Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• Canada authorities thwart 'potential terrorist attack'
• Bomb attacks, cross-border fire kill 13 in southeast Turkey: sources
• Libyan forces capture Sirte convention center from Islamic State
• Libyan forces capture Sirte convention centre from Islamic State
• Air Force struggles with fighter pilot shortage amid air war
• Cancellara double, Armstrong treble as Phelps returns to pool
• US: 45,000 Islamic State fighters taken off battlefields
• Stretched US Air Force faces fighter shortage
• One-in-five U.S. Republicans want Trump to drop out: Reuters/Ipsos poll
• Donald Trump's primary playbook leading him out of bounds
• 12 newborns dead in Baghdad hospital blaze
• US decries IS 'genocide' of Christians, Shiites, Yazidis
• Women in combat, like men, at risk for PTSD
• Thirteen premature babies killed in Baghdad hospital fire
• Twin PKK bomb attacks kill eight in southeast Turkey: official
• Key dates of the IS group in Libya
• How big of a threat are hackers to Iranian activists?
• Activists protest Chelsea Manning's prison treatment
• The Latest: 4 reported killed in 2 PKK attacks in Turkey
• Coalition warned IS oil truckers before bombing them
• 45,000 IS fighters killed in past two years: US general
• Several hurt in 2 simultaneous PKK attacks in Turkey
• Trump Muslim comments do not tarnish view of U.S. freedoms abroad: ambassador
• Voodoo gods invoked to help Brazil's listless football team
• Brother-in-law of Charlie Hebdo killer agrees to extradition
• US takes aim at blasphemy laws, religious discrimination
• French terror suspect tells court he's a victim of injustice
• The Latest: Americans lose on the beach
• Will Australia change its asylum policy in the wake of leaked Nauru files?
• Sunni militias join Iraqi forces poised to take back Mosul
• In aftermath of the DNC hack, experts warn of new front in digital warfare
• Bosnia charges suspected Islamic State group fighter
• Iraq: Attacks outside Baghdad kill at least 10 people
• 'In the New Iraq, People Don’t Live More Than Hours'
• Fire at maternity ward in Baghdad hospital kills 12 babies
• As Trump Drops in the Polls, the List of GOP Defectors Grows
• U.S. says 300 Islamic State fighters killed in Afghan operation
• Out of sight, out of mind? Europe's migrant crisis still simmers
• Tiny bead from Bulgaria may be world's oldest gold artifact
• Nahwa, a New NGO, Focuses on Humanitarian Aid to Refugees and IDPs

Canada authorities thwart 'potential terrorist attack' Posted: 10 Aug 2016 05:30 PM PDT Canadian federal police said they arrested a suspect who posed a "potential terrorist threat," after receiving a tip about an imminent attack. Authorities had received "credible information of a potential terrorist threat," the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement. Broadcaster CTV, citing internal government documents, however, said the suspect was linked to the Islamic State group and planned to set off an explosive device in a packed public space in a major city.

Bomb attacks, cross-border fire kill 13 in southeast Turkey: sources Posted: 10 Aug 2016 04:34 PM PDT By Seyhmus Cakan DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Bomb blasts in two cities in southeast Turkey killed nine civilians and wounded dozens on Wednesday, security sources said, and blamed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for the coordinated attacks targeting police. A PKK commander had warned at the weekend of fresh attacks, saying police "will not be able to live as comfortably as they did in the past in cities." Earlier in the day, four soldiers were killed and nine wounded when militants opened fire with rockets and long-range weapons from across the Iraqi border. Security sources also blamed that attack, in Sirnak province, on the PKK.

Libyan forces capture Sirte convention center from Islamic State Posted: 10 Aug 2016 04:21 PM PDT By Ahmed Elumami TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan forces battling to oust Islamic State from Sirte on Wednesday captured a large convention hall complex in the city center, seizing a symbolic base where militants once held meetings and flew their black jihadist flag. Securing the Ouagadougou Conference Centre as well as hospital and university buildings would mark the biggest advance made by Libyan forces in weeks. The United States 10 days ago began air strikes on Sirte, which fighters say hastened their progress.

