| White House Brief: Things to know about Hillary Clinton Posted: 15 Oct 2016 02:18 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton may be within striking distance of becoming the first woman to win the White House, now that the U.S. is in the final weeks of one of its nastiest presidential campaigns in recent history.
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| Syria talks in Lausanne end without breakthrough Posted: 15 Oct 2016 02:07 PM PDT  By Lesley Wroughton and Alexander Winning LAUSANNE, Switzerland (Reuters) - Syria talks convened by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Saturday evening failed to agree on a common strategy with Russia to end the conflict in Syria, now in its sixth year. Kerry was seeking a new path to peace after failing to secure a ceasefire in direct talks with Moscow, one of Syria's key backers, amid mounting international outrage over the Russian and Syrian bombardment of rebel-held eastern Aleppo. Kerry hosted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and seven foreign ministers from the region - from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, Jordan and Egypt - weeks after the collapse of a painstakingly crafted U.S.-Russian ceasefire plan that many saw as the last hope for peace this year.
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| Fresh Syria talks end with no breakthroughs Posted: 15 Oct 2016 01:53 PM PDT  US Secretary of State John Kerry said the Lausanne meeting produced some new ideas on reviving a ceasefire in Syria, where the regime continues to pound rebel-held areas in Aleppo. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov joined Kerry in welcoming the idea of bringing other powers into the mix saying, "we must prolong our contacts over the coming days".
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| Global deal reached to phase out super greenhouse gases Posted: 15 Oct 2016 01:45 PM PDT  In a major step toward curbing global warming, the world community agreed on Saturday to phase out a category of dangerous greenhouse gases widely used in refrigerators and air conditioners. Nearly 200 countries agreed to end production and consumption of so-called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under an amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on protecting the ozone layer. HFCs stoke climate change because they are super-efficient at trapping heat in Earth's atmosphere.
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| Amid Syria's violence, diplomats produce ideas but no truce Posted: 15 Oct 2016 01:25 PM PDT  LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The United States, Russia and seven other would-be Syria mediators ended a 4½-hour meeting Saturday without agreement or concrete steps to match what America's top diplomat described as the urgent crisis in the city of Aleppo. Instead, the envoys said only that new ideas were proposed and more discussions planned.
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| Turkey's Erdogan says Iraq cannot handle Mosul assault alone Posted: 15 Oct 2016 01:02 PM PDT  Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Iraq could not deal alone with driving Islamic State from the city of Mosul and that the presence of Turkish forces in a nearby military camp was an insurance against attacks on Turkey. Turkey has been locked in a row with Iraq's central government about the presence of Turkish troops at the Bashiqa camp in northern Iraq, and over who should take part in the planned U.S.-backed assault on Mosul.
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| IS suicide bomber strikes Baghdad funeral tent, killing 35 Posted: 15 Oct 2016 12:56 PM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber struck a funeral gathering in Baghdad on Saturday, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 60, Iraqi police and hospital officials said.
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| Turkish-backed Syria fighters advancing on IS-held Dabiq Posted: 15 Oct 2016 12:05 PM PDT  Turkish-backed fighters were advancing Saturday on the northern Syrian town of Dabiq, which has become a rallying cry for the Islamic State group as the prophesied scene of an end-of-days battle. To Dabiq," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in televised comments in the Black Sea province of Rize. Turkey launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria on August 24, helping Syrian rebels to rid its frontier of IS jihadists and Syrian Kurdish militia.
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| Nearly 200 nations agree binding deal to cut greenhouse gases Posted: 15 Oct 2016 11:08 AM PDT  By Clement Uwiringiyimana KIGALI (Reuters) - Nearly 200 nations have agreed a legally binding deal to cut back on greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners, a major move against climate change that prompted loud cheers when it was announced on Saturday. The deal, which includes the world's two biggest economies, the United States and China, divides countries into three groups with different deadlines to reduce the use of factory-made hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases, which can be 10,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as greenhouse gases. "While diplomacy is never easy, we can work together to leave our children a planet that is safer, more prosperous, more secure, and more free than the one that was left for us," the White House said in a statement on the deal.
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| WHY IT MATTERS: Issues at stake in election Posted: 15 Oct 2016 09:19 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — A selection of issues at stake in the presidential election and their impact on Americans, in brief:
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| Devastating Hurricanes Could Be New York’s New Norm Posted: 15 Oct 2016 08:33 AM PDT  The catastrophic flooding Hurricane Sandy inflicted on New York City in 2012 took lives, destroyed neighborhoods, and caused more than $65 billion in damage. The superstorm was seen as one of those perfectly timed disasters—the storm surge coincided with high tides, inundating entire communities. Thanks to climate change, scientists estimate that by the end of the century a Hurricane Sandy–type storm could become as much as 17 times more likely to hit New York City in any given year, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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| US bid to revive Syria peace plan with fresh talks Posted: 15 Oct 2016 08:25 AM PDT  Pessimistic envoys from the United States, Russia and Syria's neighbours met Saturday in Switzerland as Secretary of State John Kerry tried to revive hopes of a ceasefire for the war-torn country. The talks marked Kerry's first encounter with his Russian opposite number Sergei Lavrov since a US and Russian-sponsored truce collapsed last month amid a ferocious Syrian offensive.
