2016年2月4日星期四

Yahoo! News: Iraq

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yahoo! News: Iraq


Assange hopes to walk out of embassy after UN panel ruling

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 04:53 PM PST

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he hoped a UN panel's decision expected on Friday could lead to the end of his confinement in the Ecuadorean embassy in London over a rape allegation in Sweden. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) is expected to declare that his three-and-a-half years stuck in a cramped embassy office amount to illegal detention, the Swedish foreign ministry and Assange's lawyers said Thursday. Assange, who has been holed up at the embassy since June 2012 to avoid arrest, said he expects the British police to call off their attempts to detain him if the panel rules in his favour.

U.S. Marine Corps expects budget squeeze to fund fleet modernization

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 03:44 PM PST

A U.S. Marine from Fox Company, 2nd Battalion 1st Marines, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit aims his weapon during a non-live fire MOUT training at US Marine Corps: Marines Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine PalmsThe United States Marine Corps will try to maintain funding for its plans to modernize its fleet of aging aircraft and ships in the fiscal 2017 defense budget, the commandant of the Marine Corps said on Thursday. General Robert Neller told Reuters on the sidelines of an event in Washington that there was a difference between the budget expected on Feb. 9 and what the Marines wanted. "We're going to do everything to protect our modernization," said Neller, who took command of the Marine Corps last year.


New U.S. intelligence report says Islamic State weaker

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 03:22 PM PST

A member loyal to the ISIL waves an ISIL flag in RaqqaIslamic State has as many as 25,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq, down from a previous estimate of up to 31,000, according to a U.S. intelligence report revealed by the White House on Thursday. U.S. officials cited factors such as battlefield casualties and desertions to explain the roughly 20 percent decrease in fighters, and said the report showed a U.S.-led campaign to crush Islamic State was making progress. The new intelligence estimate "means they continue to be a substantial threat, but the potential numbers have declined," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.


Will America stick with Colombia in peace, as it did in war?

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 03:16 PM PST

After 15 years and $10 billion, the United States aid program known as Plan Colombia has helped put the country on the verge of peace for the first time in more than half a century. The Colombian government is in the final stages of peace negotiations with rebels from the FARC, the last major guerrilla group fighting in Colombia's war. Recommended: Think you know Latin America?

Why Sanders and Clinton are fighting over the word 'progressive'

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 02:55 PM PST

Senator Sanders began this tussle over the nature of political identity on Wednesday by saying Mrs. Clinton "just wasn't a progressive" on a host of issues, while campaigning in the Granite State. The Vermont senator and avowed democratic socialist also pointed out that Clinton has taken lots of campaign money from Wall Street and has a super PAC, two things of which he's never been accused. Clinton during her own campaign stops responded that Sanders isn't a "gatekeeper" on who can claim the "P" label.

World powers pledge $10 billion in aid for Syria

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 02:38 PM PST

Migrants and refugees walk to cross the Macedonia-Serbia border near the village of Tabanovce, on February 4, 2016World leaders pledged over $10 billion (9.0 billion euros) Thursday to help conflict-hit Syrians at a London conference overshadowed by the breakdown of peace talks in Geneva. The European Union, Germany, Britain and the United States were among the biggest donors to provide food, education and job opportunities for Syrians in their homeland and neighbouring countries where they have fled.


Number of ISIS Fighters in Iraq and Syria Drops, Increases in Libya, US Official Says

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 02:05 PM PST

The U.S. now estimates that the number of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria has decreased to between 19,000 and 25,000 resulting from battlefield deaths and a reduced flow of foreign fighters into Syria. Previous U.S. estimates for Iraq and Syria in the past year have been that ISIS has remained constant at between 20,000 and 30,000, with a peak of 33,000, according to a Defense Department official.

US struggling to build anti-Islamic State strategy in Libya

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 01:39 PM PST

White House press secretary Josh Earnest speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House, in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016. Earnest discussed that the number of Islamic State group fighters has dropped in Iraq and Syria, but is rising in Libya, and other topics. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is struggling to find the right mix of military and diplomatic moves to stop the Islamic State in Libya, where the extremist group has taken advantage of the political chaos in the country to gain a foothold with worrying implications for the U.S. and Europe — particularly Italy, just 300 miles (500 kilometers) away.


