| George W. Bush: From South Carolina cameo to starring role Posted: 14 Feb 2016 04:57 PM PST  GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — George W. Bush won a bruising South Carolina presidential primary on his way to the Oval Office, as his father did before him.
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| Tight security as Danes mark year since Copenhagen attacks Posted: 14 Feb 2016 12:42 PM PST  Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen warned Sunday that Denmark still faces a "serious terror threat" as it marked a year since a gunman killed a filmmaker and a Jewish security guard in twin attacks in Copenhagen. The Danish capital honoured the victims under tight security, as Rasmussen left flowers outside the cultural centre and the synagogue targeted on February 14, 2015 by Omar El-Hussein, a 22-year-old Dane of Palestinian origin. El-Hussein opened fire with an automatic weapon at the cultural centre where Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks -- reviled by Islamists for portraying the Prophet Mohammed as a dog in 2007 -- was attending a conference on freedom of expression.
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| Was Donald Trump Really Against the Iraq War? Posted: 14 Feb 2016 12:06 PM PST  Trump's prescient opposition to the invasion is an important part of his claim to sound judgment. And he is making it up. I would know.
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| Control borders but don't shut them, says Dutch minister Posted: 14 Feb 2016 11:49 AM PST  Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders on Sunday said Europe must control its borders but not close them, as divisions deepen over how the continent should stem its huge influx of migrants. Koenders, whose country currently holds the European Union's rotating six-month presidency, rejected calls for Macedonia to seal off its borders as he visited the capital Skopje. "Some (EU) member states have urged Macedonia to close its border with Greece," Koenders said after a meeting with his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Poposki.
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| Hopes for Syria ceasefire dim as Turkey shells Kurds Posted: 14 Feb 2016 11:40 AM PST  Hopes for a ceasefire taking hold in Syria this week dimmed Sunday as Turkey renewed its shelling of advancing Kurdish militants and Washington demanded Moscow end air strikes on rebels. Tensions over Syria have continued to mount despite the proposal from international powers in Munich on Friday for a "cessation of hostilities" within a week. Defying US and French calls, Turkey on Sunday carried out a second day of shelling on a Kurdish-Arab alliance advancing in northern Aleppo province, prompting condemnation from Syria's government.
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| Love in the time of militias: Valentine's Day in Iraq Posted: 14 Feb 2016 10:57 AM PST  BAGHDAD (AP) — Baghdad is plastered with Valentine hearts and roses, and newly engaged Nour and Ahmed are out and about, enjoying a rare lull in violence in the Iraqi capital but wondering how long it will last.
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| Ted Cruz Plans to Filibuster Any Supreme Court Nominee Made by President Obama Posted: 14 Feb 2016 10:30 AM PST  Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz said on "This Week" that he plans to filibuster any Supreme Court nominee made by President Obama to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Cruz described the Supreme Court vacancy left by Scalia as having a "profound impact" on the Republican primary that will change the contours of the presidential race. "This is a 5-4 court -- the next election needs to be a referendum on the court," Cruz told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos.
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| Donald Trump Doubles Down on Attacks of Bush Family Posted: 14 Feb 2016 10:30 AM PST  "I think he did a terrible thing when he went into Iraq," Trump said about the former president. At Saturday's debate in South Carolina, Trump got into a heated exchange with the former Florida governor about his brother's role in the 9/11 attacks. "I'm sick and tired of him going after my family," Bush said to applause Saturday night.
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| AP FACT CHECK: Trump on Iraq war Posted: 14 Feb 2016 10:26 AM PST  WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump delivered a ferocious putdown of George W. Bush from the debate stage, central to his effort to convince voters that they don't want another Bush deciding when to take the country to war. But were his key facts right?
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| Former Lebanese premier calls for ending presidential vacuum Posted: 14 Feb 2016 09:34 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has called on the Lebanese to put aside differences and vote for a new president to end a vacuum that has lasted nearly two years.
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| U.S.'s Kerry in Albania to encourage anti-corruption measures Posted: 14 Feb 2016 09:16 AM PST  By Warren Strobel and Benet Koleka TIRANA, Albania(Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry stopped off in Albania on Sunday to encourage its leaders to complete anti-corruption measures that could improve its chances of joining the European Union. Kerry met Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama as well as opposition leaders. The parliament in Tirana is weighing reforms, backed by the West, that include a new anti-corruption unit modeled after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.
