close Guantanamo
• Migrants stranded in Greece, face eviction in France
• Obama makes last attempt to persuade Congress to shut Guantanamo
• DNA report suggests Ankara bomber was Turkish: security official
• Iraqi Kurdish troops rescue Swedish teen from Islamic State
• Bosnia's mufti urges authorities to act after Islamist threat
• Turkish authorities confirm Ankara bomber's identity
• Italy judge charges fugitive suspected Islamic State supporter
• The Latest: NATO: rescued migrants can be returned to Turkey
• Kurdish oil flows shut as pipeline sabotaged in Turkey
• Palestinian corruption chief claws back $70 million, more to recoup
• Migrant arrivals to Europe this year top 110,000, up sharply from 2015
• Nigeria backs efforts to 'stabilise' oil market
• 4 arrested in Spain, Morocco for IS armed group ties
• Exclusive: Samples confirm Islamic State used mustard gas in Iraq - diplomat
• Iraq Kurds free teenage Swedish girl in Mosul area
• After attacks, Paris seeks to reassure Chinese tourism
• US surveillance of Merkel wider than thought: WikiLeaks
• Italy's navy rescues 700 migrants from six boats, four found dead
• 'Space Archaeologists' Show Spike in Looting at Egypt's Ancient Sites
• AP WAS THERE: US forces enter Kuwait to end Iraqi occupation
• Over 110,000 migrants 'have crossed Mediterranean to Europe in 2016'
• Kurdish special forces rescue teenage Swedish girl from Islamic State
• U.S. air strikes aid Afghan forces against Islamic State
• Iraqi Kurdish government: Troops rescue Swedish teenager from Islamic State group near Mosul
• U.S., allies conduct 26 strikes against Islamic State: U.S. military
• Italy agrees to let anti-Islamic State drones depart from Sicily
• 25 years later, Gulf War stills shapes tiny, oil-rich Kuwait
• Libya could soon run out of life-saving medicines: U.N.
• Spain arrests four with suspected links to Islamic militants
• Singapore deports Indonesians accused of heading to join IS
• US failing to explain deadly drone policy: report
• On Gulf War's 25th Anniversary, Researchers & Veterans Say VA Failing to Treat Signature Injury
• Bill Carter on #OscarsSoWhite: Chris Rock Will "Take Shameless Advantage of a Shameful Situation"
• Asian stock markets mostly weaker as oil turns lower
• Prince Ali bruising battle for FIFA summit

Obama makes last attempt to persuade Congress to close Guantanamo Posted: 23 Feb 2016 04:35 PM PST By Jeff Mason and Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama launched a final push on Tuesday to persuade Congress to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, despite strong opposition from lawmakers who do not want detainees transferred to the United States. The Pentagon-authored plan proposes 13 potential sites on U.S. soil to hold some 30-60 detainees in maximum-security prisons but does not identify the facilities. U.S. law bars transfers to the United States, and lawmakers are unlikely to lift those restrictions, especially in an election year.

Migrants stranded in Greece, face eviction in France Posted: 23 Feb 2016 12:27 PM PST IDOMENI, Greece (AP) — At flashpoints near borders on either side of Europe, authorities tried Tuesday to force back migrants desperate to begin new lives in more prosperous nations.

Obama makes last attempt to persuade Congress to shut Guantanamo Posted: 23 Feb 2016 12:13 PM PST By Jeff Mason and Ayesha Rascoe WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama launched a final push on Tuesday to persuade Congress to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, despite strong opposition from lawmakers who do not want detainees transferred to the United States. The president, a Democrat, pleaded with the Republican-led Congress to give his proposal a "fair hearing" and said he did not want to pass the issue to his successor in January. The Pentagon-authored plan proposes 13 potential sites on U.S. soil to hold some 30-60 detainees in maximum-security prisons, but does not identify the facilities.