Tortured Italian student died 'slow death': Egypt official

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 01:37 PM PST

This image posted online after the Jan. 25, 2016 disappearance of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni in Cairo, Egypt shows Reggeni in a graphic used in an online campaign, #whereisgiulio seeking information on his whereabouts. The body of the missing Italian student was found with signs of torture, including multiple stab wounds and cigarette burns, by the side of a highway on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital, an investigating prosecutor told The Associated Press on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2015. (#wheresgiulio via AP)CAIRO (AP) — The body of an Italian graduate student who disappeared last month has been found with multiple stab wounds, cigarette burns and other signs of torture and a "slow death" on a roadside on the outskirts of Cairo, an Egyptian prosecutor said Thursday.


IS forces rise in Libya, drop in Iraq and Syria: US official

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 01:11 PM PST

An image taken from jihadist media outlet Wilayat Trablus and provided courtesy of the US-based monitoring agency SITE Intelligence Group on June 9, 2015 allegedly shows Islamic State group fighters running in SirteIslamic State fighters have streamed into Libya in recent months, a US official said Thursday, heightening fears that the extremists are gaining ground and influence in the north African country. About 5,000 IS jihadists are now in Libya, the defense official said, approximately double earlier estimates, while the number of IS extremists in Iraq and Syria has dropped. The updated tallies comes as the adminstration of President Barack Obama faces growing calls for the US military to step up action against the IS group in Libya, where the jihadists have already seized the city of Sirte and an adjoining length of Mediterranean coastline.


WikiLeaks' Assange 'arbitrarily detained' in embassy, U.N. panel to say

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 12:51 PM PST

File photo of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gesturing during a news conference at the Ecuadorian embassy in central LondonBy Johan Ahlander and Guy Faulconbridge STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been subject to 'arbitrary detention' during the 3-1/2 years he has spent in the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid a rape investigation in Sweden, a U.N. panel will rule on Friday. Assange, who enraged the United States by publishing hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, appealed to the panel saying he was a political refugee whose rights had been infringed by being unable to take up asylum in Ecuador.


Saudi ready to join anti-IS ground op in Syria: general

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 12:14 PM PST

A Saudi soldier looks through binoculars from a position at al-Dokhan mountain, on the Saudi-Yemeni border, in southwestern Saudi Arabia, on April 13, 2015Saudi Arabia is ready to join any ground operation the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria might decide on, a general from the kingdom said on Thursday. "If there is any willingness in the coalition to go in the ground operation, we will contribute positively in that," Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri told AFP. Since late 2014 Saudi Arabia has been part of a US-led coalition which officially has 65 members and has been bombing the Islamic State Sunni extremist group which seized large parts of Syria and Iraq.


Lawmakers introduce bill to make women register for draft

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 11:31 AM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republican congressmen who are military veterans have introduced a bill requiring women to register for the draft.

Islamic State numbers go down in Iraq, Syria; up in Libya

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 10:28 AM PST

WASHINGTON (AP) — New intelligence assessments show that the number of Islamic State group fighters has dropped in Iraq and Syria but is rising in Libya, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday.

Fear stalks Libya's growing jihadist haven

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 10:23 AM PST

Libyans drive through a destroyed neighbourhood in Sirte on October 24, 2011Public beheadings and roving jihadist gangs are terrifying residents in the Islamic State group's Libyan stronghold of Sirte, in an ominous sign of the movement's growing international influence. Witnesses tell of amputations and executions in squares in Moamer Kadhafi's hometown on the Mediterranean coast, where women can no longer go out without a male guardian. Civilian life has disappeared and the scenes we saw on television from Syria and Iraq now apply to people here," a Sirte municipal council official told AFP on condition of anonymity.


