| Clinton hits Sanders on gun control, sharpens attacks Posted: 06 Apr 2016 04:26 PM PDT  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Armed with a blistering tabloid cover, Hillary Clinton is pitting Bernie Sanders against the parents of children murdered in Sandy Hook, part of an effort to punch her way into the critical New York primary.
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| Islamic State nets millions from antiquities: Russia Posted: 06 Apr 2016 03:15 PM PDT  By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq are netting between $150 million and $200 million a year from illicit trade in plundered antiquities, Russia's ambassador to the United Nations said in a letter released on Wednesday. "Around 100,000 cultural objects of global importance, including 4,500 archaeological sites, nine of which are included in the World Heritage List of ... UNESCO, are under the control of the Islamic State ... in Syria and Iraq," Ambassador Vitaly Churkin wrote in a letter to the U.N. Security Council.
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| The Charles Bronfman Prize Recipient And Refugee Advocate Rebecca Heller Tells Tina Brown That The Amazing Thing About Refugees Is That They Are Survivors Posted: 06 Apr 2016 01:56 PM PDT NEW YORK, April 6, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 12th annual Charles Bronfman Prize was awarded to Rebecca Heller, Director and Co-Founder of the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) at the Urban Justice Center, Monday, April 4 at the New-York Historical Society. In conversation with Tina Brown at the Awards Ceremony, Heller told Brown that "This wave of refugees isn't that different from people going from port to port during World War II…I think what's different is we're calling them terrorists. ... |
| Iraqi PM's nominee as finance minister withdraws candidacy Posted: 06 Apr 2016 01:38 PM PDT  Ali Allawi, whom Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi nominated last week to serve as finance minister in a new technocratic government, withdrew his candidacy on Wednesday, citing "political interventions and partisan bickering". Allawi is at least the second ministerial candidate to pull out. The nominee for oil minister withdrew on Friday, apparently because he had not been formally put forward by the main Kurdish groups.
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| Sanders: failing commander-in-chief test, or beating Clinton at it? Posted: 06 Apr 2016 01:17 PM PDT The winner was Bernie Sanders, with 51 percent. Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of State, got 47 percent. After all, Mrs. Clinton was secretary of State for four years, spent six years as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and before that traveled the world as first lady. |
| Kerry in Gulf to discuss human rights, conflicts Posted: 06 Apr 2016 12:57 PM PDT  US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived Wednesday in Bahrain where he is expected to discuss human rights and regional conflicts ahead of a Gulf summit to be attended by President Barack Obama. Kerry will meet his counterparts from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as well as senior officials in the tiny but strategic island state situated between regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia and Iran.
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| Country music star Merle Haggard dead at 79: manager Posted: 06 Apr 2016 11:39 AM PDT  Country musician Merle Haggard, who emerged from prison to become the poetic voice of the working man with hits such as "Mama Tried" and "If We Make It Through December," died on Wednesday, his 79th birthday, said manager Frank Mull. Haggard's repertoire included songs with traditional country music themes such as drinking and heartache but he also infused them with more insight and tenderness than most honky-tonkers. "Like Muddy Waters in the blues field and only a handful of other performers, he both embodies and transcends his rich American musical heritage." Haggard's sound drew from traditional country but also touched on folk, pop, jazz, blues and rock and his songs were covered by the likes of the Grateful Dead, Elvis Costello and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
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| Syrian army and allies launch attack south of Aleppo Posted: 06 Apr 2016 11:39 AM PDT  By Tom Perry BEIRUT (Reuters) - The Syrian army and its allies launched a major attack on insurgents south of Aleppo, described as the fiercest government assault in the area since an agreement to ease the fighting came into effect in February. Fighting south of Aleppo in recent days has put further strain on the already widely violated ceasefire deal brokered by the United States and Russia with the aim of launching a diplomatic process towards ending the five-year-long war. The indirect talks organized by the United Nations are struggling with no sign of compromise over the main issue dividing the sides: the future of President Bashar al-Assad.
