| Some Democrats Pray for Clinton’s Indictment as Sanders Pushes On Posted: 29 May 2016 01:48 PM PDT  There's no longer any doubt that the Democratic presidential contest has devolved into a blood feud as many supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders are openly praying that former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will be indicted for using a private email server to handle sensitive government communications during her four years at State. As The New York Times reported over the weekend, some Sanders supporters are holding out for an "eleventh hour miracle" in the form of a federal indictment that would knock Clinton out of the contest and pave the way for a Sanders nomination. Clinton is just 73 delegates shy of locking up the presidential nomination, even in the surprising event she narrowly loses to Sanders in the June 7th California Democratic primary.
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| Saudi Arabia slams Iran's role in Iraq as 'unacceptable' Posted: 29 May 2016 12:39 PM PDT  RIYADH (AP) — Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Sunday that Iran must stop meddling in Iraq and that the presence of Iranian military units there is "unacceptable."
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| Saudi urges Iran to 'stop intervening' in Iraq Posted: 29 May 2016 09:43 AM PDT Saudi Arabia accused Iran on Sunday of sowing "sedition" in urging the Islamic republic to "stop intervening" in the affairs of its neighbours. "Sedition and division in Iraq are the results of sectarian policies that developed out of Iran's policies in Iraq," said Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in a joint press briefing with his British counterpart Philip Hammond in Jeddah. "If Iran wants stability in Iraq, it has to stop intervening and withdraw," he said after accusing Tehran of sending "Shiite militias" to the war-torn country. |
| Thousands flee IS offensive in northern Syria Posted: 29 May 2016 09:30 AM PDT  Thousands of civilians have fled an offensive by the Islamic State group against non-jihadist rebels in northern Syria into territory controlled by a US-backed Kurdish-led alliance, a monitor said on Sunday. The offensive against the towns of Marea and Azaz threatens to overrun the last swathe of territory in the east of Aleppo province held by non-jihadist rebels and bring IS to the doorstep of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin. "More than 6,000 civilians, most of them women and children, were able to flee areas in the countryside of Aleppo province... especially from Marea town and Sheikh Issa village" to its west, the Britain-based monitoring group said.
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| Iraq Kurds launch offensive east of Mosul Posted: 29 May 2016 09:29 AM PDT  Iraq's Kurdish peshmerga forces on Sunday launched an offensive to retake areas east of Mosul, the Islamic State's main hub in the country, a statement said. The "peshmerga-led ground offensive, backed by international coalition warplanes" started before dawn, the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) said. It said the operation involved around 5,500 peshmerga and was aimed at retaking several villages from the IS near Khazir, east of Mosul.
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| Verdict expected in landmark trial of ex-Chad dictator Posted: 29 May 2016 08:56 AM PDT  DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Souleymane Guengueng was among thousands imprisoned in Chad during the 1982-1990 rule of dictator Hissene Habre. When Guengueng, an accountant accused of working with the opposition, was released in 1990 he collected more than 800 accounts of fellow prisoners and vowed to seek justice for their torture and suffering.
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| Iraqi forces complete buildup around IS-held Fallujah Posted: 29 May 2016 08:52 AM PDT  TARIQ CAMP, Iraq (AP) — Iraq's special forces completed a troop buildup around Fallujah on Sunday ahead of an operation to retake the Islamic State-held city west of Baghdad, a military officer said, as the militants attacked a newly-liberated town to the west.
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| Jordan's King Abdullah dissolves parliament, names caretaker PM Posted: 29 May 2016 08:18 AM PDT  By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Jordan's King Abdullah appointed veteran politician Hani Mulqi as caretaker prime minister on Sunday after dissolving parliament as its four-year term nears its end, and charged him with organising new elections by October. The king accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour before appointing Mulqi by royal decree. Jordan traditionally votes according to tribal and family allegiances but parliament amended the electoral laws in March in a move government sources and political analysts say will lead to more candidates from political parties vying for votes.
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| Five Ukrainian soldiers killed, four wounded in separatist east Posted: 29 May 2016 06:59 AM PDT  Five Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and four wounded in fresh clashes with pro-Russian separatists in the country's east, the military said Sunday, the army's second deadliest toll this year. "Unfortunately, over the past 24 hours, five Ukrainian soldiers have died and four more have been wounded," military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk told reporters.
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| U.S.-led coalition troops seen near front line in new Iraq offensive Posted: 29 May 2016 04:40 AM PDT  By Isabel Coles HASSAN SHAMI, Iraq (Reuters) - Servicemen from the U.S.-led coalition were seen near the front line of a new offensive in northern Iraq launched on Sunday by Kurdish peshmerga forces that aims to retake a handful of villages from Islamic State east of their Mosul stronghold. Commenting on the ground deployment of coalition soldiers seen near the battle front, Baghdad-based spokesman for then coalition, U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, said: "U.S. and coalition forces are conducting advise and assist operations to help Kurdish Peshmerga forces". The sighting of the servicemen near the frontline is a measure of the U.S.-led coalition's deepening involvement on the ground in Iraq as the war against Islamic State approaches its third year.
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| Syria's cease-fire strengthens al-Qaida branch Posted: 29 May 2016 04:32 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — Al-Qaida's branch in Syria has recruited thousands of fighters, including teenagers, and taken territory from government forces in a successful offensive in the north, illustrating how the cease-fire put in place by Russia and the United States to weaken the militants has in many ways backfired.
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| AP PHOTOS: Refugees who made a train to nowhere their home Posted: 29 May 2016 02:20 AM PDT  IDOMENI, Greece (AP) — Before catching the world's attention, Idomeni was a sleepy village on the Greek border with Macedonia, the last stop on the train before heading through former Yugoslav countries and onto western Europe.
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| German rhetoric on Afghan migrants doesn't meet reality Posted: 29 May 2016 02:13 AM PDT  BERLIN (AP) — The 75 people stuffed onto the small dinghy watched with horror as the water flowed in, eventually covering bags filled with clothes and mementos from the devastated homes they were fleeing. Jawad, a 25-year-old Afghan, prayed as he huddled with his wife, daughter and infant son.
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| Conservative reelected Iran speaker despite reformist gains Posted: 29 May 2016 02:05 AM PDT  Moderate conservative Ali Larijani retained the speakership of Iran's parliament Sunday despite major gains for reformists in February elections, benefiting from credit gained by his support for last year's nuclear deal. Several lawmakers from the reformist camp broke ranks to vote against the head of their own List of Hope, Mohammad Reza Aref, who lost by 103 votes to 173. February's election was widely seen as a referendum on last July's nuclear deal with world powers led by the United States, the signature policy of moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
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| The never-ending vigil for millions yearning to bury their dead Posted: 28 May 2016 10:58 PM PDT  Nameless migrants laid to rest in unmarked scrubland, murder victims dumped in mass graves, desperate searches for the missing after natural disasters. "You cannot close the book on the life of a loved one if you do not know the truth, or what the reasons were, why people went missing," said Salvadoran diplomat Augustin Vasquez Gomez. The numbers are thought to be "staggering" -- between 250,000 and a million in Iraq alone stretching back to the early days of the regime of former dictator Saddam Hussein, said Kathryne Bomberger, ICMP director general.
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