| Wife of Orlando shooter knew of attack, could face charges: source Posted: 14 Jun 2016 05:05 PM PDT  The wife of the gunman who killed 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub knew of his plans for the attack and could soon be charged in connection with the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, a law enforcement source said on Tuesday. The source told Reuters that a federal grand jury had been convened and could charge Omar Mateen's wife, Noor Salman, as early as Wednesday. "She definitely is, I guess you would say, a person of interest right now and appears to be cooperating and can provide us with some important information," King told CNN.
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| Obama slams Trump's 'loose talk' on Muslims Posted: 14 Jun 2016 05:00 PM PDT  President Barack Obama assailed Donald Trump and the Republican party for "loose talk" and anti-Muslim rhetoric Tuesday, warning that their populist election message was dangerous and un-American. Tearing into "politicians who tweet and appear on cable news shows," an irate Obama said right-wing bombast and "yapping" had whipped up anger but done nothing to prevent terrorism. The killing of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando -- by a self-described Islamic State sympathizer -- has poured kerosene on already angry election-year debates over guns, terrorism, sex and faith.
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| Senate passes $602 billion defense authorization bill Posted: 14 Jun 2016 04:49 PM PDT By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to pass a $602 billion defense authorization bill, despite President Barack Obama's threat to veto the annual policy measure over issues including a ban on closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison. The vote was 85-13, far more than the majority needed to pass the 100-member Senate. Obama gave a long list of objections to the versions of the bill passed by the Senate and House of Representatives, including provisions making it more difficult to close the detention center at the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba and the use of funds specially designated for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to allow the military to avoid mandatory spending limits. |
| The Latest: Trump: Obama 'more angry' at him than gunman Posted: 14 Jun 2016 04:30 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on campaign 2016 (all times Eastern):
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| Trump gains slightly on Clinton after Florida attack: Reuters/Ipsos poll Posted: 14 Jun 2016 03:36 PM PDT  By Chris Kahn NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential race has narrowed since late last week, according to the results of the first Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted since the Orlando shooting rampage on Sunday. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 election, has blamed Democratic policies for the worst mass shooting in U.S. history and doubled-down on his pledge to ban Muslim immigration, while Clinton has warned against demonizing Muslim-Americans. The poll, conducted from Friday to Tuesday, showed Clinton with an 11.6-point lead - 44.6 percent to 33.0 percent - over Trump, down from the 13-point lead she had in the five days that ended Saturday.
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| Orlando shooter pledged loyalty to conflicting organizations Posted: 14 Jun 2016 03:01 PM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Orlando gunman professed allegiance during the attack on a gay nightclub to the leader of the Islamic State militants, even as he called the Boston Marathon bombers, who had nothing to do with the extremist group, his homeboys. Before that, the FBI said, he claimed family connections to al-Qaida and boasted of ties to Hezbollah, organizations deeply at odds with the Islamic State extremists.
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| France stabbing suspect: 'I just killed a police officer' Posted: 14 Jun 2016 03:00 PM PDT  PARIS (AP) — In a video released by the Islamic State group and recorded in the suburban Paris home of his victims, a former jihadi recruiter confessed to killing a police officer and his female companion and listed other prominent people he planned to target.
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| Judge denies bail for man accused of joining Islamic State Posted: 14 Jun 2016 02:21 PM PDT ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The lawyer for a Virginia man accused of joining and then quitting the Islamic State group says his client is no longer a danger to the U.S., but a federal judge disagrees and has denied bail. |
| Obama to GOP Leaders: Do You Actually Agree With Trump? Posted: 14 Jun 2016 01:46 PM PDT  In angry and passionate remarks delivered at the end of an otherwise dry recitation of the military progress being made against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, President Obama asked the key question that will define the remainder of an election season dominated by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. "Do Republican officials actually agree with this?" Obama demanded. Obama's remarks came the day after Trump, in interviews with multiple media outlets and in a speech delivered in New Hampshire, suggested that Muslim Americans are actively harboring terrorists in the U.S., whose numbers he said rise to the level of "thousands of shooters," ready to carry out additional attacks like the nightclub massacre by a man who claimed that he was allied with ISIS.
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| Libya PM calls for unity behind anti-IS Sirte offensive Posted: 14 Jun 2016 01:16 PM PDT  The head of Libya's unity government Tuesday urged Libyans to rally behind the battle against jihadists in Sirte, as the UN approved an operation to stop the flood of weapons into the country. Pro-government forces are fighting to oust the Islamic State group from Sirte, whose fall would be a major setback for the extremists who have also lost territory in Syria and Iraq. The UN Security Council unanimously authorised a European Union naval mission to enforce an arms embargo on the country and expand Operation Sophia which has been combating migrant-smuggling.