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| Pentagon: US may set up more small outposts in Iraq Posted: 06 Apr 2016 11:19 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will consider opening more small military outposts that would provide artillery support and other aid to Iraqi forces as they prepare to retake the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State group militants, a senior military officer on the Joint Staff said Wednesday. |
| Pentagon May Pull US Troops Due to Threat of ISIS Attack Posted: 06 Apr 2016 11:05 AM PDT  Two weeks ago Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Joseph Dunford held a news conference where they forcefully pushed back against critics of the administration's war strategy against ISIS. Due in part to worries about potential attacks by the extremist group, the Defense Department may pull some of its 700 peacekeeping troops out of a base in the northern part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, CNN reports. The news comes about a week after the Pentagon announced it would evacuate all military family members from Turkey – primarily from Incirlik Air Base, which has served as a hub for allied forces in the air war against ISIS -- due to security concerns.
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| Nusra Front confirms senior Syrian figure killed in U.S. strike Posted: 06 Apr 2016 10:56 AM PDT  Al Qaeda's Syrian offshoot Nusra Front confirmed on Wednesday that their spokesman and veteran jihadist fighter Abu Firas al-Suri was killed in a U.S. air strike in Syria. In an online statement, Nusra Front said Abu Firas died in an attack on Sunday by an "Arab-crusader coalition" led by the United States, confirming an April 4 statement on his death by al Qaeda's North African wing. Abu Firas, a former Syrian army officer discharged in the late 1970s because of his Islamist leanings, fought in Afghanistan in the 1980s and worked with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to galvanize support for the fundamentalist Taliban movement, Islamist rebel sources said.
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| Islamic State's oil revenues 'slashed' by air strikes: French experts Posted: 06 Apr 2016 10:56 AM PDT  Air strikes targeting oil facilities controlled by the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq have greatly eroded the jihadists' production capabilities and almost halted exports, French industry experts have told a parliamentary committee. Francis Perrin, head of the French company Energy Strategies and Policies, and Francis Duseux, president of the French Union of Oil Industries, estimated on Tuesday that IS was now producing between 10,000 and 30,000 barrels a day compared to double that amount in mid-2014. Duseux described IS's situation in Syria as "critical" because it was no longer able to even meet the fuel needs for its war against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
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| Qatari royal freed by Iraq kidnappers Posted: 06 Apr 2016 10:24 AM PDT  A member of the Qatari royal family has been released by kidnappers in Iraq nearly four months after being taken captive while on a hunting trip, Qatar said Wednesday. A Pakistani national was also released, the Qatari foreign ministry said. "Efforts are still ongoing to free the rest of the 26 kidnapped," a brief statement published on Qatar's official QNA news agency said.
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| Iraq puts northern offensive against Islamic State on hold Posted: 06 Apr 2016 09:16 AM PDT  By Isabel Coles and Stephen Kalin ERBIL/BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - An Iraqi army offensive touted as the first phase of a campaign to recapture the northern city of Mosul from Islamic State has been paused until more forces arrive to hold ground, the commander in charge said on Wednesday. Almost three weeks into the operation, Iraqi forces have retaken just three villages from Islamic State in the Makhmour area, which is set to be a key staging ground for a future assault on Mosul, around 60 km (40 miles) further north. The faltering start has cast renewed doubt on the capabilities of the Iraqi army, which partially collapsed when Islamic State militants took around a third of the country in 2014.
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| Bogus identities with fake IDs vital for terror networks Posted: 06 Apr 2016 05:53 AM PDT  PARIS (AP) — Your lost or stolen passport may have found a new life in the shady underworld of a crime gang or in the pocket of a terrorist plotting an attack. Like crime syndicates, terrorist networks are often globe-spanning operations, and doctored documents are the keys to unlocking borders and staying below the radar.
