| Most Refugees Are Women and Children, and Dozens of Them Are Drowning Posted: 03 Feb 2016 04:40 PM PST  Last September the photos of Alan Kurdi, the drowned Syrian toddler whose body had washed ashore on the coast of Turkey, ignited international outrage and sparked calls for action by world leaders. Five months later, new data from the United Nations reveals that the number of children making the dangerous journey across the cold, choppy waters of the Mediterranean Sea has surged to the highest level since the start of the migrant crisis in Europe. According to a statement released on Tuesday by UNICEF, children are now 30 percent of all refugees and migrants, up from 10 percent in June 2015.
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| Britain pledges $1.74 bn in aid for Syria and neighbours Posted: 03 Feb 2016 04:23 PM PST  "More money is needed to tackle this crisis and it is needed now," Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement announcing the pledge, which will fund education, jobs and humanitarian relief in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The promise amounts to an extra £1.2 billion, to be spent between 2016 and 2020, to address "the world's biggest humanitarian crisis", Cameron's office said.
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| Obama decries anti-Muslim rhetoric on first mosque visit Posted: 03 Feb 2016 01:43 PM PST  Barack Obama offered an impassioned rebuttal of "inexcusable" Republican election rhetoric against Muslims Wednesday, on his first trip to an American mosque since becoming president seven years ago. "We've heard inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim-Americans that has no place in our country," he said, lauding Muslim-Americans as sports heroes, entrepreneurs and the architect who fashioned Chicago's dizzying skyline.
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| American accused of running over Aruba female cab driver Posted: 03 Feb 2016 01:22 PM PST ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — An American real estate worker has been arrested on suspicion of beating, running over and threatening to rape a 70-year-old female taxi driver in the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba. |
| Hundreds more US troops in Iraq than previously stated: Pentagon Posted: 03 Feb 2016 01:05 PM PST  Hundreds more American troops are in Iraq than the Pentagon previously stated, an official said Wednesday in an acknowledgement underscoring the sensitivity of US deployments to the war-torn nation. Officially, the Pentagon long said about 3,500 American troops are stationed in Iraq to train and equip local security forces, primarily so they can fight back against Islamic State jihadists who control large parts of the country. Baghdad-based military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren went further, saying it was "fair to say" there are hundreds more troops than even that tally.
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| At least 2,297 journalists killed since 1990: IFJ Posted: 03 Feb 2016 12:27 PM PST  At least 2,297 journalists and media workers have been killed in the last 25 years, with Iraq ranking as the most deadly country, the International Federation of Journalists said Wednesday. Journalists lost their lives in targeted killings, bomb attacks, in the cross-fire and kidnappings in wars and armed conflicts across the globe while others were killed by organised crime barons and corrupt officials, the IFJ said. Some 112 journalists and media professionals were killed last year alone, although the peak year was 155 killings in 2006, it said.
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| Iraq Kurd leader: 'Time has come' for statehood referendum Posted: 03 Feb 2016 12:13 PM PST  Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani has declared that the "time has come" for the country's Kurds to hold a referendum on statehood, a move likely to raise tensions with Baghdad. "The time has come and the conditions are now suitable for the people to make a decision through a referendum on their future," Barzani said in a statement released Wednesday. "This referendum would not necessarily lead to (an) immediate declaration of statehood, but rather to know the will and opinion of the people of Kurdistan about their future," said Barzani, who has remained in power despite the expiration of his term as president.
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| Syria war: One family's escape from Islamic State stronghold Posted: 03 Feb 2016 12:07 PM PST Recommended: How much do you know about the Islamic State? Leaving Raqqa has become increasingly difficult and expensive, but many Syrians are still making the journey to Turkey. They are tired of the jihadists' draconian decrees, but also of rising prices and a life under constant bombing, which has made life difficult even for those who have preferred IS rule to that of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. |
| Iraqi tribal leader warns of new extremist Islamist groups Posted: 03 Feb 2016 11:49 AM PST  Iraq's Sunnis must be given a greater role in the political process of the war-torn country in order to prevent the possible rise of organisations even more extreme than the Islamic State (IS), an Iraqi tribal leader told AFP on Wednesday. The 50-year-old has set up Peace Ambassadors For Iraq (PAFI), an organisation aimed at overcoming his country's bloody sectarian divide between the Sunni minority and politically-dominant Shiite majority. Al-Dhari says he launched PAFI last year in the Latvian capital Riga to coincide with Latvia's stint as rotating president of the European Union and so forge contacts with Western diplomats.
