| Three French women charged over terror plots Posted: 12 Sep 2016 04:40 PM PDT  Three women arrested after a foiled plot to blow up a car packed with gas canisters near the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris were charged with terror offences on Monday and remanded in custody, the prosecutor's office said. The women were detained last week after the discovery of the vehicle near Notre Dame on September 4. Police believe they were planning other attacks including striking a train station in the Paris area or targeting police.
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| Time for Clinton and Trump to Have Complete Physicals—By Independent Docs Posted: 12 Sep 2016 04:40 PM PDT  Hillary Clinton's near-collapse yesterday at an event commemorating those who died in the 9/11 attacks has now increased public scrutiny dramatically of the presidential nominees' health. Clinton fanned those "Alt-Right" flames by telling the FBI during her interview in July about her use of private email for public business that because of a concussion she suffered in 2012, she could not remember all the security briefings she had been given as Secretary of State. Clinton's now-viral malaise is said to be pneumonia, and why wouldn't she – and Republican rival Donald Trump – be run-down and susceptible to illness at this point?
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| Syria ceasefire takes effect with Assad emboldened, opposition wary Posted: 12 Sep 2016 04:29 PM PDT  By Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - A nationwide ceasefire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russia went into effect on Monday evening, the second attempt this year by Washington and Moscow to halt the five-year-old civil war. The Syrian army announced the truce at 7 p.m. (11.00 a.m. ET), the moment it took effect, saying the seven-day "regime of calm" would be applied across Syria. It reserved the right to respond with all forms of firepower to any violation by "armed groups". ...
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| Former CIA chief who urged Iraq war signs on as Trump adviser Posted: 12 Sep 2016 03:15 PM PDT  By Jonathan Landay WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former CIA Director James Woolsey, a vocal advocate of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq who promoted allegations that Saddam Hussein harbored illegal weapons, will serve as a senior national security adviser to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, the campaign announced on Monday. In the announcement, Woolsey said he supports Trump's plan to expand the U.S. military, which calls for ending Pentagon budget caps and spending billions of dollars for additional troops, ships and aircraft. "Mr. Trump's commitment to reversing the harmful defense budget cuts signed into law by the current administration, while acknowledging the need for debt reduction, is an essential step toward reinstating the United States' primacy in the conventional and digital battlespace," Woolsey said.
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| Skeptical Pentagon weighs cooperation with Russia Posted: 12 Sep 2016 02:04 PM PDT  A deeply skeptical Pentagon was weighing plans Monday for limited collaboration with longtime foe Russia in Syria, but officials stressed any cooperation depends on Moscow's actions over the coming days. Under a truce deal announced last week by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, the two powers would begin to jointly target jihadists if Syria's latest cessation of hostilities lasts for seven days. "Everyone is prepared for rapidly implementing this agreement if it crosses that threshold, but we are also ready to walk away if it doesn't hold," a US defense official said.
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| Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan Have Cost the US Nearly $5 Trillion Posted: 12 Sep 2016 11:46 AM PDT  Almost 7,000 U.S. troops have been killed since the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq began, and about 210,000 civilians in those two countries and Pakistan have lost their lives as a result of the fighting, according to Brown University's Watson Institute. In a new update on the devastating economic cost, the Watson Institute's Costs of War Project says the U.S. has spent or is on the hook for $4.8 trillion and could wind up paying out almost $8 trillion when the final accounting is done.
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| Islamic State-linked cases in U.S. number 110 since 2013: Justice Department Posted: 12 Sep 2016 11:34 AM PDT  U.S. Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said on Monday that more than 110 people have been publicly charged in federal court since late 2013 on counts related to the Islamic State militant group that has overrun much of Syria and Iraq. Carlin said the U.S. Justice Department needs the American public to be more proactive about alerting federal authorities when they witness someone showing support for foreign terrorist organizations, such as Islamic State, in remarks to reporters at the U.S. Justice Department. In more than 80 percent of the Islamic State cases that have been prosecuted since 2013, someone in the community of the accused person believed they had witnessed the activity for which the person was ultimately charged, according to Carlin.
