| Sweden plans to expel up to 80,000 asylum-seekers: minister Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:21 PM PST  Sweden intends to expel up to 80,000 migrants who arrived in 2015 and whose application for asylum has been rejected, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said Wednesday. "We are talking about 60,000 people but the number could climb to 80,000," the minister was quoted as saying by Swedish media, adding that the government had asked the police and authorities in charge of migrants to organise their expulsion. The proposed measure was announced as Europe struggles to deal with a crisis that has seen tens of thousands of migrants arrive on Greek beaches, with the passengers -- mostly fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan -- undeterred by cold wintry conditions.
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| Coalition adapts Iraq training to breach IS defences Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:06 PM PST  US-led coalition troops have adapted their training for Iraqi forces to teach them how to breach Islamic State group defences in larger-scale combined assaults on jihadist strongholds. IS, which overran large parts of Iraq in 2014, has saturated territory it controls with bombs, booby-traps and other obstacles that Iraqi forces must break through to drive the jihadists back. Military operations in Ramadi, which was recaptured from IS at the end of last month, as well as other cities and towns showed the need for training in which soldiers combine different capabilities to breach jihadist defences.
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| U.N. says Syria ignored most of its requests to deliver aid Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:33 PM PST  By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The Syrian government in 2015 ignored most United Nations requests to deliver humanitarian aid to some of the 4.6 million people in hard-to-reach and besieged areas and only 620,000 received help, the U.N. aid chief said on Wednesday. Stephen O'Brien told the U.N. Security Council that last year the United Nations made 113 requests to the Syrian government for approval of inter-agency aid convoys, but only 10 percent were able to deliver assistance. Another 10 percent were approved in principle by the Syrian government, but could not proceed due to a lack of final approval, insecurity or no deal on safe passage, while the U.N. put 3 percent on hold due to insecurity.
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| The Most Corrupt Countries in the World Include Iraq, Afghanistan Posted: 27 Jan 2016 02:21 PM PST  Public sector corruption remains a massive global problem, and the United States and other developed countries are not immune, according to Transparency International, which released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index on Wednesday. The U.S. ranks 16th among the 168 countries monitored, in a tie with Austria, but well behind the Scandinavian trio of Denmark, Finland and Sweden, which historically have come in at or near the top, and are ranked 1-2-3 this year. Near the bottom of the rankings are two countries where the U.S. has sacrificed thousands of soldiers' lives and trillions of dollars in an effort to establish functioning democracies: Afghanistan, at 166, and Iraq, at 161.
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| Cohen Veterans Bioscience Partners With the Broad Institute's Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research to Launch the Largest Study of Genetic Markers for PTSD Posted: 27 Jan 2016 01:54 PM PST NEW YORK, Jan. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Cohen Veterans Bioscience today announced two new collaborative partnership efforts that will provide critical research tools for understanding the underlying neurobiology and genetics of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) with the goal of accelerating the development of first generation diagnostics and treatments. For the partnership with the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cohen Veterans Bioscience will contribute funding to support both genotyping of DNA samples to expand knowledge about the genetic influences associated with PTSD and access to extensive genetics expertise available at the Broad Institute. |
| Fix your borders or face isolation from Schengen countries, EU warns Greece Posted: 27 Jan 2016 01:28 PM PST Greece could soon be suspended from Europe's free-travel Schengen zone if the country doesn't increase its border controls for migrants and refugees coming through the island nation, European Union officials said. The European Commission said that Greece has failed its obligation of conducting necessary steps before allowing migrants to flow into Europe, in accordance with the rules governing Europe's 26-country passport-free travel area, known as Schengen. |
| Obama meets White House hopeful Sanders Posted: 27 Jan 2016 01:21 PM PST  US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Wednesday got a peek at the Oval Office he hopes to occupy after November's election, meeting President Barack Obama for an hour-long discussion. Days after Obama sang the praises of Sanders' party rival Hillary Clinton, the outgoing commander-in-chief tried to reassert his neutrality by inviting the Vermont Senator to the White House. With less than a week until Iowans cast the first ballots in the 2016 election, Sanders and Clinton are in a tight race to win the party nomination.