DNA report suggests Ankara bomber was Turkish: security official Posted: 23 Feb 2016 12:07 PM PST By Orhan Coskun ANKARA (Reuters) - A DNA report from a suicide bombing that killed 29 people in the Turkish capital Ankara last week suggests the main perpetrator was Turkish-born, not Syrian as initially stated by the government, a senior Turkish security official said on Tuesday. A car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights near Turkey's armed forces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara last Wednesday. The next day, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed a Syrian Kurdish YPG militia fighter working with Kurdish militants inside Turkey for the attack, naming him as Salih Necar, born in 1992, and from the Hasakah region of northern Syria.

Iraqi Kurdish troops rescue Swedish teen from Islamic State Posted: 23 Feb 2016 11:52 AM PST IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi Kurdish authorities said Tuesday their troops rescued a Swedish teenager from the Islamic State group near the extremist-controlled city of Mosul earlier this month, while a local TV station broadcast an interview with the girl in which she described how she came with her boyfriend to Iraq last year.

Bosnia's mufti urges authorities to act after Islamist threat Posted: 23 Feb 2016 11:52 AM PST Bosnia's Muslim religious leader Husein Kavazovic urged authorities on Tuesday to act after he was threatened by a presumed Islamic State group member following his denunciation of Islamist extremism. "The Islamic community of Bosnia takes seriously threats... to (Bosnia's) Muslims and the Grand Mufti Husein Kavazovic," a statement released from his office read.

Turkish authorities confirm Ankara bomber's identity Posted: 23 Feb 2016 11:45 AM PST ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish authorities on Tuesday confirmed the identity of the suicide bomber who killed 29 people in last week's suicide car bomb attack in Ankara as a Turkish man, the state-run agency reported.

Italy judge charges fugitive suspected Islamic State supporter Posted: 23 Feb 2016 10:58 AM PST A judge in Italy on Tuesday set a trial date for an Italian woman who converted to Islam and is thought to have joined Islamic State militants in Syria, a legal source said. Maria Giulio Sergio, 28, left Italy for Syria with her Albanian husband shortly after they married in 2014. Both remain at large but are believed to be in Syria.

The Latest: NATO: rescued migrants can be returned to Turkey Posted: 23 Feb 2016 10:30 AM PST CALAIS, France (AP) — The Latest on the migrant influx into Europe (all times local):

Kurdish oil flows shut as pipeline sabotaged in Turkey Posted: 23 Feb 2016 09:47 AM PST By Humeyra Pamuk ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Kurdistan's oil exports to world markets are set to be suspended for a second week running, a shipping source said, a move that will deprive Iraq's semi-autonomous region of its main revenue stream as the security situation in southeast Turkey worsens. The pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan from fields in Iraq's north, which carries around 600,000 barrels per day of crude, has been halted since Feb. 17 and was unlikely to resume pumping until Feb. 29, the source said. The outage would be one of the longest in the past two years and a major blow to Kurdistan, which depends on revenue from oil exports via the pipeline and is struggling to avert economic collapse brought on by a global slump in energy prices.

Palestinian corruption chief claws back $70 million, more to recoup Posted: 23 Feb 2016 09:27 AM PST By Luke Baker and Ali Sawafta RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The head of the Palestinian anti-corruption body says he has clawed back $70 million in five years but his investigators have failed to uncover evidence to justify allegations that hundreds of millions of dollars in government funds have gone missing. Rafiq al-Natsheh, chairman of the Palestinian Anti-Corruption Commission, said "tens of millions of dollars" needed to be tracked down and that one of the biggest challenges facing his team was getting funds back that had disappeared abroad. After years of talk of vast sums going astray - the attorney general of the Palestinian Authority announced in February 2006 that he was investigating 50 cases of embezzlement from the authority's budget totaling $700 million - President Mahmoud Abbas is under pressure from donors to show he is taking action.

Migrant arrivals to Europe this year top 110,000, up sharply from 2015 Posted: 23 Feb 2016 09:23 AM PST By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The number of migrants and refugees arriving in Italy and Greece since the start of the year has risen sharply compared to the same period 2015 and hundreds are stranded at European borders due to rising restrictions, aid agencies said on Tuesday. At least 102,500 people have landed on Greek islands including Samos, Kos and Lesbos this year, and 7,500 in Italy, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement. "We've reached that figure in two months as opposed to last year when it was reached by the summer," IOM spokesman Itayi Viriri told a news briefing.

