| Obama plans to send 250 more U.S. troops to Syria Posted: 24 Apr 2016 04:33 PM PDT  By Roberta Rampton and Arshad Mohammed HANOVER, Germany/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama plans to send as many as 250 more U.S. troops to Syria, bringing the total American presence on the ground to 300 to help fight Islamic State militants, U.S. officials said on Sunday. The decision, which a U.S. official said would be announced in Hanover, Germany, on Monday, was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and confirmed an April 1 Reuters report that the Obama administration was considering a significant increase in U.S. forces.
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| Administration: Up to 250 military personnel headed to Syria Posted: 24 Apr 2016 04:11 PM PDT  AERZEN, Germany (AP) — President Barack Obama will send an additional 250 military personnel to Syria to help local forces fighting the Islamic State group, increasing to 300 the number of U.S. forces battling extremists in the war-torn country, administration officials confirmed Sunday.
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| Obama to send up to 250 more troops to Syria: senior official Posted: 24 Apr 2016 03:52 PM PDT  US President Barack Obama will on Monday announce plans to send up to 250 more military personnel to Syria, according to a senior administration official, intensifying US assistance to rebels as a ceasefire falters. Obama "tomorrow will announce that he has authorized up to 250 additional forces deploying to Syria," the source said, adding that the president would confirm the deployment in a speech in the northern city of Hanover. US troops in Syria are mandated to advise and assist Syrian rebel and anti-Islamic State forces.
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| Police charge Australian teenager with planning ANZAC terror attack Posted: 24 Apr 2016 02:33 PM PDT Australian police have arrested and charged a teenager with a terrorism offense related to planning an attack at Monday's commemorations of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli during World War One. ANZAC Day, April 25, is a major annual holiday in Australia and New Zealand marking the date of the first Gallipoli landings in 1915, in which large numbers of Australian and New Zealand troops fought and died. "We have taken swift action to ensure community safety on the eve of a sacred day on the Australian calendar," New South Wales state Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said in a statement. |
| Hadid's oyster-shaped terminal to open in Italy, after her death Posted: 24 Apr 2016 12:22 PM PDT  One of the final works of Zaha Hadid, the acclaimed Iraqi-British architect who died suddenly last month, will be posthumously inaugurated in Italy on Monday. Inspired by an oyster, the new maritime terminal at the southern port of Salerno features a hard shell above a soft, fluid interior and the wavy lines that were Hadid's signature. The new terminal is part of a broader redevelopment of Salerno's port area and is designed to smooth the movement of the throngs of ferry and cruise ship passengers passing through it.
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| More deaths in Aleppo as Obama calls for 'reinstated' Syria truce Posted: 24 Apr 2016 11:34 AM PDT  Regime and rebel bombardment killed 26 civilians on Sunday in Syria's second city Aleppo as US President Barack Obama urged the conflict's warring parties to "reinstate" a troubled ceasefire. Eight weeks into the declared truce between President Bashar al-Assad's regime and non-jihadist rebels, violence has escalated around Aleppo, with dozens killed by government air strikes and rebel rockets.
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| Italian PM likes Clinton, says Trump has a policy of fear Posted: 24 Apr 2016 10:57 AM PDT  By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi criticized U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Sunday for his "policy of fear," and said he was firmly in Democrat Hillary Clinton's camp. "I support very strongly Hillary Clinton because I think she is a woman able to give security to every partner, to give a message of cooperation with other parties, to continue the good policy of President (Barack) Obama" Renzi said on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" show. Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul, and former U.S. Secretary of State Clinton are the front-runners to be their parties' candidates in the November presidential election.
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| Obama urges reinstatement of Syria ceasefire Posted: 24 Apr 2016 10:24 AM PDT  US President Barack Obama made a plea Sunday for warring parties in Syria to return to peace talks and "reinstate" a ceasefire, as he defended a refusal to establish a safe zone in the country. "I spoke to (Russian) President Vladimir Putin early last week to try to make sure that we could reinstate the cessation of hostilities," he told a news conference in Germany. The White House has argued that the ceasefire, while imperfect, is worth pursuing and is the only way out of the brutal five-year conflict.