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| U.S., allies stage 23 strikes against Islamic State in Syria, Iraq: statement Posted: 06 Apr 2016 05:33 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies conducted 23 strikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq on Tuesday, the coalition leading the operations said. In a statement released on Wednesday, the Combined Joint Task Force said four strikes near four cities in Syria hit tactical units and destroyed a mortar system, a fighting position and two vehicles. In Iraq, 19 strikes near eight cities struck several tactical units, a financial storage center and a headquarters and destroyed boats, vehicles, supply caches and a tunnel system, among other targets, the statement said. ... |
| Kidnapped Qatari royal released in Iraq: Qatar ministry Posted: 06 Apr 2016 03:42 AM PDT A member of Qatar's ruling family kidnapped in Iraq last year with 26 other Qataris has been freed, along with a Pakistani man who was traveling with them, Qatar's foreign ministry said on Wednesday. About 100 unidentified armed men seized the group of Qatari hunters from a desert camp in southern Iraq near the Saudi border in December. "One man is Pakistani, the second is an al-Thani from the royal family," a foreign ministry official told Reuters. |
| Cruz Is Not the Solution: Time to Draft a Moderate? Posted: 06 Apr 2016 03:15 AM PDT  Donald Trump may be the problem, but Ted Cruz is not the solution. Not because the unpopular first-term Texas senator lied about how he financed his Senate campaign (he didn't actually roll the dice with his and his wife's savings, but rather borrowed money from Vampire Squid Goldman Sachs and Citibank and then "forgot" to report it) or because he has engaged in dirty campaign tricks or even because his whole Canadian birth issue really is kind of a mess. No, Cruz is disqualified because his self-promotion as a principled consistent conservative is not authentic. Oh, and by the way, he is not electable.
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| Qatar says Qatari hunter, Asian kidnapped in Iraq released Posted: 06 Apr 2016 01:42 AM PDT DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — One of the some two dozen Qatari hunters kidnapped in Iraq this December has been freed along with an Asian who had accompanied the trip, the peninsular nation's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday. |
| TV cabbie drives viewers to laugh at Mali life Posted: 06 Apr 2016 12:17 AM PDT  Bamako (AFP) - "This taxi is no ordinary taxi," shouts the driver, allowing his customer a moment to settle in the back seat before propelling his cab down the streets of Bamako, talking a mile a minute. The bombastic declarations of "F-One", a cabbie with tales even taller than the high standard of his profession, have hooked fans of Mali's newest hit TV show, "Taxi Tigui" (Taxi Driver), whose deft mix of satire and social commentary has a distinctly local twist. Since its launch last month, the series has drawn huge attention, in part because it is 100 percent Malian: Set in the capital, recorded in the local Bambara language and produced in the country with Malian actors.
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| Displaced Iraqis find warm meals at Sufi shrine Posted: 05 Apr 2016 11:04 PM PDT  IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — They line up daily by the dozens in the breezy courtyard of a mosque just outside the Iraqi city of Irbil's main bazaar — displaced people from across Iraq, hoping for a hot meal.
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| Merle Haggard, Legend of Country Music, Dies at 79 Posted: 05 Apr 2016 09:00 PM PDT The Bakersfield singer-songwriter, who thrived after an early life of crime and a prison term in San Quentin, died on his birthday. |
| Obama: Destroying IS group my 'top priority' Posted: 05 Apr 2016 06:19 PM PDT  US President Barack Obama said that destroying the Islamic State (IS) group remains his "top priority" at a time when the jihadist group continues to lose ground in Iraq and Syria. "We continue to take on their leadership, their financial networks, their infrastructure," Obama said at a meeting with senior military officials in the White House. Coalition forces must maintain pressure on the insurgents using diplomacy and intelligence as well as military operations, coordinating operations between various branches of government, he said.
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| Obama on Islamic State group: 'We will defeat them' Posted: 05 Apr 2016 05:01 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is underscoring that destroying the Islamic State group is his top priority.
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