| Kerry to miss deadline on Islamic State genocide question Posted: 16 Mar 2016 04:27 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry will miss this week's congressional deadline for deciding whether atrocities by the Islamic State against Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria should be designated genocide, the State Department said Wednesday. |
| EU's Juncker 'cautiously optimistic' on eve of summit on migrant deal Posted: 16 Mar 2016 03:31 PM PDT  European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday he believed the EU could seal a deal with Turkey on curbing its migrant crisis after he held eve-of-summit talks with Cyprus on a major stumbling block. "I am cautiously optimistic that we will conclude a binding agreement with Turkey," Juncker said on Twitter, reiterating comments he made to the German financial paper Handelsblatt. German Chancellor Angela Merkel threw her weight behind the deal, saying it may offer "a real chance" of a solution and vowing the EU would stand firm on human rights.
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| Kurdish moves on federalism cloud Syria peace drive Posted: 16 Mar 2016 03:02 PM PDT  By Rodi Said and Stephanie Nebehay RMEILAN, Syria/GENEVA (Reuters) - Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria are expected to declare a federal system on Thursday, a move likely to further complicate peace talks in Geneva aimed at ending more than five years of war. Russia pulled more warplanes out of Syria, a new delivery of humanitarian aid reached northern Aleppo province and U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura named a Russian academic to his team of advisers in a nod to Moscow's importance in brokering an end to the fighting.
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| Kurds plan to declare a federal region in northern Syria Posted: 16 Mar 2016 02:19 PM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian Kurds are preparing a plan to declare a federal region in the area they control across northern Syria, saying Wednesday it is a model for a more decentralized government in which all ethnic groups would be represented.
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| Iranian war photographers: what makes them click Posted: 16 Mar 2016 02:00 PM PDT The young Iranian war photographer can't keep track of the close calls he's had on the front lines in Syria. "It's always scary, when bullets are coming from everywhere, from left and right and from the sky," says Ali Khara, a freelancer who has made 11 trips to Syria and has a taste for the trenches. Rockets have landed close to Mr. Khara and killed his friends. |
| Kerry to miss deadline to rule on IS 'genocide' Posted: 16 Mar 2016 01:33 PM PDT  US Secretary of State John Kerry will miss a deadline imposed by Congress to rule on whether the Islamic State group's murders of Christians in Syria and Iraq amount to genocide. Lawmakers set Thursday as the day on which the State Department would have to confirm whether the US government regards the brutal IS persecution of religious minorities as a crime against humanity.
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| Iraq offensive uproots 35,000: US military Posted: 16 Mar 2016 01:18 PM PDT  An Iraqi offensive against the Islamic State group near the town of Hit has driven some 35,000 people from their homes, a US military spokesman said Wednesday. Taking care of their needs is "a challenge for the Iraqi government," Colonel Steve Warren acknowledged via video conference from Baghdad. Having retaken the city of Ramadi from IS in December, the Iraqi military is now moving into the Euphrates River valley toward Hit, a key hub.
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| White House candidates talk like school kids: study Posted: 16 Mar 2016 01:14 PM PDT  When stumping for the White House, the leading candidates in the US presidential race use words and grammar typical of children in middle school, with Donald Trump the worst offender, researchers say. The Language Technologies Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh found that most candidates use words and grammar typical of pupils in grades six to eight -- when children are typically aged 11 to 13. Trump, his closest Republican rival Ted Cruz, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton and her left-wing challenger Bernie Sanders have deployed simpler language as the campaign has gone on, the researchers found.
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| Desperate migrants' hopes fade ahead of EU leaders' meeting Posted: 16 Mar 2016 01:12 PM PDT  By Lefteris Papadimas IDOMENI, Greece (Reuters) - Refugees stuck at the closed border crossing between Greece and Macedonia have little hope that a summit of EU leaders on the migrant crisis this week will lead to any improvement in their desperate plight. European Union leaders will hold talks in Brussels on Thursday with Turkey's prime minister to try to hammer out a deal to end the continent's worst migrant crisis since World War Two. "Nothing will change (due to the summit)," said Hussam Jackl, a 25-year-old Syrian law student who fled to Lebanon two years ago and, after working there illegally as a photographer, sold his equipment to pay a smuggler to bring him to Europe.
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| Alleged American ISIS Fighter Was Fresh Recruit, Kurds Say Posted: 16 Mar 2016 01:10 PM PDT  The alleged American member of ISIS who was captured by Kurdish forces had only entered the warzone in December, with a "young Iraqi woman" at his side, before attempting to turn tail and head home, Kurdish authorities said today. The young man, identified by a driver's license purportedly found on him as Virginia resident 26-year-old Mohamad Jamal Khweis, was apprehended Monday after a sporadic firefight the day before, a Kurdish military official told ABC News.