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| Despair grows in Iraq camps over hundreds of missing men Posted: 14 Jun 2016 12:48 PM PDT  "My husband, three sons and three nephews are missing," said Taliaa Diab, who fled the town of Saqlawiya near Fallujah with her family earlier this month. Iraqi forces launched a vast offensive more than three weeks ago to retake Fallujah, which lies only 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad and is one of the main bastions of the Islamic State (IS) group. The initial phase of the operation saw forces, including Shiite militias from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitary umbrella group, retake areas around Fallujah and tighten the seal around the city.
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| Niger leader asks France to boost operations against Islamist militants Posted: 14 Jun 2016 12:37 PM PDT  President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger called on Tuesday for France to strengthen military operations against West African Islamist militants, including Boko Haram after its fighters carried out a deadly attack on a Nigerien town. France currently has some 3,500 troops spread across five countries - Chad, Mauritania, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso - in the region as part of a two-year-old operation to hunt down jihadists. Paris also assists West African states in the fight against the Nigeria-based Boko Haram with intelligence, logistics and training, but does not have combat troops directly involved.
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| Did Islamic State claim credit for latest attacks too soon? Posted: 14 Jun 2016 12:32 PM PDT  PARIS (AP) — It took just a few hours for the Islamic State group's opportunistic propaganda machine to capitalize on the latest bloodshed in Florida and in France, with messages claiming the two attackers as its own. It may take the group longer to sort through the implications of a killer whose backstory of conflicted sexuality and heavy drinking is at odds with a carefully crafted public image of its fighters.
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| Iraq detains men fleeing IS-held Fallujah, raising tensions Posted: 14 Jun 2016 12:13 PM PDT  FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) — At a checkpoint outside militant-held Fallujah, hundreds of civilians who fled the fighting between Iraqi forces and the Islamic State group huddled late at night in packed mini-buses on the side of a highway as security forces separated out those suspected of supporting the extremists.
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| Obama says curbs on assault weapons could help prevent attacks like Orlando Posted: 14 Jun 2016 12:04 PM PDT President Barack Obama said on Tuesday lawmakers could help prevent attacks like the one that killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida by making it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on assault weapons. Speaking after a briefing from top national security officials, Obama said the United States is doing everything it can to prevent attacks against the U.S. homeland but lawmakers could help by reinstating the ban on assault weapons. "If we really want to help law enforcement protect Americans from home-grown extremists, the kind of tragedies that occurred at San Bernardino and now have occurred in Orlando, there is a meaningful way to do that," Obama said. |
| Wounded Warriors Enter the Wild Posted: 14 Jun 2016 11:13 AM PDT "It was an amazing outdoor adventure," says U.S. Army veteran Bryan Asaf, who took his wife and three children on the 2nd annual Wounded Warrior Project®(WWP) family camping trip in collaboration with the Boys Scouts®of Chesapeake. Bryan says the camping trip and other WWP events have helped in his healing process and that's why he tries to get other veterans involved. Bryan made some new friends on the camping trip when he caught a black snake that slithered its way across the archery area. |
| NATO ministers agree to deploy 4 battalions to eastern flank Posted: 14 Jun 2016 11:11 AM PDT  BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO on Tuesday reinforced its defenses against Russia from the Baltic to the Black Sea, delivering what NATO's chief called a clear message to Moscow that "if any of our allies is attacked the whole alliance will respond as one."
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| Orlando killer expressed support for multiple Islamist groups Posted: 14 Jun 2016 11:05 AM PDT  By Letitia Stein and Jarrett Renshaw ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - Orlando nightclub killer Omar Mateen had expressed sympathy for a variety of Islamist extremists, including groups in the Middle East that are sworn enemies, the FBI said on Monday, as a picture began to emerge of the angry, violent man who carried out America's deadliest mass shooting. U.S. authorities said they had found no direct links between Islamic State and Mateen, the U.S.-born son of Afghan immigrants who killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando on Sunday. Mateen, 29, was shot dead by police who stormed the Pulse club with armored cars after a three-hour siege.
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| Operation on Iraq's Fallujah has displaced 43,000: UN Posted: 14 Jun 2016 10:57 AM PDT  Iraq's offensive to retake the jihadist bastion of Fallujah has displaced 43,000 people in just over three weeks, the International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday. The IOM "identified a total of 43,470 internally displaced Iraqis (7,245 families) from Fallujah district between 22 May and 13 June," it said in a statement. "Ongoing and recent displacement, especially from Fallujah, requires immediate attention," IOM Iraq chief of mission Thomas Lothar Weiss was quoted as saying in the statement.