Nigeria backs efforts to 'stabilise' oil market Posted: 23 Feb 2016 08:44 AM PST The Nigerian and Saudi leaders on Tuesday supported efforts to stabilise the oil market but Africa's top producer did not commit to a production freeze. After talks in the Saudi capital Riyadh, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and Saudi King Salman "committed themselves to doing all that is possible to stabilise the market and rebound the oil price," Buhari's office said in a statement. Buhari was in Riyadh a week after Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar agreed at talks in Doha to freeze production at January levels in a bid to stem the dramatic fall in oil prices.

4 arrested in Spain, Morocco for IS armed group ties Posted: 23 Feb 2016 07:33 AM PST MADRID (AP) — Spanish and Moroccan police on Tuesday arrested four suspected members of a jihadi cell that sought to recruit fighters for the Islamic State group, including one described as a former Guantanamo detainee who once fought with militants in Afghanistan.

Exclusive: Samples confirm Islamic State used mustard gas in Iraq - diplomat Posted: 23 Feb 2016 07:16 AM PST (This February 15 story was corrected to remove reference to first use of chemical agents since Saddam Hussein era from first paragraph) By Anthony Deutsch AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Islamic State militants attacked Kurdish forces in Iraq with mustard gas last year, a diplomat said, citing tests by the global chemical arms watchdog. A source at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed that laboratory tests had come back positive for sulphur mustard, after around 35 Kurdish troops were sickened on the battlefield last August.

Iraq Kurds free teenage Swedish girl in Mosul area Posted: 23 Feb 2016 06:52 AM PST Iraqi Kurdish forces have rescued a 16-year-old Swedish girl who was tricked into travelling to areas controlled by the Islamic State group, a statement said Tuesday. Kurdish counter-terrorism forces rescued the girl near Mosul, the jihadist organisation's main hub in Iraq, the statement from the Kurdistan Regional Security Council (KRSC) said. "She was misled by an ISIL member in Sweden to travel to Syria and later to Mosul," the statement said, using another acronym for the jihadist group.

After attacks, Paris seeks to reassure Chinese tourism Posted: 23 Feb 2016 06:36 AM PST A delegation representing China's top 50 travel agencies began a three-day visit to France on Tuesday aimed at calming their security concerns following the November attacks in Paris. Among the delegation were representatives from around a dozen corporate travel agencies, the Paris regional tourism authority CRT said in a statement. Arrivals from China had surged an unprecedented 49 percent in 2015, with 1.2 million arrivals to the Paris region, topping one million visitors for the first time -- "but the attacks of last November slowed this growth," CRT said.

US surveillance of Merkel wider than thought: WikiLeaks Posted: 23 Feb 2016 06:29 AM PST US intelligence spied on talks German Chancellor Angela Merkel held with the UN chief and key European leaders, a German newspaper reported Tuesday citing classified documents released by WikiLeaks. The US National Security Agency (NSA), which drew fire for tapping Merkel's mobile phone, also gathered information on a 2008 conversation about climate change she held with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily said.

Italy's navy rescues 700 migrants from six boats, four found dead Posted: 23 Feb 2016 06:18 AM PST More than 700 migrants were rescued from six leaky boats in the sea between Tunisia and Sicily on Tuesday and four were found dead, the Italian navy said. More than 400 migrants have died in the Mediterranean this year, as people continue to try to cross into Europe despite bad winter weather in the second year of Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War Two. More than 110,000 people, many fleeing poverty and war in Africa and the Middle East, have arrived in Greece and Italy this year, a sharp increase on 2015, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

'Space Archaeologists' Show Spike in Looting at Egypt's Ancient Sites Posted: 23 Feb 2016 06:09 AM PST As economic and political instability rocked Egypt, looters increasingly plundered the country's archaeological sites, leaving holes across the nation's ancient landscapes. That's the trend reported today in the journal Antiquity by archaeologists who used satellite images to monitor sites in Egypt from 2002 to 2013. For the last several years, "space archaeologist" Sarah Parcak, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has pored over satellite images to discover lost pyramids, tombs and cities buried in Egypt.