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| British FM wary of Russia's Syria pullout announcement Posted: 16 Mar 2016 12:33 PM PDT  British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Wednesday it remains to be seen whether Russia's announcement it is withdrawing forces from Syria will lead to a genuine pullout. Russian warplanes began leaving Syria on Tuesday after Moscow's surprise decision to withdraw most of its forces from the war-torn country. "We've seen before in Ukraine Russia talk about a withdrawal and then it turned out to be merely a rotation of forces," Hammond told reporters during a trip to Iraq.
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| Migrant arrivals in Greece top one million since January 2015 Posted: 16 Mar 2016 12:20 PM PDT  More than one million migrants and refugees have entered Greece since January last year, the United Nations refugee agency said Wednesday. "More than one million people, mostly refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, have now crossed into Greece since the start of 2015," UNHCR said in a statement. Syria's brutal war, which entered its sixth year this week, has especially fuelled the constant flood of people attempting to reach Europe, sparking the continent's worst migrant crisis since World War II.
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| Turkey's Erdogan pushes parliament to make praise of violent acts a 'terror crime' Posted: 16 Mar 2016 11:58 AM PDT  By Ercan Gurses and Ece Toksabay ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan pressed Turkey's parliament on Wednesday to broaden an anti-terrorism law without delay, saying those who support killers of innocent people were no different from terrorists themselves. "Those who support directly or indirectly people who destroy innocent lives are not in the slightest different from terrorists," Erdogan said in a speech. "We must immediately revise the definition of terror and terrorist.
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| Iraqi army plane crashes, IS claims downing it Posted: 16 Mar 2016 11:35 AM PDT  An Iraqi army plane went down Wednesday near Kirkuk, with the military blaming a technical problem but the Islamic State group claiming its fighters shot it down. A high-ranking military source told AFP that the plane crashed during a reconnaissance flight near Kirkuk and that its three crew were considered missing. The military source said authorities had launched a search for the crew after the Cessna 208 Caravan went down near Kirkuk, around 220 kilometres (135 miles) north of Baghdad.
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| No significant reduction seen in Russian combat power in Syria: US military Posted: 16 Mar 2016 11:10 AM PDT  The US military said Wednesday it has seen no significant reduction in Russia's combat power in Syria despite President Putin's surprise announcement this week of a partial withdrawal of his country's forces. Colonel Steve Warren, a US military spokesman in the region, said Russian intentions remain unclear. "We have not seen a significant reduction, frankly, in their combat power.
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| US general says Army at risk in war against China, Russia Posted: 16 Mar 2016 10:53 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Army's top general says military forces on the ground face a high level of risk if the United States gets into a large-scale conflict against a power such as Russia or China. |
| Iraqi forces free group of Yazidi women from Islamic State: ministry Posted: 16 Mar 2016 10:47 AM PDT Iraqi security forces freed a group of Yazidi women held captive by Islamic State in a covert operation behind the group's lines, a defense ministry statement said on Wednesday.It did not say how many women were freed, when or where. Some 2,000 have managed to escape or have been smuggled out of Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq and Syria, activists say. Islamic State considers the Yazidis to be devil-worshippers. |
| General says Army at high risk in war against China, Russia Posted: 16 Mar 2016 10:29 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army's top general says military forces on the ground face a high level of risk if the United States gets into a large-scale conflict against a power such as Russia or China. |
| Yemen must not become 'another Libya': coalition spokesman Posted: 16 Mar 2016 10:21 AM PDT  A Saudi-led coalition's major military operations in Yemen are nearing an end, its spokesman said Wednesday, but the country will need long-term support to avoid becoming "another Libya". During an interview with AFP in his office at a Riyadh airbase, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Assiri also said fighting along the Saudi-Yemeni border had essentially stopped after a mediation effort last week. Saudi Arabia and several of its Sunni Arab allies launched the intervention on March 26 last year to support President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi after Iran-backed Huthi rebels and their allies seized control of large parts of Yemen including the capital Sanaa.
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| IS lost a fifth of its territory since January 2015: analysts Posted: 16 Mar 2016 10:20 AM PDT  The Islamic State group has lost 22 percent of the territory it held at the start of 2015, military analysts IHS Jane's said Wednesday, as US and Russian air strikes have helped the jihadists' opponents advance. IS controls swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria but lost 14 percent of it last year and a further eight percent this year, according to the IHS Conflict Monitor. IHS Jane's said the jihadists controlled 73,440 square kilometres (28,360 square miles) of ground as of Monday, an area equivalent to around half the size of England.