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| Ceasefire in northern Iraq after Kurd-Shi'ite clashes kill 12 Posted: 24 Apr 2016 09:08 AM PDT By Isabel Coles and Ghazwan Hassan TUZ KHURMATU, Iraq (Reuters) - Clashes between Kurdish and Shi'ite Turkmen paramilitary forces in northern Iraq killed at least 12 fighters and cut off a key road between Baghdad and the oil city of Kirkuk for most of Sunday before community leaders reached a ceasefire agreement. Violence in Tuz Khurmatu, 175 km (110 miles) north of the capital, has become a near monthly occurrence between the armed groups - uncomfortable allies against Islamic State since driving the jihadist militants out of towns and villages in the area in 2014. A small explosion just before midnight near the local headquarters of two rival political parties sparked armed exchanges between the communities that spread to most neighborhoods and continued into Sunday afternoon, according to security sources. |
| Kurdish forces to keep areas taken from Syrian government forces truce Posted: 24 Apr 2016 08:45 AM PDT  Kurdish security forces will keep territory taken from pro-government forces during a rare three-day outbreak of violence in a city in northeastern Syria, a truce announced by Kurdish authorities on Sunday indicated. The fighting in Qamishli, near the Turkish border, disturbed a largely peaceful coexistence there between the Kurds' Asayish internal security forces that control most of the city and pro-government forces holding the airport and part of its centre. The truce, which seemed to be holding on Sunday, headed off possibly wider fighting between the pro-government forces and the Kurds, whose YPG militia is an important ally in the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State on other fronts in Syria.
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| Iraqi military freezes civilians' return to Ramadi over mine deaths Posted: 24 Apr 2016 08:30 AM PDT  Iraq's military called for civilians displaced from Ramadi to stop returning home after dozens of them were killed by Islamic State mines planted in the western city's streets and buildings, officials said on Sunday. A shortage of experts trained in dismantling explosives has slowed efforts to restore security in Ramadi, but that has not stopped people from responding to calls from local religious and government leaders to go back home. A spokesman for the Anbar governor's office, which is overseeing much of the effort to restore Ramadi, confirmed the military had issued the directive because "they felt the need to stop the return to ensure that the areas are safe".
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| Clashes between Iraqi Kurds, Turkmen kill nine Posted: 24 Apr 2016 08:03 AM PDT  Clashes between Kurdish peshmerga forces and Turkmen Shiite paramilitaries killed nine people in a flashpoint northern town and closed the road to Baghdad before a ceasefire was announced on Sunday. Tuz Khurmatu, part of a swathe of territory claimed by both Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region and Baghdad, has been divided between Turkmen and Kurds since fighting erupted between the two sides last year. A peshmerga brigadier general and another fighter and two members of Turkmen forces were among the nine people killed, said Shallal Abdul Baban, the Kurdish official responsible for the area.
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| Migrants seek new routes into Balkans after formal borders sealed Posted: 24 Apr 2016 07:18 AM PDT  By Fedja Grulovic IDOMENI, Greece (Reuters) - After weeks stranded at a closed border in northern Greece, migrants and refugees are seeking out new, irregular routes to get into Macedonia, clambering through forests and over hills under the cover of darkness. As dusk fell on Saturday evening, a Reuters witness saw a group of up to 70 people crossing into Macedonia from Greece, at a point where there is no razor wire fence between the two countries. It was roughly a 20 km (12 mile), or four hour walk from Idomeni, a sprawling tent city hosting thousands of refugees and migrants stranded by a cascade of border shutdowns throughout the Balkans in February.
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| Clashes erupt between Kurdish, Shiite fighters in Iraqi town Posted: 24 Apr 2016 07:11 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Heavy clashes erupted Sunday between Kurdish peshmerga forces and Shiite paramilitary troops inside a contested town north of Baghdad, a spokesman said.
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| U.S., allies stage 28 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq, Syria: U.S. military Posted: 24 Apr 2016 06:16 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies conducted 28 strikes against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria on Saturday, the coalition leading the operations said. In a statement released on Sunday, the Combined Joint Task Force said four strikes near two cities in Syria hit three tactical units and destroyed two fighting positions, an anti-air artillery system and a vehicle borne improvised explosive device. ... |
| Obama says post-Brexit UK-U.S. trade deal could take a decade Posted: 24 Apr 2016 03:32 AM PDT  By William James LONDON (Reuters) - Britain could have to wait a decade for a free trade deal with the United States if it votes to leave the European Union, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday in his final salvo of a disputed foray into British domestic politics. Obama has spent the last three days in London urging Britons to stay in the EU as the British public prepares to vote on whether to remain a member of the bloc on June 23. "It could be five years from now, 10 years from now before we're actually able to get something done," Obama told the BBC when asked about the prospect of a post-Brexit trade deal.
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| Trump's GOP Senate critics fact check him on foreign policy Posted: 23 Apr 2016 06:50 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate's leading Republican voices on national security are assembling an indictment of Donald Trump's worldview by soliciting rebuttals from U.S. military leaders that challenge the accuracy and legality of the GOP presidential front-runner's most provocative foreign policy positions.
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