Libyan forces capture Sirte convention centre from Islamic State Posted: 10 Aug 2016 03:52 PM PDT By Ahmed Elumami TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan forces battling to oust Islamic State from Sirte on Wednesday captured a large convention hall complex in the city centre, seizing a symbolic base where militants once held meetings and flew their black jihadist flag. Securing the Ouagadougou Conference Centre as well as hospital and university buildings would mark the biggest advance made by Libyan forces in weeks. The United States 10 days ago began air strikes on Sirte, which fighters say hastened their progress.

Air Force struggles with fighter pilot shortage amid air war Posted: 10 Aug 2016 03:46 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Air Force is struggling to fill a shortage of 700 fighter pilots by the end of the year, even as the U.S. battles in three air wars against the Islamic State group in Iraq, Syria and Libya.

Cancellara double, Armstrong treble as Phelps returns to pool Posted: 10 Aug 2016 03:23 PM PDT Veteran cyclists Fabian Cancellara and Kristin Armstrong hammered home their Olympic superiority Wednesday as Michael Phelps headed back to the pool in his bid to add to his remarkable 21 golds. With rain and strong winds lashing Rio, 35-year-old Cancellara marked his impending retirement by reclaiming the men's cycling time trial title he first captured in Beijing in 2008. The four-time world champion Swiss was totally dominant as he beat Tom Dumoulin into second and Tour de France champion Chris Froome into third.

US: 45,000 Islamic State fighters taken off battlefields Posted: 10 Aug 2016 03:12 PM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The military campaigns in Iraq and Syria have taken 45,000 enemy combatants off the battlefield and reduced the total number of Islamic State fighters to as few as 15,000, the top U.S. commander for the fight against IS said Wednesday.

Stretched US Air Force faces fighter shortage Posted: 10 Aug 2016 02:27 PM PDT The US Air Force is facing a fighter pilot shortage as it scrambles to service an ever-growing array of air campaigns around the world, top officials said Wednesday. The shortfall will likely rise to more than 700 pilots (from a force size of 3,500 fighter pilots) by the end of this fiscal year, and as high as 1,000 in two years time, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James and the service's Chief of Staff, General David Goldfein, told reporters. The Air Force also faces a shortage of drone pilots, but James said recruitment and retention in that sector had improved.

One-in-five U.S. Republicans want Trump to drop out: Reuters/Ipsos poll Posted: 10 Aug 2016 02:26 PM PDT By Grant Smith NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nearly one-fifth of registered Republicans want Donald Trump to drop out of the race for the White House, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday, reflecting the turmoil his candidacy has sown within his party. Some 19 percent think the New York real estate magnate should drop out, 70 percent think he should stay in and 10 percent say they "don't know," according to the Aug. 5-8 poll of 396 registered Republicans. The poll has a confidence interval of six percentage points.

Donald Trump's primary playbook leading him out of bounds Posted: 10 Aug 2016 02:09 PM PDT ABINGDON, Va. (AP) — In the 2016 presidential campaign, it's long been an article of faith: The rules of political gravity don't apply to Donald Trump.

12 newborns dead in Baghdad hospital blaze Posted: 10 Aug 2016 01:50 PM PDT A fire in the maternity ward of one of Baghdad's main hospitals Wednesday killed 12 premature babies, prompting Iraq's health minister to announce her resignation. Only seven babies could be saved and were taken to another ward in the Iraqi capital, said Jassem Lateef al-Hijami of the Baghdad health directorate. Health ministry spokesman Ahmed al-Rudeini said the blaze at the Yarmuk hospital in west Baghdad was started by an electrical fault just after midnight (2100 GMT Tuesday).

US decries IS 'genocide' of Christians, Shiites, Yazidis Posted: 10 Aug 2016 01:42 PM PDT The United States on Wednesday denounced the "genocide" carried out by the Islamic State group against Christians, Shiites and Yazidis, as the State Department unveiled its somber annual report on religious freedom around the world. In its comprehensive look at the situation in more than 200 countries in 2015, the State Department singled out its usual bugbears on the issue of religious repression: ally Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sudan. The IS group "continued to pursue a brutal strategy of what Secretary (John) Kerry judged to constitute genocide against Yazidis, Christians, Shiites, and other vulnerable groups in the territory it controlled," the State Department said.

