| Macedonia reopens its border to Iraqi, Syrian migrants Posted: 27 Feb 2016 08:45 AM PST  IDOMENI, Greece (AP) — Macedonia reopened its border to Iraqi and Syrian asylum-seekers on Saturday, hours after migrants protested peacefully on the Greek side of the border, demanding admission into Macedonia.
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| U.S., allies conduct 22 strikes against Islamic State: U.S. military Posted: 27 Feb 2016 07:56 AM PST The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State in Iraq with 14 strikes on Friday and also hit the militant group with eight strikes in Syria on the same day, the U.S. military said on Saturday. Seven of the strikes in Iraq were near Mosul in the north, hitting two Islamic State tactical units and five fighting positions, the military said. Five of the strikes in Syria destroyed two Islamic State buildings near Al Hawl. |
| Barcelona waits for refugees... who aren't coming Posted: 27 Feb 2016 06:49 AM PST  Half a year after Barcelona launched a municipal plan to welcome refugees fleeing wars in places like Syria and Iraq, Spain's second largest city is still waiting for them to arrive. "This fills us with rage," Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau, a former activist born out of the anti-austerity Indignados protest movement, told AFP. While EU interior ministers gathered in Brussels this week to try to hammer out a unified response to the biggest migration crisis in the bloc's history, the city detailed its own "Barcelona Refuge City" plan.
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| Germany deems passports issued from IS territory invalid Posted: 27 Feb 2016 06:12 AM PST BERLIN (AP) — Germany has declared Syrian and Iraqi passports issued in territory controlled by the Islamic State group invalid. |
| U.N. urges Pakistan to resolve Afghan refugees' status Posted: 27 Feb 2016 03:52 AM PST  By Krista Mahr KALABAT, Pakistan (Reuters) - A senior U.N. official has urged Pakistan to resolve the status of more than 2.5 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan whose registration cards have expired or who remain unregistered. While Europe has grappled with the exodus of people from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, Pakistan hosts the world's largest long-term refugee population, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), most of whom are Afghans who have fled more than three decades of war. In December, registration cards providing temporary legal stay to more than 1.5 million Afghan refugees expired, and were granted a six-month extension by the government.
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| Total fined by French court in Iraq oil-for-food case Posted: 27 Feb 2016 01:40 AM PST  PARIS (Reuters) - A Paris court fined Total 750,000 euros ($825,000) on Friday for corrupting foreign officials, overturning an earlier acquittal over the French oil giant's role in the United Nations' Iraqi oil-for-food program. French prosecutors had appealed in 2013 after a lower court cleared the oil group and all other defendants accused of funneling proceeds from U.N-authorized oil sales to former president Saddam Hussein's government via intermediaries, in defiance of international sanctions. ...
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| Today in History Posted: 26 Feb 2016 09:05 PM PST Today in History |
| 'I'm going to die': Swedish girl tells of life under IS Posted: 26 Feb 2016 08:01 PM PST  Marilyn Nevalainen was just 15 years old, and pregnant, when she left Sweden with a jihadist recruit, though she did not realise what a mistake she had made until she was in Iraq. Desperate, she called home from the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq begging for help, and was ultimately rescued by Kurdish forces. On Friday, foreign ministry spokeswoman Veronica Nordlund told AFP that Nevalainen, who is originally from the southwestern Swedish town of Boras, has "returned to Sweden with her family".
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| Oil ends down on profit-taking but still up strongly on week Posted: 26 Feb 2016 05:17 PM PST  Oil prices fell on Friday as investors cashed out big weekly profits after a rally driven by disruptions to crude supplies and Wall Street's gains from U.S. economic data. Prices turned negative soon after the release of weekly U.S. oil rig data by industry firm Baker Hughes that showed a 10th weekly drop in the rig count. "I think a good part of the selling was due to cashing out of winning positions people had established earlier in the week," said David Thompson, executive vice-president at Powerhouse, a commodities-focused broker in Washington.
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