Clinton, Sanders take new combative tone into first one-on-one debate

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 09:10 AM PST

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders answers a question from the audience while taking part in a CNN Democratic Town Hall moderated by American journalist and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper (unseen) in Derry, New HampshireDemocratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders take an increasingly combative tone into their first one-on-one debate on Thursday, cranking up a fight over who is best suited to lead the party's liberal agenda on the economy and healthcare. Five days before New Hampshire voters render a judgment in the second of the state-by-state presidential nominating contests, Clinton and Sanders will square off on MSNBC at 9 p.m. EST (0200 Friday GMT) in Durham, New Hampshire. Polls show Sanders, a U.S. senator from neighboring Vermont, has a comfortable lead over Clinton in New Hampshire after surprising the front-runner by managing a virtual tie with her in the kickoff contest in Iowa on Monday.


Number of migrants registering in Germany falls markedly in January

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 08:38 AM PST

Migrants queue in front of the compound of the Berlin Office of Health and Social Affairs in BerlinGermany registered 91,671 migrants in January, less than half November's level, officials said on Thursday as pressure mounted on Chancellor Angela Merkel to deliver on her pledge to reduce the influx. An Interior Ministry statement on the latest migrant tally gave no explanation for the notable drop in migrant arrivals, but it said previously that a downward trend seen since late last year was due mainly to freezing winter weather. Germany has also reimposed spot controls on border points with Austria used by incoming migrants and is seeking to speed up deportations of those not qualifying for asylum.


US demands end to Russia strikes after Syria talks collapse

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 07:59 AM PST

US Secretary of State John Kerry addresses delegates at a donor conference entitled 'Supporting Syria & The Region' at the QEII Centre in central London on February 4, 2016The United States demanded Thursday that Russia immediately halt its bombing campaign in Syria after a bitter breakdown in peace talks exposed the deep rift between world powers aiming to end the five-year conflict. On the ground, nearly 40,000 people have fled an offensive this week by President Bashar al-Assad's regime north of the city of Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. Assad's forces also entered two Shiite villages that were under siege by rebels, prompting what state news agency SANA called "mass celebrations" in the streets of Nubol and Zahraa.


Woman in hiding tells why she blew whistle on Paris attacker

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 07:31 AM PST

Flowers are seen in the holes from bullet impacts on the door of the"Casa Nostra" pizzeria in ParisBy Brian Love PARIS (Reuters) - A woman whose phone tip-off allowed police to corner and kill the ringleader of the Nov. 13 assault on Paris has spoken for the first time of his plans for a follow-up attack and how he bragged about entering France with 90 others from Syria. The woman, in hiding and under police protection, contacted a French radio station to complain of what she deems insufficient support from the public authorities, and she also talked of the events that led police to Islamist militant Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Abaaoud died when elite police laid siege to his hideout flat in Saint Denis north of Paris on Nov. 18, days after the Islamic State-claimed attacks in which he and a large group of militants killed 130 people in and near the French capital.


Saudi says Iranian pilgrims welcome despite rift

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 07:26 AM PST

Iranian Muslim pilgrims arrive at Jeddah airport on October 30, 2011 on their way to the Saudi holy city of Mecca, where they will take part in the annual Hajj or pilgrimageIranian pilgrims are still welcome to visit Islam's holiest sites in Saudi Arabia despite increased tensions between the two countries, Riyadh's foreign minister said on Thursday. "Any Muslim is welcome in Mecca and Medina... and this includes the Iranian pilgrims," Adel al-Jubeir told reporters. In January, protesters burned Riyadh's embassy in Tehran and a consulate in Iran's second city of Mashhad to protest the Saudi execution of a prominent cleric from the minority Shiite community.


Julian Assange: WikiLeaks' fugitive anti-hero

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 07:08 AM PST

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, pictured during a video conference in October, 2015, said if the UN panel rules in his favour "I expect the immediate return of my passport and the termination of further attempts to arrest me"When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange announced he might finally leave Ecuador's embassy in London, it was a new twist in a long-running thriller pitting hi-tech activists against mighty governments. Ecuador granted him political asylum in 2012, while Sweden wants him extradited over an allegation of rape. Assange said Thursday he expects to be treated as a free man if a UN panel rules in his favour in the alleged rape case, though Britain said it would have to detain him should he emerge.