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| Iraq Kurdish leader says time for Mosul battle to begin Posted: 15 Oct 2016 08:10 AM PDT  Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani said Saturday that preparations for the operation to retake Mosul from jihadists have been completed and it is time for the battle to begin. Forces from Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region are expected to play a major role in the battle for Mosul, the country's second city, which has been held by the Islamic State group since June 2014. "The time has come to begin the liberation of Mosul," a post on Barzani's official Twitter account said.
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| Turkey 'ready to help recapture Mosul from IS' Posted: 15 Oct 2016 08:00 AM PDT  Turkey will on Saturday talk to its coalition partners about possibly joining a major US-backed offensive by the Iraqi army to recapture Mosul from Islamic State jihadists. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the offer would be presented by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during Syria crisis talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne. Cavusoglu "will present a proposal to coalition forces in Lausanne," Erdogan said in a televised speech.
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| Iraq attacks kill 46, including suicide bombing Posted: 15 Oct 2016 07:47 AM PDT  Attacks killed at least 46 people in Iraq on Saturday, including a suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group that was the deadliest to hit Baghdad in months. The violence comes as Iraqi forces prepare for an operation to retake Mosul, the last IS-held city in the country -- a key battle, but one that will not end the threat of attacks such as those carried out on Saturday. In the deadliest attack, a suicide bomber targeted a funeral tent where mourners were gathered to pay their respects in the Shiite-majority Shaab area of north Baghdad, killing at least 34 people and wounding least 36, officials said.
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| Merkel says should consider protected zones for Yazidis in northern Iraq Posted: 15 Oct 2016 07:23 AM PDT  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday plans should be considered to give Yazidis in Iraq protected areas to retreat to in the north of the country. "The plans are not finished yet, I'll be honest with you, but they are on the agenda," Merkel told a conference of the youth wing of her conservatives, adding that the survival of the Yazidis was at stake. United Nations investigators said in June that Islamic State was committing genocide against the Yazidis in Syria and Iraq to destroy the religious community of 400,000 people through killings, sexual slavery and other crimes.
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| Turkey-backed Syrian rebels attack Islamic State's Dabiq: rebel Posted: 15 Oct 2016 06:40 AM PDT BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey-backed Syrian rebels began an attack on Islamic State's symbolically potent stronghold of Dabiq in northwestern Syria on Saturday, a rebel commander said, taking territory that has all but cut it off according to a war monitor. Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said the rebels were advancing on Dabiq and a Turkish security source said they had that morning cleared the militants from the hamlet of al-Ghaylaniyeh. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the rebels had also taken the villages of Irshaf and Ghaitun, which would all but cut off Dabiq and another large village, Soran, in an isolated pocket surrounded by insurgents. |
| Refugees stranded in Greece 'feel normal' at soccer match Posted: 15 Oct 2016 06:32 AM PDT  NEA KAVALA, Greece (AP) — Refugees in Greece have had a field day.
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| Suicide bombing, shootouts kill around 55 in Iraq: police Posted: 15 Oct 2016 04:55 AM PDT  By Kareem Raheem and Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Around 55 people were killed in Iraq in attacks on Saturday that targeted a Shi'ite Muslim gathering, a police check-point and the family of a Sunni paramilitary leader opposed to Islamic State, according to security and medical sources. The escalation comes as Iraqi forces are getting ready to launch an offensive to take back Mosul, the last Iraqi city still under control of Islamic State, in northern Iraq. The heaviest toll was caused by a suicide bomber who detonated an explosive vest in the middle of a Shi'ite gathering in Baghdad, killing at least 41 people and wounding 33.
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| Ang Lee unveils his hyper-real 'Billy Lynn' to mixed reviews Posted: 15 Oct 2016 03:24 AM PDT  NEW YORK (AP) — Mixed reviews greeted Ang Lee's long anticipated "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk" at the New York Film Festival on Friday night, casting further doubts over the promise of Hollywood's latest technological savior: high-frame rate filming.
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| Libyan forces advance in Sirte, 14 troops killed, officials say Posted: 14 Oct 2016 10:34 PM PDT  Libyan pro-government forces have advanced into another area in their battle to liberate Sirte from Islamic State in fighting that killed 14 of their troops, military officials and hospital sources said. After six months of fighting, backed by U.S. air strikes, Libyan forces allied with the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli are close to clearing out the last remnants of the militant group from the former hometown of dead leader Muammar Gaddafi. Heavy street-to-street fighting in the Ghiza Bahriya area involved tanks and armored vehicles with heavy machine guns, as well as air strikes to retake houses occupied by Islamic State, according to military officials and a Reuters reporter.
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