Women in combat, like men, at risk for PTSD Posted: 10 Aug 2016 01:28 PM PDT By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) - Women in the military who experience combat have a much greater risk than those who don't of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health issues, a U.S. study suggests. Compared to their peers without any combat exposure, enlisted women who had just one combat experience were over four times more likely to screen positive for PTSD in post-deployment exams, the study found. With three or more combat experiences, the PTSD risk was more than 20 times greater.

Thirteen premature babies killed in Baghdad hospital fire Posted: 10 Aug 2016 12:46 PM PDT By Maher Nazeh and Saif Hameed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thirteen prematurely born babies were killed in a fire that broke out early on Wednesday in a maternity ward in a Baghdad hospital and was probably caused by an electrical fault, Iraqi authorities said. Eleven or 12 other babies and 29 women were rescued from the Yarmuk hospital's maternity ward and transferred to other hospitals, Hani al-Okabi, a member of parliament who previously managed a health directorate in Baghdad, told journalists after visiting the hospital and speaking to the management. Firefighters and hospital staff took about three hours to put out the blaze that engulfed the ward, according to one medic.

Twin PKK bomb attacks kill eight in southeast Turkey: official Posted: 10 Aug 2016 11:45 AM PDT At least eight people, mostly civilians, were killed on Wednesday in two separate bomb attacks targeting police blamed on Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants in Turkey's southeast, officials said. Five people, all civilians, were killed in a car bomb attack in the centre of the city of Diyarbakir, the regional governor's office said in a statement. Another three people -- two civilians and one policeman -- lost their lives in a near-simultaneous car bombing in Kiziltepe in Mardin province to the south, said Transport Minister Ahmet Arslan, quoted by the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Key dates of the IS group in Libya Posted: 10 Aug 2016 11:26 AM PDT Tripoli (AFP) - Key dates since the Islamic State group moved into Libya in late 2014 amid the chaos that followed the ouster of Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

How big of a threat are hackers to Iranian activists? Posted: 10 Aug 2016 11:24 AM PDT Iranian hackers with suspected ties to the regime penetrated the messenger app Telegram to monitor activists, journalists, and others dissidents, according to cybersecurity researchers. With the help of an Iranian phone company, the hackers broke into more than a dozen Iranians' Telegram accounts by intercepting text messages that contained activation codes to link the accounts to new devices, Claudio Guarnieri, an Amnesty International technologist, and Collin Anderson, an independent cybersecurity researcher, told Reuters. Mr. Guarnieri and Mr. Anderson said the hackers belonged to "Rocket Kitten," an infamous group that several cybersecurity firms have previously shown carried out cyberespionage for Tehran.

Activists protest Chelsea Manning's prison treatment Posted: 10 Aug 2016 11:12 AM PDT KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Advocates for a transgender soldier imprisoned for sending classified information to an anti-secrecy website presented more than 115,000 petition signatures to the Army's chief Wednesday protesting new charges Chelsea Manning faces related to her recent suicide attempt.

The Latest: 4 reported killed in 2 PKK attacks in Turkey Posted: 10 Aug 2016 10:43 AM PDT ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Latest on attacks by Kurdish rebels in Turkey (all times local):

Coalition warned IS oil truckers before bombing them Posted: 10 Aug 2016 10:32 AM PDT US-led coalition planes warned drivers of fuel trucks used by the Islamic State group in Syria they were about to be bombed, prompting several vehicles to flee, officials told AFP Wednesday. Multiple warplanes destroyed 83 oil tankers Sunday near Albu Kamal, along Syria's border with Iraq, as part of an ongoing mission to wipe out the oil-smuggling infrastructure that helps fund IS. At the start of the attack, pilots "fired multiple warning shots to encourage truck drivers to leave the area," the US military's anti-IS mission, Operation Inherent Resolve, said in a statement.

45,000 IS fighters killed in past two years: US general Posted: 10 Aug 2016 10:23 AM PDT About 45,000 jihadists have been killed in Iraq and Syria since the US-led operation to defeat the Islamic State group began two years ago, a top general said Wednesday. "We estimate that over the past 11 months, we've killed about 25,000 enemy fighters. When you add that to the 20,000 estimated killed (previously), that's 45,000 enemy (fighters) taken off the battlefield," said Lieutenant General Sean MacFarland, who commands the US-led coalition campaign against IS.