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| Iraqi air force takes delivery of two more F-16s Posted: 03 Feb 2016 11:21 AM PST  The Iraqi air force has taken delivery of two more F-16 fighter jets, bringing to six the number of the sophisticated US planes it now has, an official said Wednesday. Baghdad-based US military spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said the Iraqis had purchased a total of 36 F-16s, and the only thing holding up their delivery was the availability of trained Iraqi pilots. The United States sees the strengthening of Iraq's small air force as a key component in Baghdad's efforts to push back the Islamic State group.
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| Iraq building wall, trench around capital Posted: 03 Feb 2016 10:38 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq said Wednesday it has begun building a wall and a trench around Baghdad in a bid to prevent militant attacks and reduce the large number of checkpoints inside the city. |
| Walls and watchtowers rise as Turkey tries to seal border against Islamic State Posted: 03 Feb 2016 09:59 AM PST  By Humeyra Pamuk ELBEYLI, Turkey (Reuters) - Slabs of concrete wall have sprung up and military patrols have intensified, but local people say this stretch of Turkey's border facing Syrian territory under Islamic State control is still far from water-tight. Ankara is under intense pressure from its NATO allies to seal off the 70 km (40 mile) strip that stretches from just east of the Turkish town of Kilis to Karkamis, long a conduit for fighters, smuggled goods and war materiel. Beyond a string of tiny villages nestled in undulating fig and olive groves lies the last stretch of Syrian territory on Turkey's southern frontier that Islamic State militants still hold, following advances by rival Kurdish rebels.
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| Syrian army pushes back rebels as peace push falters Posted: 03 Feb 2016 09:50 AM PST  The Syrian army secured a major battlefield victory Wednesday as Russia vowed no let-up in its aerial bombardment in support of the regime, putting further pressure on fragile peace efforts in Switzerland. In a major blow to the rebels, a military source said that President Bashar al-Assad's army cut the last supply route linking opposition forces in the northern city of Aleppo to the Turkish border. The advance was helped by intense bombing by Russian aircraft in recent days throughout the area north of Aleppo city, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.
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| Obama makes first trip to US mosque Posted: 03 Feb 2016 09:23 AM PST  Seven years into his presidency, Barack Obama will make his first trip to an American mosque on Wednesday, offering a high-profile rebuttal of harsh Republican election-year rhetoric against Muslims. Obama, whose grandfather converted to Islam, will make the short trip to the Islamic Society of Baltimore mosque, where he will meet community leaders and deliver remarks. In 2009, a freshly elected Obama traveled to Cairo to call for a "new beginning" with the Muslim world.
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| Armed US Predator drone crashes in Turkey Posted: 03 Feb 2016 08:54 AM PST  An armed US Predator drone crashed in Turkey on Wednesday after apparently suffering some kind of mechanical failure, military officials said. Captain Lauren Ott of the US Air Force's Europe command said the drone went down in an unpopulated area of southern Turkey at around 1:40 am local time (2340 GMT). The unmanned plane had been based in Turkey's Incirlik air base.
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| Charities urge more help for Syria before donor conference Posted: 03 Feb 2016 08:37 AM PST  The coalition of over 90 international and Syrian groups including Oxfam and the fund set up by Nobel Prize winning Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai spoke out the day before world leaders meet for the main event. "Only an end to the fighting and a negotiated political solution will stop the suffering of ordinary Syrians, which is why it's important that international governments push for agreements in the Geneva Syrian peace talks," said Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. The donors' conference comes alongside talks in Switzerland on bringing peace to Syria after nearly five years and over 260,000 deaths in trouble after a wave of intense Russian bombings.
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| War Is an Afterthought in the Democratic Primary Posted: 03 Feb 2016 08:30 AM PST Many of Hillary Clinton's endorsers treat her foreign-policy differences with Bernie Sanders as trifling disagreements, even though they could remake the world for the worse. |
| Second batch of U.S. F-16 jets arrives in Iraq Posted: 03 Feb 2016 08:23 AM PST  Iraq has received a second batch of F-16 fighter jets from the United States, a U.S. military spokesman said on Wednesday. Iraq ordered 36 of the $65 million Lockheed Martin Corp planes, but initial deliveries were delayed because of security concerns after Islamic State militants overran large areas of the country last year. Delivery of the planes has also been limited by the training of Iraqi pilots, which can take up to two years, said Colonel Steve Warren, a spokesman for the U.S.-led military campaign against Islamic State.
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| Macedonia restores rail traffic for migrants stranded at border Posted: 03 Feb 2016 07:11 AM PST  By Fedja Grulovic and Kole Casule IDOMENI, Greece/SKOPJE (Reuters) - Macedonia restored rail transport for migrants coming across its southern border with Greece on Wednesday, potentially alleviating a growing backlog caused by protests either side of the frontier. Trains had been halted for several days as taxi drivers blocked the tracks to protest at police directing migrants first to trains and buses for their journey north to Serbia, en route to western Europe. It was unclear how the taxi row was resolved, but an official at Macedonia's national railway said a train had left the border town of Gevgelija in the morning.
