| Trump says foreign policy team still not ready Posted: 15 Mar 2016 03:34 PM PDT  (This version of the story was corrected to change Waurishuk statement to say "willing" not "happy" in paragraph 10) By Mark Hosenball and Susan Heavey WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump acknowledged on Tuesday he does not yet have a foreign policy team, and three former U.S. military and intelligence officials who have endorsed him are little known in either the Republican Party or the wider foreign policy community. The New York billionaire, who had promised to name his foreign policy and national security advisers last month, told MSNBC that he has met with people but made no decision yet on who to advise him on global affairs. Asked whether he had a team, Trump said on Tuesday: "Yes, there is a team.
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| Turkey says Ankara bomber linked to Syrian Kurdish rebels Posted: 15 Mar 2016 02:17 PM PDT  Turkey on Tuesday said a female suicide bomber who killed 35 people in Ankara had links to a Syrian Kurdish militia, as security forces clashed with rebels in the restive southeast. The interior ministry identified the bomber as Seher Cagla Demir, born in 1992 in the eastern city of Kars. The ministry said she had been affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) since 2013 and then "crossed into Syria and received terror training in the YPG terrorist organisation".
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| Toronto attacker said 'Allah' told him to stab soldiers Posted: 15 Mar 2016 01:33 PM PDT  A Canadian man claimed to have acted on orders from Allah when he stabbed soldiers at a recruiting center in Toronto, authorities said Tuesday. Ayanle Hassan Ali, 27, has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and possession of a dangerous weapon. The attack took place in a government office building Monday, more than two years after Islamists killed two soldiers in Ottawa and in rural Quebec.
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| It felt like a death machine, says migrant forced back to Greece Posted: 15 Mar 2016 12:14 PM PDT  By Bushra Shakhshir IDOMENI, Greece (Reuters) - It took Hassan Omar four long hours to cross into Macedonia, his wheelchair pushed by strangers across the muddy paths of Greece's border - but a day later he found himself back at the squalid migrant camp he had left. Like scores of people, many from war zones in Syria and Iraq, who streamed out of the camp near the Greek town of Idomeni on Monday and crossed into Macedonia, he was rounded up and sent back. An estimated 1,500 people left the camp on Monday trying to find a way past the razor-wire fence erected by Macedonia, on a route they hoped would take them to Germany and other wealthy European Union countries.
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| In United States, refugees cook to win over hearts, minds and stomachs Posted: 15 Mar 2016 12:12 PM PDT By Sebastien Malo NEW YORK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Beaming with pride, a Nepalese refugee in the kitchen of a New York caterer holds up cauliflower florets she has steamed, battered and fried, part of a cooking repertoire she says earns her a living and keeps her spirits up. At home in Kathmandu, explains Rachana, who did not want to give her full name, cooking once brought her pleasure as she fed her family delicacies from recipes inherited from her mother. Now her happiness returns, she says, when she prepares traditional specialties for Eat Offbeat, a New York food company where refugees make and deliver ethnic fare. |
| How Tuesday’s Primaries Will Affect Who Controls the Senate Next Year Posted: 15 Mar 2016 11:37 AM PDT  In addition to the presidential contenders at the top of Tuesday's ballots, Democratic voters will weigh in on three Senate primary races that could decide which party controls the upper chamber of Congress for the next two years. Republicans now hold a slender 54-to-46 seat edge, and Democrats are hoping to regain a slender majority by displacing a handful of Republicans in blue-leaning states. Illinois and Ohio are top-tier targets.
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| Ukraine passes graft bill needed for visa-free travel to EU Posted: 15 Mar 2016 11:36 AM PDT  Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday approved a key anti-corruption bill that Kiev hopes will pave the way for visa-free travel to EU countries this year. Conflict-riven Ukraine's new legislation establishes public oversight over the assets of both senior and lower-level officials and their relatives. The data will crucially be open online to anyone's scrutiny -- a level of transparency that the European Union (EU) believes can move Ukraine closer in line with international standards.
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| French Cardinal Barbarin: hardline Catholic mired in abuse scandal Posted: 15 Mar 2016 11:15 AM PDT  French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, accused of covering up sex abuse, is a hardline Catholic who has been outspoken against gay marriage and championed the cause of Christians persecuted in Iraq and Syria. The 65-year-old archbishop of Lyon, France's second largest city, has fiercely denied charges that he covered up paedophilia crimes by failing to remove a priest in his diocese known to have abused Boy Scouts decades before he took up his post in 2002.
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| Why the F-35 May Not Be Combat-Ready Until 2022 Posted: 15 Mar 2016 11:00 AM PDT  If you were the CEO of an airline business and got a negative report about your new, very expensive aircraft that has been in development for a number of years, what would you say to your engineering and ...
