| Veteran: Therapy wrongly denied because she is HIV-positive Posted: 27 Jun 2016 03:34 PM PDT HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — An Iraq War veteran claims in a federal lawsuit that she was unlawfully denied aquatic therapy at an orthopedic hospital in Pennsylvania because she has the virus that causes AIDS. |
| Group deploys military veterans to volunteer in Detroit Posted: 27 Jun 2016 03:33 PM PDT  DETROIT (AP) — Dozens of military veterans have come to Detroit to rebuild neglected areas of the financially distressed city.
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| Iraqi army closes in on Islamic State militants near Falluja Posted: 27 Jun 2016 03:33 PM PDT  By Thaier al-Sudani and Ahmed Rasheed FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraq's army sought on Monday to eliminate Islamic State fighters holed up in farmland west of Falluja to keep them from launching a counterattack on the city, a day after the government declared victory over the militants there. The government's recapture of Falluja, an hour's drive west of the capital, Baghdad, was part of a broader offensive against Islamic State militants, which seized large swaths of Iraq's north and west in 2014, but is now being driven back by an array of forces. Falluja's recovery lent fresh momentum to the campaign to recapture Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and the biggest anywhere within the jihadists' self-proclaimed caliphate.
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| Campaigning with Clinton, Senator Warren rips Trump Posted: 27 Jun 2016 01:22 PM PDT  Hillary Clinton unleashed one of her most potent surrogates Monday to wallop rival Donald Trump, with Senator Elizabeth Warren warning Americans that the provocative billionaire will "crush you into the dirt" if he is elected president. With the White House battle raging months before Americans vote in November, Democrat Clinton campaigned for the first time alongside the liberal icon, who came out swinging against Republican Trump in a likely preview of her attack-dog role in the campaign. Look at him in that hat," Warren said, referring to Trump's propensity to deliver campaign speeches wearing a cap with his logo, "Make America Great Again" -- and his use of nickname "Goofy Elizabeth Warren" for the senator.
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| Pentagon welcomes Fallujah recapture, looks north to Mosul Posted: 27 Jun 2016 01:10 PM PDT  The Pentagon on Monday welcomed the recapture of the Iraqi city of Fallujah from the Islamic State group, but warned of widespread booby traps and pockets of remaining jihadist resistance. Iraqi forces seized the IS group's last positions in Fallujah on Sunday, establishing full control over one of the jihadists' most emblematic bastions after a month-long operation. "The United States military and our coalition partners are proud to have supported the Iraqi Security Forces under the prime minister's command in this important operation," Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said in a statement congratulating Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
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| Homes burned, looted in Iraqi city after defeat of militants Posted: 27 Jun 2016 12:49 PM PDT  FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) — Dozens of homes were looted and burned as Fallujah was liberated from the Islamic State group, and Iraqi government forces Monday accused the retreating militants. Some provincial police, however, blamed the fires on Shiite militias operating with the federal police.
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| The Next Space Race: Farming Solar Power in the Cosmos Posted: 27 Jun 2016 12:27 PM PDT  What was then an implausible idea—collecting solar energy in space and sending it to Earth—is now the goal of scientists around the world, marking a new space race that could end reliance on dwindling fossil fuels, fundamentally shift power in the geopolitical conflicts they have sparked, and meet the rising demand for energy from the developing world. Paul Jaffe, a spacecraft engineer and principal investigator at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., has brought the U.S. closer to that goal with his work on space solar technology, which has drawn international attention—and for good reason: The innovation would have a profound impact on humanity.
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| Despite fears, Iraq militiamen joined battle inside Fallujah Posted: 27 Jun 2016 11:36 AM PDT  Iraqi Shiite militiamen fought alongside interior ministry forces inside Fallujah to recapture it from the Islamic State group, commanders say, despite earlier assurances they would not enter the Sunni city. Shiite militiamen are widely feared by Iraqi Sunnis, who worry they will carry out reprisal attacks as the country's forces battle to retake areas seized by IS, which overran swathes of territory in 2014.
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| Iraqis suffer in desert camps after flight from Fallujah Posted: 27 Jun 2016 10:17 AM PDT  AMIRIYAH AL-FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) — Tens of thousands of Iraqis who survived a harrowing flight from Fallujah now find themselves in sprawling desert camps with little food, water or shelter. The growing humanitarian crisis less than an hour's drive from Baghdad has reinforced the region's deep-seated distrust of the government, and could undermine recent gains against the Islamic State group.