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| Ambassadors Gather for Forum on Democracy, Foreign Policy at WPI@LMU Launch Posted: 03 Feb 2016 07:00 AM PST LOS ANGELES, Feb. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Four former U.S. ambassadors will discuss the greatest foreign policy challenges facing democracies today in a panel to be held Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 5 p.m. at Loyola Marymount University. The gathering marks the launch of World Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University, an innovative interdisciplinary research and academic center created as a partnership between the New York-based think tank and the Los Angeles university. The ambassadors include Alan Blinken, Christopher Robert Hill, Rockwell Schnabel, and Derek Shearer. |
| Slovenia offers military instructors, equipment to fight Islamic State Posted: 03 Feb 2016 06:49 AM PST Slovenia will offer military equipment and up to 15 military instructors to the global U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS), Defence Minister Andreja Katic said on Wednesday, confirming an earlier media report. European Union member Slovenia has so far not participated in any action against IS. "Slovenia will take part in solving the main global challenges," she said. |
| Iraq building security wall around Baghdad: military commander Posted: 03 Feb 2016 05:43 AM PST Iraqi security forces have begun building a concrete wall surrounding the capital Baghdad in a bid to prevent attacks by Islamic State militants, a military statement said on Wednesday. Islamic State, the ultra hardline group that seized vast swathes of territory north and west of Baghdad, claimed several attacks in recent months in the Iraqi capital. The planned security barrier will surround the city from all sides, said Baghdad Operations Command's head Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer al-Shammari, in a statement published on the defense ministry's website. |
| Arabs, Kurds retake northern Iraq village from Islamic State Posted: 03 Feb 2016 05:18 AM PST Sunni Muslim Arab fighters backed by Kurdish forces and U.S.-led air strikes retook a village in northern Iraq on Wednesday in an example of effective military cooperation on the ground between them against Islamic State insurgents. The offensive in the Makhmour district south of Erbil began early on Wednesday, resulting in the recapture of Kudila - part of a series of planned operations to clear Islamic State from the area, Kurdish and Arab commanders said. Kurdish forces have driven the ultra-hardline Sunni militants back in northern Iraq, but have been reluctant to push further into predominantly Arab territory for fear of being seen as an occupying force by inhabitants and provoking a backlash. |
| UN tries to get Syria peace talks back on track Posted: 03 Feb 2016 12:22 AM PST  The UN envoy for Syria was under pressure Wednesday to get peace negotiations back on track after intense Russian bombing in support of regime forces left talks in Switzerland hanging by a thread. Staffan de Mistura's brief is to coax the warring parties in a conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people into six months of indirect talks in Switzerland. After formally meeting the main opposition umbrella group for the first time in Geneva late Monday, the Italian-Swedish diplomat said these negotiations had officially begun.
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| Multi-billion-dollar Syria aid appeals routinely underfunded Posted: 02 Feb 2016 10:50 PM PST  A look at growing gaps in aid for Syria, with needs rising faster than contributions by donors. U.N. figures show that the five-year-old war has so far displaced more than 11 million Syrians and that multi-billion-dollar aid appeals have routinely been underfunded.
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| U.S. defense budget focuses on changing security environment: Carter Posted: 02 Feb 2016 08:00 PM PST  By David Alexander and Andrea Shalal WASHINGTON/NAVAL AIR WEAPONS STATION CHINA LAKE, Calif. (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Tuesday the Pentagon would seek a $582.7 billion defense budget next year and reshape spending priorities to reflect a new strategic environment marked by Russian assertiveness and the rise of Islamic State. Carter, speaking to the Economic Club of Washington, said the funding request was in line with last year's congressional budget deal, with a clear focus on five big challenges facing the U.S. military: Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Islamic State.
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| Canadian who says he fought Islamic State detained in Australia Posted: 02 Feb 2016 06:32 PM PST  [Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) stand near the Tishrin dam, after they captured it on Saturday from Islamic State militants, south of Kobani, Syria December 27, 2015/REUTERS/Rodi Said]
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| 10 Things to Know for Wednesday Posted: 02 Feb 2016 06:14 PM PST  Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:
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| Air strikes destroy IS radio station in Afghanistan Posted: 02 Feb 2016 04:13 PM PST  Air strikes have destroyed a radio station run by Islamic State jihadists in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday, two months after the group took to the airwaves in a sign of their growing reach. The Pashto-language "Voice of the Caliphate" beamed IS propaganda in irregular nightly broadcasts from an undisclosed location in Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan. The Afghan defence ministry said the programme was broadcast from a moving vehicle and air strikes on Monday destroyed the transmission equipment hidden in the basement of a house in volatile Achin district.
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