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| Officials: 1 IS recruiter links attackers, jihadis in France Posted: 12 Sep 2016 10:13 AM PDT PARIS (AP) — A single French Islamic State jihadi has emerged as the link among at least four plots to attack France since June, three people with knowledge of the investigation said. |
| Earth just had its hottest August on record, NASA finds Posted: 12 Sep 2016 09:32 AM PDT  August 2016 was the warmest such month on record, according to preliminary data released by NASA on Monday. This further ensures that the year will beat 2015 for the dubious title of the warmest year on record. The temperature record also means that those in the Northern Hemisphere can say they just lived through the hottest summer on Earth, while residents of the Southern Hemisphere would refer to it as the globe's warmest winter. According to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, readings from thermometers and other sources show that August had a global average surface temperature departure from average of 0.98 degrees Celsius, or 1.76 degrees Fahrenheit above average. SEE ALSO: Earth's hottest month on record was July 2016: NASA August 2016 is now the 11th straight month to set a warm temperature record, according to NASA's data. The month shattered the previous mark for the warmest August, which was August of 2014, when global average temperatures were 0.82 degrees Celsius above average, based on NASA readings. The third-warmest August occurred last year. The warmth is already having consequences all over the world, from polar ice caps to the floor of overheated seas. In the Arctic, sea ice has melted to the second-lowest ice extent on record, with open water approaching the geographic North Pole. Global average surface temperatures during 2016 compared to other years. Image: Gavin schmidt/nasa In the U.S., much of the country had a record warm or near record warm summer, particularly in the northeast as well as Alaska. The June through August period was the fifth-hottest June through August period on record for the country, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA will release its own global temperature statistics for August in the coming days, since it uses slightly different methods to calculate the global average. The presumed record warm year of 2016 has brought flood disasters to the U.S., including a billion-dollar flood in Louisiana in August. Typically hot locations, such as India , Kuwait and Iraq , set new benchmarks for what constitutes their hottest days. GISTEMP analysis for August 2016 - Another month, another record: https://t.co/edAuzEZwmq pic.twitter.com/5jlMOYpnYE — NASA GISS (@NASAGISS) September 12, 2016 The heat in the past two years has been produced by human-caused climate change with a boost from an El Niño event, which has now faded. Yet the record heat marches on. A predicted La Niña event, which would have been characterized by unusually cool ocean temperatures in parts of the equatorial tropical Pacific Ocean, has largely been a no-show. That event could have tapped the brakes on the planet's warm streak, at least temporarily, but the likelihood of such an event developing during 2016 has dropped considerably. Federal climate forecasters dropped the "La Niña Watch" last week. Global temperature departures from average had been declining from March through June, which was consistent with a coming La Niña. This led to the possibility that the record-breaking warm streak would come to an end. However, the anomalies have ticked back up since then. While July had a temperature departure from average of 0.85 degrees Celsius, or 1.53 degrees Fahrenheit, both July and August had higher anomalies. This may indicate that Earth's fever is not breaking, even in the short-term. What's worse, from the point of view of climate activists, scientists and policymakers, is the fact that the temperature anomalies seen this year have occasionally ticked up to limits set by the Paris Climate Agreement. That agreement, negotiated in December of 2015 and expected to enter force by the end of the year, seeks to hold global average surface temperatures to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, relative to preindustrial levels. It also contains an aspirational goal of limiting warming to at or below 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels. That lower number was a major priority of small island nations, which face an existential threat from rising seas. February's global average surface temperature was 1.32 degrees Celsius, which was uncomfortably close to 1.5 degrees when viewed in the Paris Agreement context. Prospects for a record 2016 given Jan-Aug data remain v. high (> 99%) pic.twitter.com/tnaeL0yIbA — Gavin Schmidt (@ClimateOfGavin) September 12, 2016 For climate scientists, what matters is the long-term trend over decades to centuries, making monthly records much less significant compared to the steady increase in temperatures throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The long-term record shows an unmistakable upward trend in global temperatures, with warming accelerating in the oceans and atmosphere in recent decades.
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| French women and youth in court over alleged terror plots Posted: 12 Sep 2016 09:27 AM PDT  Three French female radicals arrested on suspicion of planning further attacks after a failed bid to blow up a car in Paris were taken to court to be charged on Monday, prosecutors said. The women, who are believed to have been spurred by repeated calls by the Islamic State group for attacks in France, are suspected of having planned to strike a train station in the Paris area or to target police. One of the women was found in possession of a letter professing her allegiance to IS, which ordered or claimed several attacks in France over the past year, including the carnage in Paris in November that left 130 people dead.
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| Close encounters with Iran show need for rules of behavior: U.S. Navy Posted: 12 Sep 2016 09:05 AM PDT By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A series of close encounters between the U.S. navy and Iranian combat vessels in the Gulf show the need for Iran and the United States to agree rules of behavior to avoid risky miscalculations, the head of the U.S. Navy said on Monday. Admiral John Richardson, the U.S. chief of naval operations, said agreements of this type between the United States and Russia and China had helped reduce such risks. There's nothing good can come from it ... it also advocates the power of a sort of leader-to-leader dialogue." Years of mutual animosity between Tehran and Washington eased when Washington lifted sanctions on Iran in January after a deal to curb its nuclear ambitions. |
| Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha holiday Posted: 12 Sep 2016 08:05 AM PDT  (Reuters) - Muslims around the world celebrated the Eid al-Adha holiday on Monday, one of the two most important festivals of the Islamic calendar. Marking the willingness of Ibrahim, or Abraham, to sacrifice his son on God's command, Muslims mark the holiday by slaughtering animals such as sheep and goats. The meat is shared among family and friends and also donated to the poor. Faithful across continents marked the festival which comes as the annual Haj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia draws to a close. Palestinians flocked to Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque for prayers. ...