Several hurt in 2 simultaneous PKK attacks in Turkey Posted: 10 Aug 2016 10:11 AM PDT ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Kurdish rebels on Wednesday carried out two simultaneous attacks on police vehicles in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey, wounding dozens of people, an official said.

Trump Muslim comments do not tarnish view of U.S. freedoms abroad: ambassador Posted: 10 Aug 2016 09:41 AM PDT Donald Trump's call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States does not tarnish the U.S. commitment to religious freedom in the eyes of foreigners, a State Department official said on Wednesday. On Dec. 7, the week after a Muslim couple killed 14 people in San Bernardino, the Republican called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on." Speaking as he presented the State Department annual report on religious freedom, David Saperstein, the U.S. ambassador at large for that issue, was asked whether the comments made his job of promoting religious tolerance in foreign nations harder.

Voodoo gods invoked to help Brazil's listless football team Posted: 10 Aug 2016 08:50 AM PDT Brazil's football team is doing so poorly at the Olympics that people are looking to the heavens for salvation. Gods -- from Afro-Brazilian rites known as Candomble, Umbanda and Macumba -- are being invoked. In Brazil, where football is a religion of its own, that's a ghastly sin.

Brother-in-law of Charlie Hebdo killer agrees to extradition Posted: 10 Aug 2016 08:50 AM PDT The brother-in-law of one of the Islamic extremists behind the January 2015 attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday agreed to his extradition from Bulgaria but denied being a "terrorist". "I want an immediate extradition to France," Mourad Hamyd, 20, told an extradition hearing in Sofia, calling his arrest an "injustice... I have been declared a terrorist on the basis of suspicions". Hamyd was arrested last month in Turkey while allegedly trying to enter Syria to join jihadists.

US takes aim at blasphemy laws, religious discrimination Posted: 10 Aug 2016 08:40 AM PDT WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is highlighting concerns over laws against blasphemy and apostasy that limit religious freedom in Muslim and other nations where they are on the books.

French terror suspect tells court he's a victim of injustice Posted: 10 Aug 2016 08:29 AM PDT SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — A French citizen with ties to the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris has told a court in Bulgaria he is a victim of injustice.

The Latest: Americans lose on the beach Posted: 10 Aug 2016 08:28 AM PDT RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The Latest on the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro (all times local):

Will Australia change its asylum policy in the wake of leaked Nauru files? Posted: 10 Aug 2016 08:22 AM PDT Thousands of leaked files that document the abuse of refugees in an Australian detention center on the island of Nauru have raised fresh calls for the government to reform its policy for asylum seekers. Two United Nations agencies, as well as dozens of human rights, legal, religious, and medical organizations, have insisted Australia improve or end its practice of detaining refugees on the South Pacific island, following the leak of 2,000 incident reports The Guardian published Wednesday. The reports include sexual abuse, assault, and attempted self-harm, including 59 assaults on children.

Sunni militias join Iraqi forces poised to take back Mosul Posted: 10 Aug 2016 07:32 AM PDT HAJJ ALI, Iraq (AP) — Among the Iraqi forces preparing for the key battle to retake the Islamic State-held city of Mosul are Sunni tribal militias, drawn from the local villages and motivated by the desire to claw back home ground lost to the militants over two years ago.

In aftermath of the DNC hack, experts warn of new front in digital warfare Posted: 10 Aug 2016 07:26 AM PDT Cybersecurity experts and US officials often point fingers at Moscow after digital attacks that cause a political stir – from last year's Ukraine grid hack that led to a widespread power outage to the Democratic National Committee data breach. "This is what cyberconflict actually looks like," says James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington think tank.

Bosnia charges suspected Islamic State group fighter Posted: 10 Aug 2016 07:25 AM PDT SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Bosnia's prosecution office says it has lodged terrorism charges against a 19-year-old man who left Bosnia with his family in 2013 as a teenager and joined the Islamic State group in Syria.

Iraq: Attacks outside Baghdad kill at least 10 people Posted: 10 Aug 2016 06:45 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi officials say separate attacks outside Baghdad have killed at least 10 people.

