2016年2月20日星期六

Yahoo! News: Iraq

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yahoo! News: Iraq


At least 14 dead in clashes between army and Islamists in Libya's Benghazi

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 01:50 PM PST

Heavy clashes in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi have left at least 14 people dead and 32 wounded, medical officials said on Saturday. Five years on from the uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi, Libya is plagued by instability, and Islamist militants have taken advantage of a security vacuum to expand their presence. A spokesman for the military forces loyal to Libya's eastern government, Wanis Boukhamada, said fighting was mostly in the neighborhood of Boatni.

Umberto Eco, author of 'The Name of the Rose,' dead at 84

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 01:42 PM PST

FILE - In a Sunday, Oct.31, 2010 file photo, Italian writer, medievalist, semiotician, philosopher, literary critic and novelists Umberto Eco waves to public during the Italian State RAI TV program in Milan, Italy. Eco, best known for the international best-seller MILAN (AP) — Umberto Eco catapulted to global literary fame three decades ago with "The Name of the Rose," a novel in which professorial erudition underpinned a medieval thriller that sold some 30 million copies in more than 40 languages.


Did the US kill Serbian hostages in ISIS airstrike?

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 01:27 PM PST

Two Serbian embassy workers, kidnapped by the Islamic State in November, were killed alongside dozens of others during Friday's airstrikes on an IS training camp in Libya, say Serbian officials. Although Serbia was initially unsure who had kidnapped the communications officer and her driver, the convoy was attacked near the city of Sabratha, where an IS training base was located. According to the Associated Press, Serbia's Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic was certain that communications officer Sladjana Stankovic and driver Jovica Stepic had been killed in the bombing.

Judge refuses to alter veteran's sentence in fatal crash

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 12:46 PM PST

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A judge in central Pennsylvania refused to modify the sentence he imposed in a fatal crash, including provisions that the defendant carry the victim's picture and place flowers on her grave.

U.S., allies conduct 25 strikes against Islamic State: U.S. military

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 12:11 PM PST

The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State militants in Iraq with 16 strikes on Friday and nine in Syria, the U.S. military said on Saturday. Four of the strikes in Iraq were near Mosul, hitting two Islamic State tactical units and command and control nodes. Four of the strikes in Syria hit three Islamic State tactical units near Al Hasakah.

Sabotaged oil pipeline to Turkey to be repaired next week: source

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 08:17 AM PST

A pipeline sabotaged in Turkey last Tuesday halting oil flows from northern Iraq to a Turkish port is expected to be repaired next week though the situation is complicated by security issues, an industry source said on Saturday. The pipeline, which carries around 600,000 barrels per day of crude to Ceyhan port from fields in Iraq's Kurdish region and Kirkuk was sabotaged in the Urfa area of Turkey and oil flows were halted for a fifth day on Saturday, officials and industry sources said. An official from the state-run North Oil Company (NOC) that operates the Kirkuk fields said the halt in exports had forced them to cut production to around 120,000 bpd from 200,000 bpd before the suspension.

The Latest: Russia's Lavrov discusses Syria with Kerry

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 07:58 AM PST

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, a Syrian government soldier takes his position with an anti-tank rocket launcher, preparing to fire against Islamic State group positions in the province of Raqqa, Syria. In recent weeks, Syrian government forces captured dozens of villages and towns across the country. (Alexander Kots/Komsomolskaya Pravda via AP)DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local):


Libya becoming new front in fight against Islamic State

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 07:19 AM PST

In this picture released online by the Sabratha Municipal Council on Friday, Feb. 19, 2016 shows the site where U.S. warplanes struck an Islamic State training camp in Sabratha, Libya near the Tunisian border. (Sabratha Municipal Council via AP) MANDATORY CREDITBENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Libya is rapidly turning into a new front in the fight against the Islamic State group, which is heavily recruiting militants from abroad and trying to exploit years of chaos to expand its foothold in the oil-rich North African nation.


Iraqi tribesmen battle IS inside Fallujah for second day

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 06:46 AM PST

Iraqi Shiite fighters from the Popular Mobilisation units monitor the frontline with Islamic State near Tharthar lake, north of Fallujah, on February 11, 2016Iraqi tribesmen battled Islamic State group militants inside their Fallujah stronghold for a second day Saturday, a significant challenge to longstanding jihadist control that may be undermined by a lack of supplies. Fallujah is one of two Iraqi cities still controlled by IS, and residents -- said to number in the tens of thousands -- vastly outnumber the estimated 300 to 400 jihadists inside it. "Armed confrontations between the sons of the Fallujah tribes and the Daesh organisation are continuing," an army brigadier general said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.