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| Al Qaeda says Ivory Coast attack was revenge against France Posted: 15 Mar 2016 10:54 AM PDT  By Ange Aboa ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's North African branch said its attack on a beach resort in Ivory Coast on Sunday that killed 18 people was revenge for a French offensive against Islamist militants in the Sahel region and called for its forces to withdraw. The raid in Grand Bassam claimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was the first of its kind in Ivory Coast but the third in the region since November. It was also a setback for France, who lost four of its nationals when gunmen opened fire on people eating lunch at restaurants and sunning themselves on the sand.
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| Seat at geopolitical top table allowed Putin to scale back in Syria Posted: 15 Mar 2016 10:44 AM PDT  By Andrew Osborn MOSCOW (Reuters) - Vladimir Putin cited Russian military success in Syria as his reason for scaling back his forces there. Russia's Syria operation, launched on Sept. 30 last year, made military, diplomatic and domestic political sense for the Kremlin which was keen to shore up its closest Middle East ally and protect its only naval facility on the Mediterranean. "Russia has returned to the global board of directors," said Alexander Baunov, a senior associate at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
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| The Latest: Romania worried about handling migrant influx Posted: 15 Mar 2016 10:18 AM PDT  VIENNA (AP) — The latest developments on the mass migration into Europe (all times local):
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| From Syria to Sudan: Refugee athletes train for Olympic team Posted: 15 Mar 2016 10:18 AM PDT  LONDON (AP) — They've fled war and violence in the Middle East and Africa. They've crossed treacherous seas in small dinghies and lived in dusty refugee camps.
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| Senior IS commander dies of wounds from US strike in Syria Posted: 15 Mar 2016 09:57 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Omar al-Shishani, a top Islamic State commander who was a magnet for fighters from the former Soviet Union, has died of wounds suffered in a U.S. airstrike in Syria, a senior Iraqi intelligence official and the head of a Syrian activist group said Tuesday.
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| Turkey IDs Ankara bomber as PKK rebel who trained in Syria Posted: 15 Mar 2016 09:50 AM PDT  ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Tuesday identified the attacker who carried out a deadly suicide bombing in Ankara as a 24-year-old woman who allegedly became a Kurdish rebel in 2013 and had trained in Syria.
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| Civilians flee Iraq town as battle looms Posted: 15 Mar 2016 08:45 AM PDT  Terrified residents were fleeing the Iraqi town of Hit as security forces closed in Tuesday and jihadist fighters hunkered down to defend one of their main bastions in Anbar province. After regaining control of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi from the Islamic State group earlier this year, Iraqi forces have been advancing up the Euphrates Valley in recent weeks. Police colonel Fadhel al-Nimrawi said thousands of families had recently fled Hit to Al-Baghdadi, a town to the northwest, and other locations in Anbar where displaced civilians are gathered.
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| House votes to declare ISIS's actions 'genocide': What next? Posted: 15 Mar 2016 08:38 AM PDT Does the violence the Islamic State is perpetrating against Christians and other minorities in the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria constitute genocide? To some, answering that question is a no-brainer – and a wide and bipartisan majority in Congress is joining those who say that the Islamic State (IS), also known as ISIS, is indeed committing genocide. Others, including some in the White House – apparently reaching up to President Obama himself – are more cautious. |
| Deadly fighting spreads in southeast Turkey after Ankara bomb Posted: 15 Mar 2016 08:29 AM PDT  By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Fighting between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants spread on Tuesday, with tanks, helicopters and armored cars deployed after a suicide bombing that killed 37 people in the capital Ankara. The deadliest violence took place in Diyarbakir, the largest city in mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey, where Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters blocked roads and clashed with security forces overnight as a police helicopter flew overhead, witnesses said. One police officer and three militants were killed in Diyarbakir and a second police officer was killed in the town of Nusaybin, where the PKK launched an attack, security sources said.
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| Angelina Jolie Says the World Has Failed Syrian Refugees Posted: 15 Mar 2016 07:57 AM PDT "The reason we have laws and binding international agreements is precisely because of the temptation to deviate from them in times of pressure," she said. |
| After losing her husband, this military wife laced up sneakers with others Posted: 15 Mar 2016 07:22 AM PDT Understandably, her grief was overwhelming. |
| Suicide bombing exposes divisions tearing at Turkey's stability Posted: 15 Mar 2016 07:15 AM PDT  By Umit Bektas, Nick Tattersall and Humeyra Pamuk ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - "Government resign!" chanted some of the mourners at the funeral on Tuesday of four young victims of the suicide bombing in Turkey's capital Ankara. Far from bringing the nation together in mourning, the aftermath of Sunday night's attack has again laid bare the deep divisions tearing at Turkey as it struggles to avoid being drawn into its neighbors' conflicts. If Turkey continues on this path, some analysts warn, it risks a cycle of violence and a lurch away from the European standards of freedom and democracy to which it once aspired.