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| The Latest: Clinton: Trump's Orlando response 'rants' Posted: 14 Jun 2016 10:01 AM PDT  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on campaign 2016 (all times Eastern):
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| Paris police killer, another loner inspired by IS: experts Posted: 14 Jun 2016 09:55 AM PDT  The jihadist killing of two police officials outside Paris is the latest targeted attack by an individual responding to Islamic State group propaganda, terrorism experts say. In a video of Monday's attack reportedly live-streamed on Facebook, 25-year-old Larossi Abballa referenced Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, an IS spokesman dubbed the group's "attacks minister" by Western intelligence. In an audio message released on May 21, Adnani called for attacks on Europe and the United States during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which began on June 6.
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| Obama says Islamic State group 'is on defense' Posted: 14 Jun 2016 09:40 AM PDT  US President Barack Obama on Tuesday said the Islamic State group was losing ground in Iraq and Syria, and that the number of foreign fighters joining the extremists was plummeting. "ISIL lost nearly half of the populated territory it had in Iraq and it will lose more. ISIL continues to lose ground in Syria as well," Obama said after a meeting of the National Security Council on the fight against the jihadist group.
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| Obama tells gay community after Orlando attack: 'You are not alone' Posted: 14 Jun 2016 09:29 AM PDT  Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama on Tuesday voiced solidarity with the LGBT community after the deadly mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, calling the gunman an "angry, disturbed, unstable young man who became radicalized."
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| Flow of civilians from Iraq's Falluja slows as IS tightens grip Posted: 14 Jun 2016 08:32 AM PDT  By Stephen Kalin and Isabel Coles BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - About 40,000 residents of Falluja, Islamic State's besieged stronghold near Baghdad, have fled in the last three weeks, but a similar number are trapped despite the Iraqi army's attempts to secure escape routes for them, officials said on Tuesday. Officials in Anbar province, where Falluja is located, said Islamic State was tightening control over civilian movement in the center where the United Nations and a provincial official estimate around 40,000 civilians are stuck with little food or water. By midday on Tuesday fewer than 1,000 people had fled Falluja through a southwestern route secured by the military on Sunday at al-Salam Junction, a Norwegian aid group said, down from 4,000 and 3,300 on each of the previous two days.
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| A Judge Overturned Jesse Ventura's $1.8 Million Victory Over The 'American Sniper' Posted: 14 Jun 2016 08:15 AM PDT  In 2014, former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura won a defamation lawsuit against Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL sniper that wrote a book that became a movie that allowed Bradley Cooper to say "baby" about 100 times. Ventura was awarded $1.8 million in damages from Kyle's estate and Harper Collins, the publisher of the American Sniper book. Ventura was pleased and happy to brag about the victory, but it looks like he may have gotten ahead of himself.
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| French police couple killed in attack claimed by Islamic State Posted: 14 Jun 2016 08:04 AM PDT  By Chine Labbé and Simon Carraud PARIS/LES MUREAUX (Reuters) - A Frenchman who pledged allegiance to Islamic State stabbed a police commander to death outside his home and killed his partner, who also worked for the police, in an attack the government denounced as "an abject act of terrorism". Larossi Abballa, 25, also took the couple's three-year-old son hostage in Monday night's attack. Born in France of Moroccan origin, Abballa was jailed in 2013 for helping Islamist militants go to Pakistan and had been under security service surveillance, including wiretaps, at the time of the attack, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.
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| The Latest: Ryan says Muslim ban not in nation's interest Posted: 14 Jun 2016 07:37 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on campaign 2016 (all times Eastern): |
| Gunman in U.S. massacre described as 'quiet' but grew hateful Posted: 14 Jun 2016 07:14 AM PDT  The photo from Omar Mateen's high school yearbook is hardly remarkable - a toothy, dimpled smile with a peach-fuzz mustache below a mop of black hair. Early on Sunday, he stormed a packed gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, with a handgun and AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, fatally shooting 50 people before police killed him.
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| The Latest: Greek police shifting more migrants from border Posted: 14 Jun 2016 06:25 AM PDT GENEVA (AP) — The Latest on Europe's response to the migrant crisis (all times local): |
| Medical group: Iraqis fleeing Fallujah lack shelter, water Posted: 14 Jun 2016 06:20 AM PDT  DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday that thousands of Iraqi civilians fleeing the besieged city of Fallujah have been without access to medicine for months and are fleeing to areas without adequate water and sanitation, raising the likelihood of epidemics like cholera.