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| Russian combat power in Syria intact even as withdrawal begins: U.S. official Posted: 16 Mar 2016 10:07 AM PDT By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State rebels has seen some Russian warplanes and troops leave Syria since Moscow announced a withdrawal, but its combat power is largely intact and involved in some operations, a spokesman said on Wednesday. Army Colonel Steve Warren told a Pentagon briefing by video from Iraq that the coalition had seen eight to 10 Russian aircraft leave Syria and that a number of small ground units near the airport were packing up to head home. At the same time, he added, Russian planes had flown sorties since the withdrawal announcement, although they had not conducted air strikes. |
| Security fears haunt Turkey's biggest cities after Ankara blast Posted: 16 Mar 2016 10:06 AM PDT  By Umit Bektas and Gulsen Solaker ANKARA (Reuters) - Ibrahim Ozcan has worked at the fish market in Ankara's usually bustling Sakarya street for more than 30 years, and even he struggles to remember a time when the heart of the Turkish capital has been this quiet. Tables spilling onto the pavements of Sakarya street would usually be packed with students and office workers at lunchtime and in the evenings. The government has said two members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, which has waged a three-decade insurgency for greater Kurdish autonomy in the southeast, were responsible for Sunday's suicide car bombing.
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| Syrian Kurds set to announce federal system in northern Syria Posted: 16 Mar 2016 10:00 AM PDT  By Rodi Said RMEILAN, Syria (Reuters) - Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria are expected to declare a federal system imminently, Kurdish officials said on Wednesday, taking matters into their own hands after being excluded from talks in Geneva to resolve Syria's civil war. The step aims to combine three Kurdish-led autonomous areas of northern Syrian into a federal arrangement and will be sure to alarm neighboring Turkey, which fears a growing Kurdish sway in Syria is fuelling separatism among its own minority Kurds. A conference in the Kurdish-controlled town of Rmeilan on Wednesday discussed a "Democratic Federal System for Rojava - Northern Syria", and ended with a decision to make the announcement at a news conference on Thursday.
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| How US green cards ended up being sent to the wrong people Posted: 16 Mar 2016 09:55 AM PDT Immigration officials are under fire, following a report indicating that several green cards were sent to the wrong people. A new report by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revealed that the number of visas going to the wrong addresses has increased since US Customs and Immigration Services (CIS) installed its Electronic Immigration System (ELIS) in 2012. "We undertook this audit to answer a relatively simple question: after 11 years and considerable expense, what has been the outcome – right now – of USCIS' efforts to automate benefits processing?" writes John Roth, DHS Inspector General, in the report. |
| Russia supplied weapons to Iraqi Kurds: RIA Posted: 16 Mar 2016 09:23 AM PDT  MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia has supplied weapons to Iraqi Kurds, the first shipment arrived on March 14, RIA news agency quoted the Russian consulate in Iraq as saying on Wednesday. The supply included five Zu-23-2 anti-aircraft cannons and 20,000 shells for the cannons, RIA said. (Reporting by Polina Devitt and Jack Stubbs; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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| A look at federations around the world Posted: 16 Mar 2016 09:15 AM PDT DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — As Kurds plan to declare a federal region in northern Syria, they hope to both cement their control of the area and be a major player in whatever central government emerges from the five-year civil war. |
| Iraq says two pilots missing in Cessna plane crash northwest of Kirkuk Posted: 16 Mar 2016 09:00 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi Air Force Cessna 208 Caravan plane crashed on Wednesday north west of the oil city of Kirkuk, and its two pilots were reported missing, an Iraqi military spokesman said. The single turbo-propeller plane was on a 'reconnaissance and combat mission' over territory held by Islamic State in northern Iraq, the spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told Reuters.An investigation is under way to determine if the plane was shot down by militants or crashed because of a technical failure, he said. ...
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| U.S., allies conduct 11 strikes against Islamic State: U.S. military Posted: 16 Mar 2016 07:31 AM PDT  The United States and its allies carried out 11 air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Tuesday, the coalition leading the operations said in a statement on Wednesday. The coalition carried out three strikes each on the towns of Hit and Sinjar in Iraq. Aircraft also struck Kisik and Al Huwayjah in Iraq.
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| Obama to travel to UK, Saudi Arabia: White House Posted: 16 Mar 2016 06:50 AM PDT  President Barack Obama will travel to the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia in April, a visit set to be dominated by doubts over Britain's EU membership and concerns about turmoil in the Middle East. The White House said Obama will visit Windsor Castle -- where he will have a private lunch with Queen Elizabeth II -- and 10 Downing Street for a joint press conference with Prime Minister David Cameron. Obama is likely to express his strong backing for keeping Britain in the EU, but will have to rebuff allegations of interference.