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| US pushing Albania to enact judicial, legislative reforms Posted: 14 Feb 2016 08:37 AM PST  TIRANA, Albania (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday pushed Albania to enact a major package of judicial and legislative reforms, backed by U.S. money that also is intended to help the Balkan nation take in Iranian refugees from Iraq.
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| The Latest: France calls on Syria to halt airstrikes Posted: 14 Feb 2016 07:57 AM PST  BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the civil war in Syria (all times local):
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| Kerry hails Albanian role in anti-IS coalition Posted: 14 Feb 2016 07:41 AM PST  US Secretary of State John Kerry paid tribute Sunday to Albania's efforts as part of the coalition fighting Islamic State jihadists and said he was encouraged by the Balkan nation's attempts to fight corruption. Kerry, visiting Tirana after attending a stormy conference in Germany where Russia and the US traded accusations over Syria, said Albania had made "significant progress" in taking on its responsibilities as a NATO ally within the anti-IS coalition. "Albania has been there from the beginning, willing to stand by all countries in opposition to Daesh (another name for IS) and it is standing up with us in support of Iraq and in support of Afghanistan," Kerry said after talks with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama.
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| Court sentences 4 Emiratis to death for joining IS Posted: 14 Feb 2016 07:38 AM PST  A top court in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday sentenced four Emiratis to death after convicting them of joining the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria, local media reported. The four, who were tried in absentia, are part of a group of 11 defendants accused of "joining the terrorist Daesh group in an Arab country", the official WAM news agency said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. Local newspapers said that the group had travelled to Syria.
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| The Republican Party's Internecine Fights Spill Into the Open Posted: 14 Feb 2016 07:34 AM PST Perhaps the most haunting memory of the night will be the audience. Previous presidential debates have banned cheering and booing. Saturday night's Republican debate in Greenville was marked by both. Permitted or not, the rowdy crowd ventilated its feelings without concern for how it looked or sounded to the viewers at home. |
| Refugees find free Berlin films contain a few shock extras Posted: 14 Feb 2016 07:19 AM PST  By Michael Roddy BERLIN (Reuters) - The Berlin film festival has gone out of its way this year to make refugees feel welcome by giving them free tickets to screenings, but for Syrian refugee Marwa Anjwka and others who have taken up the offer, it can all be a bit of a culture shock. Anjwka, 38, who had worked as a teacher in Aleppo until she had to flee the fighting there three months ago, making her way to Germany via Turkey and the Balkans, said she had enjoyed Israeli director Udi Aloni's "Junction 48", about a Palestinian rap star. "It's not only a movie and a story, it's what's happening in real life," she said, adding: "I like that it is an Israeli director, working with Palestinians." But Abdullah Saleh, 24, a refugee from Damascus accompanying the group, said he'd noticed that Anjwka and another woman sitting beside her, both wearing headscarves, had looked uncomfortable when the characters in the film swore in Arabic.
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| U.S., allies conduct 27 strikes in Syria, Iraq against IS, U.S. military says Posted: 14 Feb 2016 06:08 AM PST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies conducted 27 strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq on Saturday, the Combined Joint Task Force overseeing the operations said in a statement. In Iraq, 25 attacks were carried out near nine cities, six of them near Ramadi, striking Islamic State tactical units and destroying Islamic State staging areas, fighting positions and assembly areas. Near Mosul, 12 strikes hit two separate tactical units and other targets and destroyed 12 fighting positions and a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. ... |
| Nigerian Boko Haram fighters trained in Somalia: president Posted: 14 Feb 2016 06:06 AM PST  Fighters for the Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram have been trained in Somalia on Africa's eastern coast before returning to West Africa, Somalia's president told a security conference in Germany on Sunday. Somalia, plagued by political in-fighting, corruption and attacks by al Shabaab insurgents, has recently made limited progress towards creating a functioning political system, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said. "Without a stable Somalia, the whole region of the Horn of Africa will remain unstable and by and large, the African continent.
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| Saudi deploys jets in Turkey for anti-IS fight Posted: 14 Feb 2016 05:56 AM PST  Saudi Arabia has deployed warplanes to a Turkish airbase in order to "intensify" its operations against the Islamic State group in Syria, a senior Saudi defence official has said. "The Saudi kingdom now has a presence at Incirlik airbase in Turkey," Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri was quoted as saying by Al-Arabiya television late on Saturday. "Saudi warplanes are present with their crews to intensify aerial operations along with missions launched from bases in Saudi Arabia," Assiri said, without providing further details.