Italy to send 130 military personnel to Iraq to recover wounded

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 06:56 AM PST

Italy will send a team specialized in treating war wounded to Iraq as it prepares to send troops to guard Mosul dam maintenance workers, Defence Minister Roberta Pinotti said on Thursday. In the wake of the deadly Islamic State attacks in Paris in November, Italy declined French and American calls to join in air strikes in Syria. In an interview with Canale 5 television, Pinotti said Italy's cabinet would approve a mission to send 130 military personnel to retrieve and treat the wounded in the coming weeks.

U.S., allies conduct 22 strikes against Islamic State: U.S. military

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 06:46 AM PST

The United States and its allies conducted 22 air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday, focusing primarily on the Iraqi towns of Qayyarah, Mosul and Ramadi, the U.S. military said in a statement on Thursday. The U.S.-led coalition carried out six air strikes around Qayyarah, bombing weapons, fighting positions and command and control points, the statement said. It carried out five strikes around Mosul and four around Ramadi, focusing on similar targets.

Viewer's Guide: Clinton, Sanders clash over economic divide

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 05:22 AM PST

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., smiles as he answers a question from the audience alongside host Anderson Cooper during a democratic primary town hall sponsored by CNN, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Derry, N.H. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)WASHINGTON (AP) — The face-to-face meeting between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is rooted in an intensifying debate over who understands the great divide between rich Americans and everyone else.


5 Conspiracy Theories About the Oil Crash, from Ludicrous to Logical

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 03:00 AM PST

5 Conspiracy Theories About the Oil Crash, from Ludicrous to LogicalThe last time crude oil prices spent significant time below $30 a barrel Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were still "Bennifer," Howard Dean was leading the Democratic primary race and Saddam Hussein had just been captured by U.S. troops in Iraq. It was December 2003 and the world was awash in oil. Oil had been relatively cheap throughout the 1990s thanks to regulated production and price controls.


10 Things to Know for Today

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 02:43 AM PST

In this Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016 file photo, Rania prepares a meal for her family in their tent in Kawergosk refugee camp in northern Iraq. Syrian refugees in Iraq are struggling to feed themselves as cash-trapped aid agencies scale back assistance, with many viewing the perilous crossing to Europe as their best hope of survival. (AP Photo/Alice Martins, File)Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today:


To silence propaganda, Iraq seeks to take Islamic State offline

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 02:15 AM PST

A 3D plastic representation of the Twitter and Youtube logo is seen in front of a displayed ISIS flag in this photo illustration in Zenica, Bosnia and HerzegovinaBy Matt Smith DUBAI (Reuters) - Iraq is trying to persuade satellite firms to halt Internet services in areas under Islamic State's rule, seeking to deal a major blow to the group's potent propaganda machine which relies heavily on social media to inspire its followers to wage jihad. Social media apps like Twitter and Telegram are scrambling to limit Islamic State's cyber-activities. For Iraq then, the key is to stop the militant group from accessing the web at all - a feat, which if achieved, could sever a significant part of a propaganda campaign that has inspired deadly attacks in the West.


Kosovo FM 'received death threat from IS leader'

Posted: 04 Feb 2016 12:36 AM PST

Kosovo's Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci told AFP he received "a death threat against me and my family," allegedly signed by IS chief Abu Bakr al-BaghdadiKosovo's foreign minister and former premier Hashim Thaci says he received a death threat purportedly from the leader of the Islamic State organisation over his opposition to the extremist group. A Pristina news website this week reported details of a letter addressed to then-prime minister Thaci in late 2014, allegedly signed by IS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, calling on him to abandon Kosovo's alignment with the West or face "great revenge". Thaci, who is now front-runner to become president of Muslim-majority Kosovo this year, confirmed that he had received a threatening letter from Baghdadi, saying he would "not step back or retreat from any threats" in tackling Islamic fundamentalism.


Syrian refugees struggle to buy food as aid dwindles

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 11:34 PM PST

In this Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016 photo, a Syrian boy walks in Kawergosk refugee camp in northern Iraq carrying a plate with boiled potatoes. Syrian refugees in Iraq are struggling to feed themselves as cash-trapped aid agencies scale back assistance, with many viewing the perilous crossing to Europe as their best hope of survival. (AP Photo/Alice Martins, File)KAWERGOSK CAMP, Iraq (AP) — Perwin Shamsaddeen Ali, a Syrian refugee living in a tent camp in northern Iraq, has been reduced to cooking one meal a day for her family of four.