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| 2 Kosovo men arrested on terror-funding charges Posted: 16 Mar 2016 06:42 AM PDT PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Two Albanian men charged with funding terrorist activities and recruiting people for Islamic extremist groups in Syria and Iraq have been arrested, Kosovo police said Wednesday. |
| Kosovo police arrest men suspected of financing Islamic State fighters Posted: 16 Mar 2016 05:17 AM PDT By Fatos Bytyci PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo police carried out two separate raids and arrested two men on suspicion of helping recruit and finance people to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, police said on Wednesday. A Reuters reporter saw counter-terrorism police surrounding a business park just outside the center of capital Pristina at 6 a.m. (0500 GMT) from where officers were carrying away computers from a car maintenance and rent-a-car garage. One suspect, identified only as F.R., had funded many young Kosovans to become Islamic State fighters, the statement said. |
| Iraq cabinet warns Sadr protest camp 'illegal' Posted: 16 Mar 2016 04:21 AM PDT  The Iraqi cabinet has decided not to authorise a protest camp by followers of cleric Moqtada Sadr which had been due to begin Friday in front of the fortified "Green Zone". Tens of thousands of Sadr supporters have been preparing for a days-long sit-in in central Baghdad aimed at pressuring the government to implement deeper political reform. The cabinet stressed that it "supports the demonstrations demanding government reforms" and has protected one-day protests by the Sadr movement in recent weeks.
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| Suicide bombing exposes divisions tearing at Turkey's stability Posted: 16 Mar 2016 02:27 AM PDT  By Umit Bektas, Nick Tattersall and Humeyra Pamuk ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - "Government resign!" chanted some of the mourners at the funeral on Tuesday of four young victims of the suicide bombing in Turkey's capital Ankara. Far from bringing the nation together in mourning, the aftermath of Sunday night's attack has again laid bare the deep divisions tearing at Turkey as it struggles to avoid being drawn into its neighbors' conflicts. If Turkey continues on this path, some analysts warn, it risks a cycle of violence and a lurch away from the European standards of freedom and democracy to which it once aspired.
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| 4 Hillary Clinton Flip-Flops That Will Make Voters Think Twice Posted: 16 Mar 2016 02:15 AM PDT  Hillary Clinton is about to make an epic mistake: underestimating Donald Trump. The Democrat front-runner and her team have apparently learned nothing from her surprise slug-fest with Bernie Sanders. In a recent interview with Politico's Glenn Thrush, Clinton's chief campaign strategist Joel Benenson laughs off Donald Trump, claiming that the real estate mogul has no chance of winning blue states or of beating the former first lady.
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| Iraq preparing to push Islamic State away from oil region: report Posted: 16 Mar 2016 12:39 AM PDT  Kurdish Peshmerga forces, an Iran-backed Shi'ite militia and Iraq's army will launch an offensive soon to push Islamic State fighters away from the northern oil region of Kirkuk, a state newspaper reported on Wednesday. The operation would bring the combined forces closer to Mosul, the largest Iraqi city still held by Islamic State, which also controls parts of neighboring Syria.The commander of the Shi'ite Badr Organisation, Hadi al-Amiri, met the Kurdish Regional Government's interior minister, Karim Sinjari, and officials from Iraq's defense ministry in Kirkuk on Tuesday, al-Sabah newspaper said.
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| Al Qaeda says Ivory Coast attack was revenge against France Posted: 15 Mar 2016 11:49 PM PDT  By Ange Aboa ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's North African branch said its attack on a beach resort in Ivory Coast on Sunday that killed 18 people was revenge for a French offensive against Islamist militants in the Sahel region and called for its forces to withdraw. The raid in Grand Bassam claimed by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was the first of its kind in Ivory Coast but the third in the region since November. It was also a setback for France, who lost four of its nationals when gunmen opened fire on people eating lunch at restaurants and sunning themselves on the sand.
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| White House fears Trump damaging US reputation Posted: 15 Mar 2016 10:12 PM PDT  Barack Obama has warned that the 2016 White House race is damaging America's image abroad, sounding the alarm on harsh campaigning that risks eroding gains made during his presidency. "We have heard vulgar and divisive rhetoric aimed at women and minorities -- at Americans who don't look like 'us,' or pray like 'us,' or vote like we do," Obama said, with Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny at his side. Obama came to office when America's image was battered by the war in Iraq and George W. Bush's global unpopularity.
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| Today in History Posted: 15 Mar 2016 10:01 PM PDT Today is Wednesday, March 16, the 76th day of 2016. There are 290 days left in the year. |
| Turkey stability fears as Kurdish conflict threatens to escalate Posted: 15 Mar 2016 09:35 PM PDT  Sunday's suicide car bombing in Ankara has raised fears of an escalation in Turkey's long-running Kurdish conflict, as the country grapples with the Islamic State threat while relying on a security system weakened by a political crackdown, analysts say. No-one has claimed responsibility for the blast which killed 35 people in the heart of the Turkish capital, but the government has pointed the finger at the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), against which Ankara has waged a relentless assault since late last year. The government said one of the bombers was a woman in her mid-20s affiliated with the PKK and trained in Syria by the People's Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militia group the Turkish military shelled for several days in February.
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