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| How do you help refugees become Europeans? Give them lessons. Posted: 27 Jan 2016 12:59 PM PST On a recent day, Ursula Sagmeister deploys a World War II-era map as she teaches a class of refugees recently arrived in Austria. "If you wear a headscarf that is OK," she tells her class of seven, five veiled women and two men from Syria, "but it is OK too if someone wears a cross." And anti-Semitism? Recommended: How much do you know about Germany? |
| Syrian opposition puts off decision on peace talks Posted: 27 Jan 2016 12:30 PM PST  A major Syrian opposition group Wednesday postponed a decision on joining peace talks in Switzerland, as wrangling over who will go threatens to derail the biggest push yet to resolve the war. The Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee -- formed last month in an effort to unite Syria's fractious political and armed opposition -- met in Riyadh for a second day on whether to accept a UN invitation to the Geneva talks. Salem al-Meslet, a Committee spokesman, said the group cannot make a decision until it has received a response from UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura.
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| Russians want to talk to OPEC about output, pipeline chief says Posted: 27 Jan 2016 12:16 PM PST  Russian officials have decided they should talk to Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries about output cuts to bolster oil prices, the head of Russia's pipeline monopoly said on Wednesday, remarks that helped spur a sharp rise in world prices. Oil futures surged more than 5 percent after the comments by Nikolai Tokarev, head of oil pipeline monopoly Transneft, which gave the strongest hint yet of possible cooperation between the top non-OPEC oil producer and the cartel to try to reverse a record glut. Tokarev said oil executives and government officials meeting in Moscow on Tuesday had reached the conclusion that talks with OPEC were needed to shore up the oil price.
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| Libya asks to be labelled top health emergency by WHO Posted: 27 Jan 2016 11:58 AM PST  Libya on Wednesday asked the World Health Organization to raise the emergency level in the country to the highest category, saying it would help mobilise resources for people in need. There are currently five crises that WHO has classified as "level-three" health emergencies: Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and the parts of west Africa hit hardest by Ebola. "We are asking the WHO today to raise the emergency level for the health system in Libya to the highest possible level," the country's health minister Reida El Oakley told reporters in Geneva.
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| EU blasts Greece over migrant crisis as seven more drown Posted: 27 Jan 2016 11:49 AM PST  Seven migrants drowned trying to reach Greece on Wednesday, as the European Union blasted Athens for its handling of the crisis, saying it had "seriously neglected" its duty to protect the bloc's borders. The European Commission said Greece could face border controls with the rest of the EU's passport-free Schengen zone if it fails to secure its exterior borders, with thousands of migrants still landing on Greek beaches from Turkey day after day. "The draft report concludes that Greece seriously neglected its obligations and that there are serious deficiencies in the carrying out of external border controls that must be overcome and dealt with by Greek authorities," Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told a press conference.
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| Seasoned veteran of Afghan war picked for top command Posted: 27 Jan 2016 11:27 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid growing concern about setbacks in Afghanistan, the Obama administration has chosen Lt. Gen. John W. "Mick" Nicholson, Jr., a veteran of multiple Afghan war deployments, as the next top American commander in Kabul, officials said Wednesday.
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| Pentagon to release some detainee abuse images: rights group Posted: 27 Jan 2016 11:26 AM PST  The Pentagon has pledged to release part of a trove of photographs related to the abuse of prisoners at US detention centers in Iraq and Afghanistan, a top US rights group said Wednesday. The move would be the latest step in a legal saga between the US military and the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a freedom of information lawsuit in 2004 seeking the release of some 2,000 photographs showing detainee mistreatment. In a statement, the ACLU said the Pentagon had promised to post 198 of these images online by Friday.
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| French justice minister quits over anti-terror measure Posted: 27 Jan 2016 10:50 AM PST  French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira quit Wednesday in protest over the government's efforts to strip convicted French-born terrorists of their citizenship if they have a second nationality. The outspoken 63-year-old, who is from French Guiana, became France's most senior black politician when she was given the justice portfolio in 2012. Hollande called for the measure to be written into the constitution in the aftermath of the November jihadist attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead.