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| Who's who in Syria's ceasefire Posted: 12 Sep 2016 07:41 AM PDT  A new ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States is due to begin at sundown on Monday in Syria. It aims to halt fighting between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and the opposition, but does not apply to jihadists like the Islamic State group. The army is bolstered by 200,000 irregular fighters, notably from the National Defence Forces.
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| 'What they took with them': Cate Blanchett in plea for refugees ahead of summit Posted: 12 Sep 2016 06:37 AM PDT  Wallet, phone, high school diploma and a one-way ticket - just a few of the things refugees may grab as they cast one last look around their home before fleeing. "What they took with them" is a new video featuring Oscar-winning actor and U.N. ambassador Cate Blanchett and a cast of celebrities urging governments to ensure schooling, health and shelter for refugees ahead of a major U.N. summit on the crisis. Launched by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) on Monday, the film shows Hollywood actors - including Keira Knightley, Jesse Eisenberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor - performing a poem listing items refugees took with them as they fled into exile.
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| Blanchett, other movie stars spotlight plight of refugees Posted: 12 Sep 2016 06:00 AM PDT  GENEVA (AP) — What would you take along if you were forced to become a refugee? Cate Blanchett and other big-name movie stars are lending their faces to a video that entreats viewers to imagine what they would do to survive if they had to flee war.
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| With the Help of Disabled U.S. Veterans, the U.S. Paralympics Team Gets a Boost Posted: 12 Sep 2016 04:33 AM PDT As the 2016 Paralympic Games take place in Rio de Janeiro from Sept. 7 through 18, U.S. News & World Report is looking at the challenges facing disabled people worldwide. Like most world-class competitors, Jennifer Schuble was a star athlete growing up. |
| What Happens When Iraq's Government and Shia Militias Mix Posted: 12 Sep 2016 01:00 AM PDT  With Iraq relying on irregular military support to fight ISIS, Shia fighters are gaining a foothold ... on and off the battlefield.
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| Can China Become the World's Education Leader? Posted: 12 Sep 2016 01:00 AM PDT  China's rising - as an economic superpower and an educational powerhouse.
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| Turkey has evidence that removed mayors supported Kurdish militants: Erdogan Posted: 11 Sep 2016 11:58 PM PDT  President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday Turkey has evidence that mayors removed from two dozen Kurdish-run municipalities had sent support to Kurdish militants, and said they should have been stripped of office sooner. Turkey appointed new administrators in the 24 Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday, triggering pockets of protest in parts of the largely-Kurdish southeast. It should have been taken sooner, and it was my advice to do so earlier," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul after attending prayers to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.
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| White House campaign casts a shadow over 9/11 anniversary Posted: 11 Sep 2016 10:13 PM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. marked the 15th anniversary of 9/11 with the solemn roll call of the dead Sunday but couldn't keep the presidential campaign from intruding on what is traditionally a politics-free moment of remembrance.
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| Colin Powell Heckled During Interview on 'CBS This Morning' Posted: 11 Sep 2016 09:00 PM PDT Powell appeared on the CBS morning show to talk about the new African-American history museum on the Mall in Washington. |
| Keith Olbermann to Host Online Show for GQ Posted: 11 Sep 2016 09:00 PM PDT "The first piece should be about 16 minutes long," says Olbermann. "It's a comment. It's special. It's a kind of special comment." |
| Syria rebels guardedly agree on truce but battles persist Posted: 11 Sep 2016 07:15 PM PDT  By Angus McDowall and Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - Government troops and insurgents fought in several parts of Syria on Sunday, apparently seeking to strengthen their positions on the eve of a ceasefire that Free Syrian Army rebels said they would observe but with major reservations. The Free Syrian Army groups wrote to the United States on Sunday about the deal it agreed on with Russia, saying that while they would "cooperate positively" with the ceasefire, they were concerned it would benefit the government. The influential hardline Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham issued a statement late on Sunday attacking the ceasefire deal, but stopping short of explicitly saying it would not abide by its terms.
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| Turkey removes two dozen elected mayors in Kurdish militant crackdown Posted: 11 Sep 2016 07:13 PM PDT  Turkey appointed new administrators in two dozen Kurdish-run municipalities on Sunday after removing their elected mayors over suspected links to militants, triggering pockets of protest in its volatile southeastern region bordering Syria and Iraq. President Tayyip Erdogan said this week the campaign against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants, who have waged a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy, was now Turkey's largest ever. The 24 municipalities had been run by the pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the third largest in parliament, which denies direct links to the militants.
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