AP WAS THERE: US forces enter Kuwait to end Iraqi occupation Posted: 23 Feb 2016 05:28 AM PST KUWAIT CITY (AP) — In February 1991, after months of building an international coalition, U.S. forces entered Kuwait to end the Iraqi occupation of its smaller, oil-rich neighbor.

Over 110,000 migrants 'have crossed Mediterranean to Europe in 2016' Posted: 23 Feb 2016 05:02 AM PST More than 110,000 migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean to Greece and Italy so far this year, and 413 have lost their lives trying, the International Organisation for Migration said Tuesday. As of Tuesday morning, 102,547 people had arrived in Greece, while another 7,507 had arrived in Italy since the beginning of the year, IOM said. Last year, the 100,000 mark was only topped during summer, IOM spokesman Itayi Viriri told reporters.

Kurdish special forces rescue teenage Swedish girl from Islamic State Posted: 23 Feb 2016 04:58 AM PST A teenage Swedish girl being held by Islamic State militants in Iraq was rescued in a raid by Kurdish special forces last week, the autonomous region's security council said in a statement on Tuesday. The 16-year-old travelled from Sweden to Syria last year and then crossed the border into Iraq, where she was rescued near the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul on Feb. 17 by forces from the Kurdish counterterrorism department, the statement added. The Kurdish security council identified the rescued teenager as coming from the town of Boras and said she had been misled into making the journey to Syria by an Islamic State member in Sweden.

U.S. air strikes aid Afghan forces against Islamic State Posted: 23 Feb 2016 04:52 AM PST By Josh Smith KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan forces backed by U.S. air strikes have killed dozens of insurgents loyal to Islamic State this week as they continue a push into areas occupied by the radical group, officials said on Tuesday. For months, security forces have been trying to dislodge Islamic State fighters from Achin district, an area in eastern Nangarhar province along the border with Pakistan. More than 30 militants were reported killed in the most recent fighting, said Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for the Nangarhar provincial government.

Iraqi Kurdish government: Troops rescue Swedish teenager from Islamic State group near Mosul Posted: 23 Feb 2016 04:32 AM PST IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraqi Kurdish government: Troops rescue Swedish teenager from Islamic State group near Mosul.

U.S., allies conduct 26 strikes against Islamic State: U.S. military Posted: 23 Feb 2016 04:03 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies have conducted 26 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria since Monday, the U.S.-led military coalition leading the operations said in a statement on Tuesday. "In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 11 strikes using ground-attack, attack, and fighter aircraft against ISIL targets," the statement said, using an acronym for Islamic State. Coalition forces also conducted 15 strikes in Iraq using fighter aircraft against ISIL targets, the statement said. ...

Italy agrees to let anti-Islamic State drones depart from Sicily Posted: 23 Feb 2016 02:17 AM PST By Isla Binnie ROME (Reuters) - Italy has agreed to let armed U.S. drones take off from an air base in Sicily on a case-by-case basis for defensive missions against Islamic State militants in North Africa, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Tuesday. "If it is a matter of operations against terrorists, against potential Islamic State attackers, there is a close relationship between us and the other allies, above all the Americans," Renzi said in an interview with RTL radio. The prime minister, who has repeatedly said Italy would not take part in military strikes in Libya without the express request of a recognised government, said they would be authorised "case by case".

25 years later, Gulf War stills shapes tiny, oil-rich Kuwait Posted: 23 Feb 2016 01:54 AM PST KUWAIT CITY (AP) — The scene U.S. forces encountered as they pushed into Kuwait in 1991 to end the Iraqi occupation could only be described as a hellscape.