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| Frustrated with Germany's asylum red tape, some Iraqis return home Posted: 27 Jan 2016 10:41 AM PST  By Joseph Nasr BERLIN (Reuters) - The first thing that Leith Khdeir Abbas, a 27-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker who arrived in Germany four months ago, plans to do after he makes the return journey on Wednesday is to kneel down and kiss the soil that he calls home. "I fled to Germany to build my future. A growing number of Iraqi refugees in Germany are choosing to return to their war-torn country, frustrated with a slow asylum process in a country overwhelmed by the influx of 1.1 million asylum seekers last year, most still living in shelters.
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| We Tried Our Best To Console John Krasinski At Sundance About The Patriots' Loss Posted: 27 Jan 2016 10:30 AM PST  We spoke to John Krasinski about his new Sundance film, 'The Hollars,' and tried to console him after the Patriots' crushing defeat.
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| Germany warns Russia against 'exploiting' teen 'rape' case Posted: 27 Jan 2016 10:07 AM PST  Germany and Russia traded barbs over a murky case involving the alleged rape of a teenager, with Berlin warning Wednesday against "exploiting" the allegations after Moscow hinted at an official cover-up. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier accused Russia of trying to "inflame" Germany's already heated national debate on refugees over the claims by a 13-year-old German-Russian girl. German police last week rejected the teenager's account that she was sexually assaulted by immigrants in Berlin.
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| Megyn Kelly: the US journalist feared by Trump Posted: 27 Jan 2016 09:53 AM PST  Megyn Kelly, the American television journalist whom Donald Trump demanded Fox News dump from the Republican debate, is one of the most watched and powerful anchors in US cable news. The billionaire's decision to skip the debate, days before Iowa becomes the first state to vote in the 2016 presidential election process, has jettisoned the 45-year-old blonde mother of three back into the headlines. "I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct.
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| Iran training volunteer 'advisers' to serve in Syria Posted: 27 Jan 2016 09:03 AM PST TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday that it is training volunteer "advisers" to serve alongside President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria. |
| Four Egyptian soldiers killed, 12 injured in Sinai explosion Posted: 27 Jan 2016 08:44 AM PST At least four Egyptian army soldiers were killed and 12 injured in the Sinai Peninsula after an armored personnel carrier exploded on the outskirts of the city of Arish, security and medical sources said on Wednesday. Egypt's official military spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment. The most populous Arab country is battling an insurgency that gained pace after its military overthrew President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's oldest Islamist movement, in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule. |
| Syria opposition meets to decide on peace talks Posted: 27 Jan 2016 08:00 AM PST Syrian opposition members met Wednesday to decide whether to attend UN peace talks, as wrangling over who will go threatens to derail the biggest push yet to resolve the war. The Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee -- formed last month in an effort to unite Syria's fractious opposition -- met in Riyadh for a second day on whether to accept a UN invitation to the talks due to start Friday. The negotiations were already delayed from Monday over the issue of who will represent the myriad forces opposing President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's nearly five-year civil war. |
| Islamists, far-right on rise in Germany: security service Posted: 27 Jan 2016 07:44 AM PST  Germany's domestic intelligence service warned Wednesday of a rise in the number of radical Islamists, as well as of far-right extremists furious over a mass influx of mostly Muslim refugees. Around 790 Islamic extremists have now travelled from Germany to the battlefields of Syria and Iraq, and of these about one third had returned, the service said in a report. The service said that most of Germany's jihadist "foreign fighters" are from the ultra-conservative Salafi movement, whose numbers it put at 8,350, up from 7,900 in September.
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| Iraq says would consider deal on global oil cuts but it is still elusive Posted: 27 Jan 2016 07:37 AM PST  By Samia Nakhoul and Maher Chmaytelli BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq is ready to take part in an extraordinary OPEC meeting and even reduce its fast-growing oil output if all OPEC and non-OPEC members agree - a deal which at this stage seems elusive, the country's finance minister said on Wednesday. Hoshiyar Zebari also told Reuters in an interview there are "encouraging signs" that crude prices could rebound this spring on lower output from higher cost U.S. shale oil producers.
