| EU can't let Greece plunge into 'chaos' in refugee crisis: Merkel Posted: 28 Feb 2016 03:07 PM PST  German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday that the EU cannot allow Greece, a country bailed out from its huge debt crisis, to plunge into "chaos" by shutting European borders to refugees. Merkel criticised the move by Austria and several Balkan countries to introduce border controls or cap daily migrant arrivals, creating a bottleneck in Greece as refugee boats continue to arrive from Turkey. Merkel -- who had long sparred with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, demanding strict austerity in return for billions in EU-IMF bailouts -- said she was now in close contact with the leftist leader on the refugee influx.
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| Air strike targets suspected Islamic State convoy in Libya: town official Posted: 28 Feb 2016 12:30 PM PST  Aircraft attacked a convoy carrying suspected Islamic State militants near the northwestern Libyan town of Bani Walid early on Sunday, an official said. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, although both the United States and Libyan government forces have launched air strikes on jihadists in recent months. A Pentagon official said the U.S. military was not involved in the action but provided no other details.
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| After Shellacking in South Carolina, Sanders Looks to Pick up the Pieces Posted: 28 Feb 2016 12:12 PM PST  The day after a nearly 50-point drubbing in South Carolina's Democratic primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who labored unsuccessfully for weeks to win over the state's African-American electorate, had no choice but to face the music. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton steamrolled Sanders by virtually every available metric, winning the black vote 87 percent to 13 percent, and every single county in the Palmetto State on the way to her 73 percent to 26 percent rout of the self-described democratic-socialist.
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| At least 33 killed in IS-claimed Baghdad bombings Posted: 28 Feb 2016 11:27 AM PST  Bombings claimed by the Islamic State group killed at least 33 people in a Shiite area of Baghdad Sunday, officials said, the deadliest attacks in the Iraqi capital this year. IS also attacked an army position in an area west of Baghdad, seizing it and killing at least eight security personnel over the course of the day. The two blasts near a market in the Sadr City area of northern Baghdad, at least one of which was a suicide bombing, also wounded at least 79 people, security and medical officials said.
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| Twin suicide bombing kills 70 in Baghdad's deadliest attack this year Posted: 28 Feb 2016 11:10 AM PST  By Kareem Raheem BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A twin suicide bombing claimed by Islamic State killed 70 people in a Shi'ite district of Baghdad on Sunday in the deadliest attack inside the capital this year, as militants launched an assault on its western outskirts. Police sources said the suicide bombers were riding motorcycles and blew themselves up in a crowded mobile phone market in Sadr City, wounding more than 100 people in addition to the dead. In a statement circulated online, Islamic State said it was responsible for the blasts: "Our swords will not cease to cut off the heads of the rejectionist polytheists, wherever they are," it said, using derogatory terms for Shi'ite Muslims.
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| Twin bombing attacks in Baghdad market kill at least 59 Posted: 28 Feb 2016 10:21 AM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — Militants attacked an outdoor market on Sunday in eastern Baghdad, killing at least 59 people and wounding nearly 100, officials said. |
| Hungary's Orban: EU leaders don't want to stop the migrants Posted: 28 Feb 2016 10:13 AM PST  BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Europe has the ability to stop the flow of migrants reaching the continent but its leaders have no plans to do so, Hungary's prime minister declared Sunday.
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| Egypt police officer shot dead in attack claimed by IS Posted: 28 Feb 2016 09:00 AM PST  Masked gunmen shot dead an Egyptian police officer Sunday in the Sinai, the interior ministry said, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group which is leading an insurgency in the peninsula. Gunmen opened fire on Captain Abdullah Khalil in the early hours of Sunday as he stood in front of his house in El-Arish, the provincial capital of North Sinai, the ministry said in a statement. The Sinai Province, the Egyptian affiliate of IS, claimed the attack.
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| Pentagon says employee is suspect in killings Posted: 28 Feb 2016 08:45 AM PST  WOODBRIDGE, Va. (AP) — An Army staff sergeant assigned to the Pentagon was arrested on murder and other charges in the death of a police officer and another person, authorities said Sunday.
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| Turkey has foiled 18 suicide attacks so far this year: interior minister Posted: 28 Feb 2016 06:45 AM PST  Turkish security forces have foiled 18 suicide attacks since the start of the year, three of them by intercepting vehicles planned for use as car bombs, Interior Minister Efkan Ala said in an interview with the Kanal 7 television station on Sunday. Ala said that one of the three vehicles had been found this week at Istanbul's Bogazici University, parts of which were evacuated on Thursday in an apparent bomb scare. A car packed with explosives was detonated in Ankara this month next to military buses waiting at traffic lights in the administrative heart of the capital, killing 29 people, most of them soldiers.
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| Arab League chief says will not seek second term Posted: 28 Feb 2016 06:36 AM PST  Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said Sunday he would not seek a second term as secretary general of the pan-Arab body after his present term ends in July. Arabi, 80, took over as League chief from fellow Egyptian diplomat Amr Moussa in 2011. "I have asked the Egyptian government not to think about renewing my mandate," Arabi told reporters at the League's headquarters in Cairo, adding that his present tenure would end in early July.
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| U.S., allies conduct 24 strikes against Islamic State: U.S. military Posted: 28 Feb 2016 06:05 AM PST  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies conducted 24 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement on Sunday. In Syria, near Tel Abyad, 10 strikes destroyed 23 Islamic State buildings, eight fighting positions used by the group, a rocket fire position and other targets. Strikes near Ar Raqqah and Manbij destroyed two buildings and struck an improvised weapons assembly area, it said. Near Mosul in Iraq, five strikes destroyed five fighting positions, two rocket rails and suppressed a rocket fire position. ...
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| Germany wants N.African states to take back more migrants Posted: 28 Feb 2016 05:55 AM PST  Germany wants North African countries to speed up repatriations of rejected asylum seekers, its interior minister said ahead of a visit from Sunday to the region. Thomas de Maiziere, who is to visit Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, said many applicants lacked travel documents or gave false names and other personal details, making it more difficult to send them back to their countries of origin. "Our goal is to make the procedures more efficient and faster," he said in written responses to AFP questions ahead of his departure for Morocco later Sunday.
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| Yazidi women, girls seek healing in Germany after IS 'hell' Posted: 28 Feb 2016 01:53 AM PST  "They have been through hell," he told AFP in an interview in Geneva. Kizilhan heads a project that has brought 1,100 women and girls to Germany to help heal their deep physical and psychological wounds. The project, run by German state Baden-Wurttemberg, first began flying in the traumatised victims from northern Iraq last April, and brought the last group over earlier this month.
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| Turkey repairs oil pipeline connecting to Iraqi Kurdistan Posted: 27 Feb 2016 05:51 AM PST ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's energy ministry says it has begun repairs to a pipeline transporting crude oil from northern Iraq to the Mediterranean coast. |