Bush's road to South Carolina a tale of unforced errors and miscalculations

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 06:00 AM PST

Republican U.S. presidential candidate Jeb Bush speaks during a campaign event in Greenville, South CarolinaBy Steve Holland CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) - Before Donald Trump's put-downs and the stumbles in presidential debates, and before the profound frustration of voters became so unmistakably apparent, Jeb Bush appeared to be best positioned to win back the White House for Republicans in 2016. Now with his polling in single digits, strategists say his presidential ambitions may rest in large measure on the outcome of Saturday's South Carolina Republican primary. To be sure Bush has shown signs of momentum in recent weeks, with stronger performances in debates where he struggled earlier in the campaign and a better finish than Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, his fiercest rival for the Republican establishment vote, in the New Hampshire primary.


U.S. air raid hits Islamic State in Libya, 43 dead

Posted: 20 Feb 2016 12:37 AM PST

Old Roman ruins stand in the ancient archeaological site of Sabratha on Libya's Mediterreanean coastBy Ahmed Elumami and Aidan Lewis TRIPOLI (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes launched air strikes against a suspected Islamic State training camp in western Libya on Friday, killing more than 40 people, likely including a militant connected to two deadly attacks last year in neighbouring Tunisia. It was the second U.S. air strike in three months against Islamic State in Libya, where the hardline Islamist militants have exploited years of chaos following Muammar Gaddafi's 2011 overthrow to build up a presence on the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The Pentagon said it had targeted an Islamic State training camp.


I'll do anything to kill time, says refugee in Germany

Posted: 19 Feb 2016 10:47 PM PST

Asylum-seekers wait outside the State Office of Health and Social Affairs in Berlin"I studied economics in Kabul but I can't work here before I obtain a long-term residence visa," said Yaza, who arrived in Germany three months ago. Some migrants are so exasperated that they have decided to simply leave.


Turkey says Obama shares Syria concerns with Erdogan, affirms support

Posted: 19 Feb 2016 05:35 PM PST

Prime Minister Davutoglu chats with Chief of Staff General Akar as President Erdogan looks on during a funeral ceremony for Army officer Cil in AnkaraBy Ece Toksabay ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's presidency said U.S. President Barack Obama had shared his concerns over the Syrian conflict and promised his support on Friday, hours after a tense exchange between the two NATO allies over the role of Kurdish militants. In a phone conversation that lasted one hour and 20 minutes, Ankara said Obama had told his counterpart President Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey had a right to self-defense, and expressed worries over advances by Syrian Kurdish militias near Turkey's border. Obama stressed to Erdogan that Syrian Kurdish YPG forces should not seek to exploit recent gains by the Syrian government to seize additional territory, the White House said in a statement.


UK deal done, Merkel resets sights on EU migrant plan with Turkey

Posted: 19 Feb 2016 04:58 PM PST

German Chancellor Merkel shakes hands with Turkish Prime Minister Davutoglu during a joint news conference in AnkaraBy Paul Carrel BRUSSELS (Reuters) - With a deal secured to help keep Britain in the European Union, German Chancellor Angela Merkel swiftly refocused her sights on pressing ahead with a joint EU solution to the bloc's refugee crisis in tandem with Turkey. Along with the deal for Britain, tackling Europe's migrant crisis in collaboration with Turkey was a top priority for Merkel at a two-day EU summit in Brussels that ended late on Friday. Germany took in over one million migrants last year, many of them fleeing war in Syria and Iraq, and has led efforts to offer money and promises to revive Turkey's long-stalled EU accession talks to get Ankara to prevent more people from embarking from its shores for Europe.


Dominican Baseball and Black-Market Lapel Pins: The Week in Global-Affairs Writing

Posted: 19 Feb 2016 02:13 PM PST

Propagandalands Peter Pomerantsev | Granta "The activists behind their laptops seemed as big as ministries; mythological fiends from Twitter as real as tanks. The borders between Russia and Ukraine, between past and present, between soldier and civilian, rumour and evidence, actor and audience had buckled, and with that the whole rational, ordered sense of perspective suddenly gave way to a thinking which was magical and mystical, where reality was unknowable and seemed to be decided somewhere up on high by divine conspiracies."
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