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| Oil shocks and price swings Posted: 27 Jan 2016 07:10 AM PST  Paris (AFP) - The oil price roller-coaster:
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| Tunisia says breaks up militant cell linked to Islamic State Posted: 27 Jan 2016 06:49 AM PST Tunisian police have broken up a cell recruiting fighters for Islamic State in Libya and Syria, authorities said on Wednesday. Tunisia declared a state of emergency after a suicide bombing killed 12 presidential guards on a bus in the capital Tunis in November. It said those arrested had admitted recruiting for Islamic State in Libya and Syria. |
| Qatari emir shakes up Cabinet amid low oil prices Posted: 27 Jan 2016 06:21 AM PST DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar's ruler shook up his Cabinet on Wednesday, shuffling some ministers into new positions while consolidating some of their jobs as low global oil and gas prices squeeze the Gulf country and the wider Middle East. |
| Saudis battle for oil market supremacy Posted: 27 Jan 2016 06:08 AM PST  By abandoning the tight rein it held for decades on the oil market, OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia launched a battle for control that sent crude prices plummeting. The huge drop in oil prices since mid-2014, from more than $110 a barrel to around $30, followed a decision by the Saudi-influenced Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries not to cut output as it had in the past to keep prices high. The move came as traditional suppliers like Saudi Arabia were facing increasing pressure from new market players, in particular US shale producers, and aimed to squeeze them out.
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| OPEC-led attempt for oil-cut deal under way, prospects slim Posted: 27 Jan 2016 05:42 AM PST  By Alex Lawler and Rania El Gamal LONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) - OPEC is renewing efforts among members and producers from outside the group for a deal to fix an oil glut and boost prices, but it is too early to say whether the attempt will work, OPEC sources said on Wednesday. Hopes were raised on Tuesday when Iraq's oil minister said top OPEC producer Saudi Arabia and Russia were showing new signs of flexibility about agreeing to tackle the oversupply in the market. OPEC delegates, including those from Gulf countries, speaking after Iraq's comments, said Venezuela's attempt to get everyone around the table for a deal faced challenges.
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| Suicide attacks kill 4 Iraqi troops in western Iraq Posted: 27 Jan 2016 04:26 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Officials say a series of suicide attacks have killed at least four Iraqi security forces and wounded ten others in western Iraq. |
| Iran's Rouhani says up to U.S. to improve relations with Tehran Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:50 AM PST  By Crispian Balmer ROME (Reuters) - The United States cannot solve any problems in the Middle East without Iran's help and should drop its "hostile" stance toward Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday. On his first official visit to Europe, Rouhani also took a swipe at regional arch rival Saudi Arabia, saying its military campaign in neighboring Yemen was a failure and a frustration. Rouhani is midway through a four-day trip to Italy and France, looking to burnish his country's international credentials following the signing last year of a nuclear accord with world powers and the lifting of financial sanctions.
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| Germany: Numbers of extremists heading to Syria, Iraq grows Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:18 AM PST BERLIN (AP) — Germany's domestic intelligence agency says the number of Islamic extremists heading to Syria and Iraq continues to grow, raising concerns over trained fighters returning who could carry out attacks in Europe. |
| What the Army Doesn't Want You To Know About Bergdahl Posted: 27 Jan 2016 03:01 AM PST  We already know what America's most notorious POW did and why. The only mystery is why the Army doesn't like it.
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| 10 Things to Know for Wednesday Posted: 26 Jan 2016 07:52 PM PST  Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:
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| Threats to American Society Live Close to Home Posted: 26 Jan 2016 05:40 PM PST Since those ISIS killers came a-ridin' out of the deserts of Iraq and Syria like those bad guys out of Arizona and Texas in the 1890s, there's barely been a spit o' news about anything else. And this is strange, because the United States has a problem on its southern frontier not at all unlike the threats that ISIS poses, not only to Iraq and Syria, but to much of the world. If you don't know by now that I am speaking of Central America -- and, in particular, of El Salvador and Honduras -- prepare for a shock. |