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| Asked about Taliban, Afghan leader touts success against Islamic State Posted: 15 Mar 2016 07:10 AM PDT  By Josh Smith KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday played down recent failures to jump start peace talks with the Taliban, instead choosing to highlight recent successes against the nascent Islamic State presence in Afghanistan. Taliban forces have made significant gains in recent months, briefly capturing the northern city of Kunduz and threatening to overrun multiple districts in the southwest. Ghani, facing rising domestic criticism and eager to ensure continued international aid, has publicly focused on a military campaign in eastern Afghanistan aimed at Islamic State, often referred to as Daesh, which has struggled to replicate its successes in Iraq and Syria.
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| Angelina Jolie, in Lebanon, says world has failed refugees Posted: 15 Mar 2016 06:17 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — Angelina Jolie, the Hollywood actress and special envoy for the U.N.'s refugee agency, said Tuesday that the international community must address the root causes of the global refugee crisis.
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| German FM: Refugees who come must reject anti-Semitism Posted: 15 Mar 2016 06:15 AM PDT BERLIN (AP) — Germany's foreign minister says refugees who find shelter in his country must reject anti-Semitism. |
| Iraqi commander sees Islamic State retrenching before Mosul battle Posted: 15 Mar 2016 04:36 AM PDT  By Isabel Coles MAKHMOUR, Iraq (Reuters) - Islamic State is retrenching as Iraqi forces build up for an operation to retake the northern city of Mosul and some local militants desert the group, the commander in charge of the highly anticipated offensive said. Thousands of Iraqi troops have deployed to the north with heavy weapons in recent weeks, setting up base alongside U.S. forces and troops from Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region in Makhmour -- a launchpad around 60 kilometers south of Mosul. Although he described Islamic State as depleted, Nineveh Operations Commander Major General Najm al-Jubbouri said jockeying between the various forces preparing to take part in the battle for Mosul benefited the militants. "The operation to liberate Nineveh will be done in stages," Jubbouri said, referring to the province of which Mosul is capital.
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| U.S., allies conduct 14 strikes in Iraq, three in Syria: U.S. military Posted: 15 Mar 2016 04:33 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies conducted 14 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and three in Syria on Monday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement. In Iraq, four air strikes each near Hit and Mosul struck a large militant tactical unit, a training camp and three weapons factories and destroyed assembly areas and fighting positions, the Combined Joint Task Force said in a statement on Tuesday. Strikes also targeted militant positions and equipment near Kirkuk, Qayyarah, Ramadi and al Huwayjah, the statement said. ...
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| UNHCR voices concern over freedom of movement of displaced Iraqis Posted: 15 Mar 2016 04:08 AM PDT The United Nations' refugee agency has expressed concern that Iraqis displaced from territory controlled by Islamic State are being forcibly transferred to camps where their freedom of movement is restricted. "Freedom of movement is key to displaced people being able to exercise other rights, such as access to work, food, healthcare and legal assistance," the UNHCR said in a statement. The statement, published on Tuesday, summarized comments made by UNHCR spokesperson Ariane Rummery on 11 March in Geneva. |
| Suspected militants stage attack near key east Libya oil field - officials Posted: 15 Mar 2016 03:26 AM PDT By Ayman al-Warfalli BENGHAZI (Reuters) - Suspected Islamic State militants staged an attack on a water plant about 80km (50 miles) from the major Sarir oil field in eastern Libya late on Monday, plant officials and an oil facilities guard said. Any threat to the Sarir area would cause particular alarm because more than half of Libya's remaining oil production comes from the region. No group immediately claimed the attack, but Islamic State fighters have previously targeted oil installations in Libya, stepping up their campaign against export terminals in the east of the country at the start of this year. |
| 'Omar the Chechen': notorious, red-bearded IS warlord Posted: 15 Mar 2016 03:14 AM PDT  A fierce, battle-hardened warlord with roots in Georgia and a thick red beard, Omar al-Shishani was one of the most notorious faces of the Islamic State jihadist group. On Monday, the Pentagon confirmed that Shishani -- whose real name is Tarkhan Batirashvili -- died after being wounded in a US-led coalition strike in northeastern Syria earlier this month. US officials previously said Shishani "likely died" in the strike, but reports surfaced that he had survived.
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| Syria’s Five Years of War, by the Numbers Posted: 15 Mar 2016 02:01 AM PDT  From life expectancy to casualties, the figures reveal the conflict's grim toll.