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| Plight of stranded Syrian refugees worsens as Jordan blocks aid: aid workers Posted: 27 Jun 2016 09:33 AM PDT  By Suleiman Al-Khalidi AMMAN (Reuters) - Thousands of Syrian refugees stranded on Jordan's northeastern border with Syria are running out of food after a militant suicide attack prompted the army to shut the area, international relief workers and refugees said on Monday. Jordan, a staunch U.S. ally, declared the area a closed military zone after a suicide bomber, believed to be an Islamic State militant, drove a vehicle last Tuesday from the Syrian side and rammed it into a military base close to Rukban camp, killing seven border guards. Aid workers said convoys of food which normally go to the camp were being held up for a sixth day in Ruwaished, the closest town to Rukban camp, which is far from any inhabitable place.
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| Iraqi commander: Fallujah 'completely liberated' from Islamic State Posted: 27 Jun 2016 07:25 AM PDT Iraqi forces say they have completely liberated the first city the Islamic State (IS) seized in the country, in 2014. Iraqi troops recaptured Fallujah on Sunday, a strategic victory that could provide the government with momentum to retake Mosul, the largest city of the Islamic State's self-declared caliphate. In addition to the military significance of the victory in Fallujah, the retaking of the city marks a path to restoring normalcy for the more than 80,000 civilians the battle displaced, and for Iraq's hopes of "becoming a civic state in which democracy and national pride help quell sectarian divisions," as The Christian Science Monitor's editorial board wrote Thursday. |
| IS claims responsibility for Jordan border attack last week Posted: 27 Jun 2016 03:55 AM PDT AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — The extremist group Islamic State group claimed responsibility Monday for one of the deadliest attacks in Jordan in years, posting a video online that it said showed a car bomb exploding near a Jordanian border post. |
| Pressure mounts on Thai junta over fake bomb detectors Posted: 27 Jun 2016 02:51 AM PDT  Activists on Monday urged Britain to hand over details of the multi-million-dollar sale to Thailand of fake bomb detectors that led to the detention of scores of innocent people. British fraudsters Gary Bolton and James McCormick were jailed in 2013 for making millions selling the GT200 and similar devices billed as "magic wands" able to detect tiny particles of explosives or drugs from hundreds of metres away. The GT200 was in fact a useless home-made plastic box with a radio antenna -- made for a few dollars but sold for between $3,300-$13,000 per unit to governments including Thailand, Mexico and Iraq.
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| A look at Iraq's war against IS after Fallujah Posted: 27 Jun 2016 12:39 AM PDT  BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi forces say they have completely liberated the city of Fallujah from the Islamic State group after a monthlong operation, marking one of their biggest victories since the extremists swept across large parts of the country in 2014.
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| UNICEF says 25 children reported killed in Syria Posted: 26 Jun 2016 11:32 PM PDT  Twenty-five children were reportedly killed in air strikes that hit heavily crowded areas in a town in eastern Syria, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) has said. Quoting reports from its local partners in Syria, UNICEF said health workers were reported to have pulled bodies of children from under rubble in the town of al-Quria in Deir al-Zor province, which is mostly under Islamic State control.
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| 10 Things to Know for Monday Posted: 26 Jun 2016 06:43 PM PDT  Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Monday:
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| CIA weapons for Syrian rebels sold to arms black market: NYT Posted: 26 Jun 2016 06:10 PM PDT  Some of the stolen weapons were used in a shooting in November that killed two Americans and three others at a police training facility in Amman, according to a joint investigation by the New York Times and Al Jazeera.
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| Spain's Rajoy: the no-frills, under-estimated survivor Posted: 26 Jun 2016 05:53 PM PDT  Criticised as dull and uncharismatic, Spain's outgoing prime minister Mariano Rajoy retorts that he represents stability in the face of inexperienced upstarts, especially the "radicals" of the anti-austerity Podemos party. "It's been hard, it's been difficult, it's been complicated, but we put up a fight for Spain," he said in the early hours of Monday, ecstatic, looking down from a tall podium on a crowd of supporters waving blue flags. Under his watch, Spain has returned to growth and unemployment has fallen back down to 21 percent from a high of nearly 27 percent in early 2013, even if it remains the second highest rate in the European Union.
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| Trump and the Ghost of Barry Goldwater Posted: 26 Jun 2016 02:13 PM PDT Donald Trump has committed the Barry Goldwater mistake. In his 1964 speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Goldwater said that "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" and "moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." His declaration sent two messages: Goldwater wouldn't seek to reconcile with his GOP opponents in the cause of party unity. Mr. Trump, since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee after winning the Indiana primary on May 3, has sent pretty much the same message. |