Libya could soon run out of life-saving medicines: U.N. Posted: 23 Feb 2016 01:46 AM PST By Michael Georgy CAIRO (Reuters) - Libya faces severe shortages of life-saving medicine and about one million people will soon be in dire need of help, a U.N. humanitarian official warned, as warring factions hamper efforts to end chaos and form a unity government. "Our estimation is that by the end of march, Libya may run out of life saving medications which will impact about one million people." said Ali Al-Za'tari, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the North African country. "If there is no medication and medical supplies coming in that will be a real issue for Libya." Al-Za'tari was due to meet Arab League delegates on a visit to Cairo to try and win support for U.N. efforts to ease what he calls a humanitarian crisis in Libya.

Spain arrests four with suspected links to Islamic militants Posted: 23 Feb 2016 01:11 AM PST Spanish and Moroccan police arrested four people accused of recruiting potential militants to fight in Syria and Iraq or to carry out attacks in Spain or Morocco, the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday. Three Spaniards were detained in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern Africa and one Moroccan in Nador, Morocco, as part of a joint operation between the two countries, the ministry said. Including the arrests on Tuesday, Spain has detained 12 people with suspected links to Islamic militants so far this year.

Singapore deports Indonesians accused of heading to join IS Posted: 22 Feb 2016 10:36 PM PST Singapore has deported four suspected Indonesian extremists allegedly heading to Syria to fight with the Islamic State (IS) group, authorities said Tuesday. The four, who included a 15-year-old boy, were arrested Sunday in the city-state when officials became suspicious after checking their documents and finding one of them had previously spent time in Syria, Indonesian police said. Authorities deported them to Batam, an Indonesian island not far from Singapore, the same day, and they have since been sent on to Jakarta.

US failing to explain deadly drone policy: report Posted: 22 Feb 2016 09:44 PM PST The United States has made little or no progress in explaining how and why it orders lethal drone strikes, even as America's reliance on the unmanned aircraft soars worldwide, a report found on Tuesday. According to a study by the Stimson Center, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank, President Barack Obama's administration has failed to provide basic transparency into the drone program that has become a keystone in America's counterterrorism efforts. "In terms of the justification for the program and all the legal basis -- that still remains out of reach of the American public," study author Rachel Stohl told AFP.

On Gulf War's 25th Anniversary, Researchers & Veterans Say VA Failing to Treat Signature Injury Posted: 22 Feb 2016 09:12 PM PST WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Gulf War veterans and researchers of Gulf War Illness – termed the "signature" injury of the 1991 Gulf War in a recent government-sponsored report – will provide sharp criticism of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) during a Congressional hearing Congress on Tuesday, just hours before the precise 25th anniversary of the 1991 Gulf War's decisive liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. At the hearing, veterans and researchers will dissect VA's current research and treatment efforts related to Gulf War Illness, the "signature" injury of the 1991 Gulf War according to a new report by the Institute of Medicine.

Bill Carter on #OscarsSoWhite: Chris Rock Will "Take Shameless Advantage of a Shameful Situation" Posted: 22 Feb 2016 09:00 PM PST With Beyonce's Super Bowl show and Kendrick Lamar's Grammys performance, political statements at major TV events are in vogue. The comedian is now given the biggest opportunity to address the controversy.

Asian stock markets mostly weaker as oil turns lower Posted: 22 Feb 2016 08:15 PM PST Asian stock markets were mostly weaker on Tuesday as the price of crude oil turned lower following a surge overnight. KEEPING SCORE: Japan's Nikkei 225 drifted 0.2 percent lower to 16,074.71 while South ...

Prince Ali bruising battle for FIFA summit Posted: 22 Feb 2016 06:19 PM PST The brother of a king and an army major general, Prince Ali bin al Hussein has taken on the toughest of campaigns trying to reach the summit of world football. Prince Ali, a frustrated Arsenal fan, has travelled the globe seeking backing for his calls for greater transparency by the tainted organisation. Last year, the prince secured 73 protest votes against Blatter and then gallantly withdrew without forcing a second round.

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