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| To enlist Iran's youth, Islamic Republic adds a nationalist pitch Posted: 14 Feb 2016 05:00 AM PST Wearing a white suit in a dark, cavernous room, the bearded singer walks past row after row of flag-draped coffins representing martyrs of the Iran-Iraq War. Glorified religious sacrifice – martyrdom – has been a familiar theme employed by Iran's ideological regime since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Recommended: How much do you know about Iran? |
| Unknown dead fill Lesbos cemetery for refugees drowned at sea Posted: 14 Feb 2016 04:24 AM PST  By Karolina Tagaris LESBOS, Greece (Reuters) - She drowned trying to reach Europe, but her headless body was never identified. Just 27 of those are named. The others state plainly: "Unknown Man, Aged 35, No 221, 19/11/2015;" "Unknown Boy, Aged 7, No 40, 19/11/2015;" "Unknown Boy, Aged 12, No 171, 19/11/2015." More than half a million people fleeing Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries plagued by war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa have arrived on Lesbos since last year hoping to continue to northern Europe.
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| GOP candidates joust over foreign policy, immigration Posted: 13 Feb 2016 11:58 PM PST  GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Republican presidential candidates jousted over immigration and foreign policy in a raucous debate that was shaken by the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia hours before they took the stage.
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| Refusing to sit on lead, Trump gets bitter in Republican debate Posted: 13 Feb 2016 10:02 PM PST  By Steve Holland WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump, his face red with emotion, lashed out at rivals Jeb Bush and Ted Cruz on Saturday at the most acrimonious debate to date between Republican presidential candidates, shouting insults and casting aside a pledge to be more measured. Rather than play it safe, Trump responded to every comment leveled his way, interrupted his opponents at will and called them liars repeatedly in an emotional outburst that could raise more questions about whether he has the temperament to serve in the White House. Cruz and fellow Senator Marco Rubio also took pointed jabs at each other over illegal immigration.
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| The Latest: Cruz, Trump offer closing arguments to SC Posted: 13 Feb 2016 09:59 PM PST  GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential race, with the focus turning to South Carolina and the Republican debate on Saturday night (all times local):
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| Republican slugfest overshadows policy talk in debate Posted: 13 Feb 2016 09:35 PM PST  The Republican presidential race veered into vicious personal attacks Saturday as White House hopefuls brawled in their latest debate, with frontrunner Donald Trump and Jeb Bush locking horns in some of the campaign's most pointed clashes to date. The showdown, the ninth of the months-long battle for the Republican nomination, began with a respectful moment of silence for iconic conservative US Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia who died suddenly earlier in the day.
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| AP FACT CHECK: Republicans debaters on high court, economy Posted: 13 Feb 2016 09:03 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican presidential debaters misfired in assertions about Supreme Court nominees, Syria, immigration and more. |
| Critic's Notebook: GOP Debate Opens With a Moment of Silence for Antonin Scalia, But Gets Very, Very Noisy From There Posted: 13 Feb 2016 09:00 PM PST As usual, Donald Trump provides the most memorably loony soundbites in this particularly fractious debate. |
| Rep Sheet Roundup: ‘Hail, Caesar!’ Star Alden Ehrenreich Signs With Relevant PR Posted: 13 Feb 2016 09:00 PM PST THR's at-a-glance look at the week in representation news |
| Fight night: Personal attacks, court debate for GOP hopefuls Posted: 13 Feb 2016 08:15 PM PST GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Republican White House hopefuls insisted that President Barack Obama step aside and let his successor nominate the next Supreme Court justice, in a raucous Saturday night debate that also featured harshly personal jousting over immigration and foreign policy. |
| The Latest: Carson says wealthy not responsible for economy Posted: 13 Feb 2016 07:53 PM PST GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential race, with the focus turning to South Carolina and the Republican debate on Saturday night (all times local): |
| The Latest: Trump, Rubio clash over George W. Bush legacy Posted: 13 Feb 2016 06:52 PM PST  GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 presidential race, with the focus turning to South Carolina and the Republican debate on Saturday night (all times local):
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| Merkel isolated as EU partners slam door on refugees Posted: 13 Feb 2016 04:29 PM PST  Abandoned by France, defied by eastern Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel cuts a lonely figure in her struggle for EU "solidarity" on the refugee crisis ahead of a Brussels summit. Merkel is battling for a deal that will see refugees more evenly spread around the European Union after Germany welcomed 1.1 million asylum seekers last year. French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Saturday that the mood in France was "not favourable" to Merkel's call for a permanent quota system.
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