Clinton defends progressive record against Sanders critique

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 11:33 PM PST

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders opened up a new line of attack in the Democratic presidential primary on Wednesday, putting Hillary Clinton on the defensive over her liberal credentials just days after she eked a slim victory in the Iowa caucuses.

Gaza and Israel on edge as West Bank unrest simmers

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 09:40 PM PST

Palestinian men look at the destruction in part of Gaza City's al-Tufah neighbourhood in August, 2014Struck in an Israeli air raid in the 2014 Gaza war, Mohammed's home was only recently rebuilt but he remains undaunted by the prospect of another showdown with the Jewish state. "I'm not afraid of Israel," the 35-year-old father of six said while seated on floor cushions in his home in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, his children occasionally peeking their heads around the door. The member of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said preparations for another war have included rebuilding attack tunnels destroyed by Israel two years ago.


Democratic hopefuls Sanders and Clinton spar over 'progressive' credentials

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 09:24 PM PST

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders answers a question from the audience while taking part in a CNN Democratic Town Hall moderated by American journalist and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper (unseen) in Derry, New HampshireDemocratic presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton battled over their progressive credentials at a town hall on Wednesday, but also reflected on their spirituality, a topic that more commonly dominates the narrative on the other side of the political aisle. Sanders, speaking at the televised event in Derry, New Hampshire, built on an earlier back-and-forth between the two candidates on Twitter and in appearances in the state, which hosts the second party-nominating contest on Feb. 9, reminding voters that he and Clinton have made different decisions on backing the Iraq war, taking money from Super PACs and energy policies. "Some of my best friends are moderates, but you can't be a progressive and a moderate at the same time," Sanders said at the town hall, hosted by CNN, which included questions from voters.


Today in History

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 09:01 PM PST

Today is Thursday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2016. There are 331 days left in the year.

In-Depth Federal Budget Survey: Republicans and Democrats Agree on Changes Reducing Deficit By $52 billion

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 09:01 PM PST

WASHINGTON, Feb. 4, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As the announcement of President Obama's FY2017 budget draws near, a new, national survey finds majorities of Republicans and Democrats agreeing on cuts in spending and increases in revenues that would reduce the projected deficit by $52 billion. Seventy-six percent approved of taxing carried interest like ordinary income – repealing the special tax treatment that has benefited hedge fund managers – including 74 percent of Republicans, 79 percent of Democrats and 73 percent of independents.

50 Years of the Super Bowl: 17 Major Players Spill on Wardrobe Malfunctions, O.J. Simpson, Deflategate in THR's Oral History

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 09:00 PM PST

THR spoke to a slew of VIPs who've worked on the broadcasts as they remember O.J. announcing right before his arrest, the time Eli Manning left Dan Patrick hanging and whom Howard Stern got everyone to boo.

Iraq building security wall around Baghdad

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 04:55 PM PST

An Iraqi woman rides on a donkey as another follows close by, as they skirt a huge concrete blast wall protecting an Iraqi army camp, in the Ghazaliya district of BaghdadIraq is building a three-metre-high security wall and trench defences around Baghdad in an effort to thwart jihadist attacks, a security official said on Thursday. The aim is to prevent the infiltration of "terrorists" and car bombs into the city, Brigadier General Saad Maan said. "We began constructing a three-metre-high (10 foot) concrete wall and a trench around the city of Baghdad," he told AFP.


Iraq Kurds to pay partial salaries due to economic crisis

Posted: 03 Feb 2016 04:28 PM PST

Iraqi Kurdistan has been independently exporting crude via Turkey since 2015Iraq's Kurdish region has announced it will pay only partial salaries to all government employees except security personnel as it struggles with an economic crisis due to low oil prices. The autonomous region in northern Iraq, like the rest of the country, has been suffering from the huge drop in oil prices since mid-2014. Kurdish leader Massud Barzani this week called for a referendum on independence, but economic challenges effectively rule out a viable Iraqi Kurdish state for now.


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