'In the New Iraq, People Don’t Live More Than Hours' Posted: 10 Aug 2016 06:03 AM PDT NEWS BRIEF An electrical fire is being blamed for the deaths Wednesday of at least 11 babies at a maternity ward in Baghdad. The Yarmuk Hospital, in the west of the Iraqi capital, receives support from the government and serves lower-income patients who pay very little or nothing for treatment. The fire started, reportedly, when an oxygen bottle burst just after midnight and started an electrical fire in the ward for premature babies. It took firefighters about three hours to extinguish the flames. The incident is likely to increase public anger over widespread corruption. Indeed, one Twitter user wrote: "In the new Iraq, people don't live more than hours."

Fire at maternity ward in Baghdad hospital kills 12 babies Posted: 10 Aug 2016 05:51 AM PDT BAGHDAD (AP) — A fire ripped through a maternity ward at a Baghdad hospital overnight, killing 12 newborn babies, government officials said Wednesday, a deadly blaze that was likely caused by faulty electrical wiring.

As Trump Drops in the Polls, the List of GOP Defectors Grows Posted: 10 Aug 2016 05:15 AM PDT Trump's mocking of a disabled New York Times reporter, his callous contempt for a federal judge of Mexican heritage who was presiding over a case involving the defunct Trump University, and – most recently – his criticism of the grieving parents of Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in Iraq in 2004 by a suicide bomber, put Collins over the top. On Tuesday, she joined a fast-growing list of prominent Republican politicians, senior policy advisers, state officials and conservative media pundits who have disavowed the GOP presidential nominee. Scores of Republican luminaries, from Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Gov. Charlie Baker of Massachusetts to former Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr. and 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, have come out against him with more likely to follow.

U.S. says 300 Islamic State fighters killed in Afghan operation Posted: 10 Aug 2016 05:10 AM PDT By Sanjeev Miglani NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Afghan forces, backed by the United States, have killed an estimated 300 Islamic State fighters in an operation mounted two weeks ago, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan said on Wednesday, calling it a severe blow to the group. General John Nicholson said the offensive in the eastern province of Nangarhar was part of U.S. operations to degrade the capabilities of Islamic State wherever it raised its head, whether in Iraq and Syria or in Afghanistan. The group, believed to be confined to three or four of the more than 400 districts in Afghanistan, last month claimed responsibility for bombing a demonstration by the Shi'ite Hazara minority in the capital, Kabul, in which at least 80 people were killed.

Out of sight, out of mind? Europe's migrant crisis still simmers Posted: 10 Aug 2016 04:03 AM PDT By Michele Kambas and Antonio Bronic ATHENS/ZAGREB (Reuters) - A year after hundreds of thousands of refugees snaked their way across southeastern Europe and onto global television screens, the roads through the Balkans are now clear, depriving an arguably worsening tragedy of poignant visibility. Europe's migrant crisis is at the very least numerically worse than it was last year. Take the border between Greece and Macedonia.

Tiny bead from Bulgaria may be world's oldest gold artifact Posted: 10 Aug 2016 03:06 AM PDT By Angel Krasimirov YUNATSITE, Bulgaria (Reuters) - It may be just a tiny gold bead - 4 mm (1/8 inch) in diameter - but it is an enormous discovery for Bulgarian archaeologists who say they have found Europe's - and probably the world's - oldest gold artifact. The bead, found at a pre-historic settlement in southern Bulgaria, dates back to 4,500-4,600 B.C., the archaeologists say, making it some 200 years older than jewelry from a Copper Age necropolis in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Varna, the oldest processed gold previously unearthed, in 1972. "I have no doubt that it is older than the Varna gold," Yavor Boyadzhiev, associated professor at the Bulgarian Academy of Science, said.

Nahwa, a New NGO, Focuses on Humanitarian Aid to Refugees and IDPs Posted: 10 Aug 2016 03:00 AM PDT WASHINGTON, Aug. 10, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today marked the official launch of Nahwa, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian aid to refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, focusing especially on the needs of women, children, and families. The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) division of Iraq is currently host to more than 3,000,000 refugees from neighboring countries, mostly Syria and IDPs from various conflict zones in Iraq.  Refugees and IDPs make up more than one-third of the present-day population of the northern Iraq.  The KRG has been a welcoming host to these victims, providing a safe haven and some assistance.

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