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| Philippines confirms second Canadian hostage beheaded Posted: 14 Jun 2016 06:06 AM PDT  The Abu Sayyaf, a small group of Islamic militants based on remote and mountainous southern islands that specialises in kidnappings-for-ransom, killed Robert Hall after its demands for 300 million pesos ($6.5 million) by Monday were not met. "We strongly condemn the brutal and senseless murder of Mr. Robert Hall, a Canadian national, after being held captive by the Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu for the past nine months," presidential spokesman Herminio Coloma said in a statement. A military statement confirmed that a severed head, believed to be Hall's, was found near a cathedral on Jolo, the main island in the Sulu archipelago that is one of the Abu Sayyaf's strongholds.
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| U.S.-backed forces in Syria appeal for aid for hundreds fleeing IS Posted: 14 Jun 2016 06:03 AM PDT  By Rodi Said and Lisa Barrington NEAR MANBIJ, Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - - U.S.-backed forces waging an offensive against the Islamic State-held city of Manbij in northern Syria appealed for international assistance for those fleeing the fighting on Tuesday as the forces tightened their encirclement of the city. The SDF push comes at the same time as other enemies of Islamic State, including the governments of Syria and Iraq, also launched major offensives on other fronts, in what amounts to the most sustained pressure on the militants since they proclaimed their caliphate in 2014. The Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance launched the advance two weeks ago to seize Islamic State's last territory on the Syria-Turkey border and cut the self-declared caliphate off from the world.
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| Orlando shooter espoused several disparate militant groups Posted: 14 Jun 2016 05:57 AM PDT  BEIRUT (AP) — U.S. authorities say Omar Mateen, the man who carried out the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, had touted support not just for the Islamic State but also other militant factions, which are enemies of the Sunni extremist group.
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| The Latest: WHCA rebukes Trump for banning Washington Post Posted: 14 Jun 2016 05:55 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on campaign 2016 (all times Eastern): |
| Factbox: Should Britain stay in the EU? Key claims from both sides Posted: 14 Jun 2016 05:21 AM PDT Following is a summary of some of the main claims about economics, the cost of EU membership, migration and security from Britain's government and the Britain Stronger In Europe campaign group, and their opponents from Vote Leave. *ECONOMY "In" campaigners say the average British household would be 4,300 pounds ($6,100) a year worse off in 15 years if Britain left the EU, compared with staying in. This is based on a Treasury estimate that GDP would be 6.2 percent lower than if Britain stayed in the EU. |
| Iranian FM: soul-searching is needed to fight extremism Posted: 14 Jun 2016 04:57 AM PDT OSLO, Norway (AP) — The war on extremism is a global one, and finding solutions requires "a lot of soul-searching here in Europe," Iran's foreign minister said Tuesday. |
| What Exactly Did the Company Omar Mateen Worked for Do? Posted: 14 Jun 2016 04:00 AM PDT On Monday, shares of G4S, a company that most people have never have heard of, dropped as much as eight percent (nearly $300 million) in trading on the London Stock Exchange. |
| Syrian teen's amputated hand a cruel reminder of IS rule Posted: 14 Jun 2016 03:27 AM PDT  Al-Hol (Syria) (AFP) - US-backed fighters chased the Islamic State group out of his village last year, but Syrian teenager Bashar Qassem's missing hand is a constant reminder of their cruel rule. A Kurdish-Arab alliance backed by US air strikes recaptured Bashar's village of Al-Hol, near the border with Iraq, from the jihadists in November. It all started when "one of the Daesh guys accused me of stealing a mobile phone," Bashar says, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
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| How ISIS Is More Like the Mafia Now Posted: 14 Jun 2016 03:00 AM PDT  Despite territorial losses last year and declining oil revenues, ISIS remains financially strong, primarily because it has borrowed a page from the Mafia and stepped up one of its money-makers: extortion. A new report on ISIS finances from a European think tank, the Center for the Analysis of Terrorism (CAT), says extortion is now the primary revenue generator for what it calls "one of the most powerful groups in the recent history of terrorism," with some 8 million people under its control in Syria and Iraq. "ISIS exerts its authority over a wide range of industrial and commercial activities, natural resources and raw materials, from oil to agricultural products, including minerals," the report says.
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| Syria, Iraq conflicts won't be solved by military alone, Iran says Posted: 14 Jun 2016 02:09 AM PDT  OSLO (Reuters) - The ongoing conflicts in Syria and Iraq can't be resolved through military means alone, Iran's foreign minister told a news conference in Norway on Tuesday. "I think we need to agree that there is no military solutions in any of these cases (Iraq or Syria) although there might be a military component. Even for defeating extremists you need more than a military strategy," Mohammad Javad Zarif said. Zarif is attending a conflict-resolution seminar in Norway. (Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, writing by Terje Solsvik)
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