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| Herders suffer as Nigeria army shuts cattle trade to fight Boko Haram Posted: 15 Mar 2016 01:25 AM PDT  By Ulf Laessing MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian government push to strangle the Boko Haram insurgency has shut down the cattle trade that sustained the city of Maiduguri, leaving many residents with no livelihood, including many of the two million people displaced by the war. In the latest shock to civilians, meat has become scarce as the army has closed cattle markets to stop Boko Haram from raising funds by selling livestock, officials say. The shutdown of the Maiduguri cattle market -- one of the biggest in west Africa -- has, overnight, made hundreds of cattle traders, herdsmen, butchers and labourers unemployed.
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| Suspected militants stage attack near key oil field in eastern Libya - guard Posted: 15 Mar 2016 12:06 AM PDT Suspected Islamic State militants staged an attack on a power and water plant about 80km (50 miles) from the major Sarir oil field in eastern Libya late on Monday, an oil facilities guard said. Any threat to the Sarir area would cause particular alarm because more than half of Libya's remaining oil production comes from the region. No group immediately claimed the attack, but Islamic State fighters have previously targeted against oil installations in Libya, stepping up their campaign against export terminals in the east of the country at the start of this year. |
| Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq kill 45 Kurdish militants: army Posted: 15 Mar 2016 12:05 AM PDT ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Air strikes by 11 Turkish warplanes in northern Iraq on Monday are believed to have killed 45 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, the armed forces said in a statement on Tuesday. The military said the strikes by F-16 and F-4 jets, in the Qandil mountain area where the PKK has its main bases, also destroyed two weapons depots and two Katyusha rocket positions. (Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk) |
| A look at key events in Syria since March 2011 Posted: 15 Mar 2016 12:04 AM PDT  As Syrians mark the fifth anniversary of the uprising against President Bashar Assad, here are some of the key events in the conflict:
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| A look at the cost of 5 years of conflict in Syria Posted: 14 Mar 2016 11:42 PM PDT  As the war in Syria enters its sixth year with no clear end in sight, here is a glance on what has been the cost of the war:
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| The Andy Richter Theory of Donald Trump: It's All a Reality Show Posted: 14 Mar 2016 09:00 PM PDT "It's not going to end well," the veteran TV personality says of the GOP frontrunner's campaign. "Trump will crash and burn, I think. There's just not enough savvy in terms of keeping things together in him." |
| German anti-Islam PEGIDA leader summoned on hate speech charges Posted: 14 Mar 2016 08:56 PM PDT  The founder of Germany's xenophobic and anti-Islam group PEGIDA has been summoned to court on hate speech charges for describing refugees as "cattle" and "scum", a court in Dresden said. Lutz Bachmann, 43, was charged with inciting hatred in October for a series of widely shared posts on the PEGIDA Facebook page, which stands for "Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident". The court said Bachmann's comments "disrupted public order" and constituted an "attack on (the refugees') dignity".
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| US Congress calls IS atrocities genocide Posted: 14 Mar 2016 07:48 PM PDT  American lawmakers have voted to label Islamic State group atrocities in Syria and Iraq "genocide," and called for setting up Syrian war crimes tribunal under United Nations authority. The State Department has so far declined to use that label.
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| California man sentenced for lying about Islamic State Posted: 14 Mar 2016 05:30 PM PDT SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge Monday sentenced a Syrian-American man living in San Diego to eight years in prison for lying to U.S. officials when questioned about knowing a member of the Islamic State group and for participating in combat against the Syrian regime. |
| Turkey bans Facebook and Twitter over images of deadly Ankara bombing Posted: 14 Mar 2016 05:24 PM PDT  Social media users across Turkey have been blocked from accessing Twitter and Facebook following a court-ordered ban. The move comes in the wake of a deadly bombing, which has thus far seen possibly as many as 37 people killed (the exact number is unconfirmed) and 125 wounded in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Sunday. Local news broadcasters CNN Turk and NTV claim that footage of the attack was uploaded to Twitter and Facebook and consequently shared online, prompting the ban by a court in Ankara. Related: Twitter has closed 125,000 accounts suspected of promoting terrorism Turkey has frequently blocked access to social media sites, blaming their lack of restrictions on what it deems "terrorist propaganda." Late last year, the country placed a temporary ban on Twitter after users circulated images of a standoff between police and far-left militants, including a photograph of a prosecutor being held hostage at gunpoint. The Ankara blast marks the second time the city has been hit with a deadly bombing this year. The attack shook the administrative hub of the Turkish capital, with reports claiming it could be heard several kilometers away. In the aftermath, debris was scattered just a few hundred yards away from the Justice and Interior Ministries, as well as the office of the Prime Minister, reports Fortune. Despite no immediate claim of responsibility, two undisclosed security officials told Reuters the evidence points to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The PKK has been locked in a three-decade-long insurgency against the government for Kurdish independence. Meanwhile, Turkey has renewed its bombardment of Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, reports the state-run Andalou news agency. Since the bombing took place, Turkish police have arrested 36 suspects with ties to the PKK.
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